Grade your own business case, free
Confirmed in scored conversations with decision-makers: urgency, willingness to pay or adopt, and decision authority, at a specific price and for a specific application. Surveys and internal consensus do not qualify.
Supported by industry benchmarks, analyst material, or specialist interviews. Useful context, but not enough on its own to justify allocating capital.
Stated plainly instead of buried in confident language. Every assumption carries a named risk and a way to test it.
Every engagement ends in a recommended verdict, for the sponsor, funder or investment committee to decide, with evidence that lets them defend the decision either way. It is built from scored interviews with the people who decide, with every claim graded.
Every rating traces back to the interviews it came from. A stakeholder who disputes the verdict can point to a specific scored conversation and argue with that. Nothing is graded before it has been scored.
Commissioning a Sprint does not put the initiative at risk. We recommend a verdict, with the reasoning. The decision belongs to the people who own it: the sponsor, the funder, and anyone else the evidence affects.
Proceed. The evidence supports the hypothesis. Commit, with the reasoning on record.
Pivot. The problem is real and the approach is wrong. An adjustment brief names the dimensions to change.
Reset. The evidence is insufficient either way. Reframe the hypothesis before committing more.
Stop. The hypothesis is disproven, and the stop criteria are documented.
No position. No equity, referral fees, or vendor compensation in any company we assess.
No contingent fee. The fee is fixed at scoping and does not vary with the verdict.
Disclosure first. Any prior or concurrent relationship is disclosed in writing before the engagement begins.
Confidential between clients. We may work for companies that compete with each other. What a client shares with us, and the evidence gathered for them, is never used in work for anyone else.
Few engagements at a time. Thing Company takes on a small number of engagements a year, and only where nothing else the practice or its lead is involved in could bear on the verdict. Where there is a conflict, we say so before scoping and, where we can, point you to someone who fits.
Testing, with the people who would sign, whether an industrial buyer will adopt and pay for a technology, at what price and from which budget, before the capital commits. Thing Company grades every claim Verified, Benchmarked or Assumption and recommends Proceed, Pivot, Reset or Stop.
A Verified rating: urgency, willingness to pay or adopt, and decision authority confirmed in scored conversations with the people who decide, at a specific price and for a specific application. Surveys, internal consensus and a seller's account do not qualify.
Usually because no one can defend the decision. Buying committees run to several people, each able to stop it, and they stall when the case rests on assumptions. In the JOLT study of more than 2.5 million recorded sales conversations, 40 to 60% of deals ended in no decision rather than a loss to a competitor, and more than half of those came from indecision rather than a preference for the status quo. Graded evidence is what makes the decision defensible, whichever way it goes.
The Sprint page sets out the six phases, and the Findings Brief page shows what you receive. The Sprint Assessment covers how the standard applies to your hypothesis.
Or reach us directly at hello@thing.company