'What has already failed?', the question that saves us the most time

Our filter fits in three questions. Does the problem exist, who pays for it, and what has already failed. The third one is the surprising one, sometimes the irritating one. It is also the one that tells us the most.

What the question is not

It is not a test of competitive awareness, and it is not a trap. We are not asking for a list of vendors: it is already in the deck, and it teaches us little.

We are asking how the problem was attacked before you, inside the buyer you are targeting. Almost always, it was. Often three times: an internal project that was dropped, a spreadsheet that survived six years, a consulting firm, a tool that was bought and never rolled out.

What the answers tell us

‘Nobody has tried’ is the most worrying answer. If a problem genuinely costs money and nobody has taken it on, it usually costs less than claimed, or it is owned by someone with no purchasing power.

‘They bought tool X and do not use it’ is a good answer: the budget exists, it has already been arbitrated once in favour of this problem, and the failed rollout describes precisely the obstacle to clear.

‘We tried it ourselves, at our previous employer, and here is where it broke’ is the best one. It contains everything: the real budget, the real buyer, the real objection, and the true cost of changing habits.

Why we insist on it

A past failure is a market study nobody had to pay for. It says what the organisation was willing to pay, how far it was willing to change, and at which point it gave up. No declarative survey gives you that precision.

And the question works both ways: when we cannot answer it ourselves about a domain, we do not invest in it. That draws the line around our fields far more reliably than a list of sectors.

You have that answer? It interests us more than your five-year projections. Let’s talk.