Strengths & Weaknesses: The Attributes That Matter

Raw observations are evidence; strategy needs a verdict. This skill turns a pile of honest facts about a company into a short chart of classified attributes — the strengths a future ideal customer will love you for, and the weaknesses she'll either tolerate or be repelled by. Two moves, in order: distill the observations into the few deep truths underneath them, then classify each one with a rubric that resolves the paradox that almost anything can be argued either way.

The mental model

Observations → deep truths