Generate delivery options from a grid of choices

Work in four passes, in this order: the outcome, the problems, the solutions, then the delivery options.

1. Define the dream outcome

Write one sentence, and make it specific:

a named outcome, in a stated period of time, without the thing they most fear or most hate.

Worked: lose 20 pounds in six weeks without giving up the food you love. Naming the buyer as well makes it sharper: a parent of more than three children, losing weight within six months, without going to the gym, without changing what the family eats, and without extra trips to the store. The clause after without is doing as much work as the outcome itself, because it is aimed at whatever they believe will stop them.

If you cannot state this sentence clearly, stop here. Nothing downstream can be built on a vague version of it.

The shortcut worth knowing. One of the easiest businesses to build, especially when you are starting out, is one that solves a problem you have already solved for yourself. You suffered it, you fixed it, you can see other people in the position you were in — and they can see that you were there. That path repeats: solve a problem well enough and the people watching start asking you to solve it for them, which is the next business.

2. List every perceived problem

They are perceived problems. What stops a buyer is what they believe will stop them, whether or not it is what would actually stop them.

These prompts fill the list:

• Every intricate step. Write out every single thing they have to do to succeed. For changing how someone eats: shop for the food, unpack it, cook it, portion it into containers, eat it, wash up after cooking and after eating, feed the rest of the family, and handle eating out. Each of those is one problem.
• What sits before and after. What is the need immediately before yours, and the one immediately after? What problem will they hit next, once this one is solved? Their journey runs either side of the part you sell, and they are trying to solve those parts too.

Then take each step and split it four ways, because a buyer facing a single step is thinking about all four value variables at once:

What they say to themselves	The variable underneath	The question that reverses it
It is not worth it	Dream outcome	How can we make it worth it?
It will not work for me; I will not stick with it; there are too many stores, it is too far	Perceived likelihood, and the outside factors in their way	How do we show it will work for them specifically, and account for what gets in the way?
It will be too hard, too confusing, I will not enjoy it, I will be bad at it	Effort and sacrifice	How can we make it easier, simpler to understand, enjoyable, and something they believe they can do?
It will take too long and it will not be convenient	Time	How can we make it faster?

Three of those four run much the same across almost any service. The outside factors are the part that is specific to what you sell, and that is where the unusual work is.

You now have a grid: every step of the journey, multiplied by four appraisals. It is long, and that is the point — each cell is an opening to solve something a competitor is not even naming.

3. Turn every problem into a solution

Take each cell and reverse it into a statement of what you will do about it. The form to write in:

how to have the thing they want, without the thing they dread, even if their greatest obstacle is true.

Worked, on the shopping step alone:

The problem as they state it	The solution as you state it
It is hard, confusing, I will not like it, I will be bad at it	How to make buying healthy food easy and enjoyable, so anyone can do it — especially a busy parent
It takes too much time	How to buy healthy food quickly
It is expensive	How to buy healthy food for less than your current grocery bill
It is not sustainable	How to make the healthy shop take less effort than the unhealthy one
My family's needs will get in the way	How to feed yourself and the family out of one shop
It is undoable when I travel	How to buy healthy food while traveling

None of these is clever, and they are not meant to be. They are the buyer's own objection, turned around and said back to them. Do the same list for every problem on your grid, not only the first one. Any one of these may be the objection that is actually holding a given buyer back, and you cannot tell which, so you solve all of them.

4. Generate delivery options from the delivery grid

Now decide how each solution reaches them. Run one problem through six dimensions and write down every option that falls out. The six, in order:

1. Group ratio — one to one; small group; one to many.
2. Level of effort on their part — do it yourself; done with you; done for you.
3. Support levels and types — text message; chat; email; expert against ordinary support; phone; Zoom.
4. Consumption types — live or virtual; recorded; in person; written; audio; video.
5. Speed and convenience — around the clock; nine to five, Monday to Friday; how fast you reply to a question, and whether there are tiers of response.
6. The 10x to one-tenth test — what would you deliver if what you sell cost 10 times what it costs now, and what would you deliver if it cost one-tenth and still had to be worth more than it is at today's price.

The dimensions combine, which is why it works as a grid rather than a list: a one-to-one, done-for-you option with phone support, delivered in person, available around the clock, is one cell. So is a one-to-many, do-it-yourself option consumed as video, supported nine to five.

The last dimension pulls both ways on purpose. The 10x question stretches you upward, into what you would add to justify a far bigger price. The one-tenth question stretches you toward efficiency, into tools, resources and assets built once.

If the prompts get in the way, drop them. The grid is a thinking aid. What matters is coming out with every possible way you can think of to solve the problem. Some people work better from a blank page; the requirement is the length and honesty of the list, not the device that produced it.

5. What you should have at the end

• One sentence naming the outcome, the time and the fear.
• Every step and every problem on the way, each split four ways.
• A solution statement for each.
• A wide list of delivery options for each solution, generated across the six dimensions.

Do not shorten the list yet. Every item you cut here is an option you never get to price.

6. What this page does not cover

Choosing between these options, costing them and assembling what you sell are not covered on this page — they are on SOP 5. Price is on SOP 2, and the four variables named in §2 are set out on SOP 3. Bonuses on top of the core offer are on SOP 6.