The Methodology
SeanPropApp v2.1.0
A structured analysis refined over 25 years of PE, product, and technology leadership. 18 modules across three phases, each building on the previous, closing with an Executive Summary that synthesizes the whole pack. SeanPropApp threads your initiative, product idea, strategic hypothesis, or deal thesis through each module to stress-test the opportunity from market context through business-model viability.
SeanPropApp is bring-your-own-AI: you connect your own AI subscription (the Claude CLI bridge), your own API key, or an MCP host, and you pay for token usage directly to the AI provider, not to us. You choose which model tier runs the analysis, trading cost against depth. To see how the tiers compare on quality and value for money, read the Benchmark analysis: 4 configurations scored across 4 companies, every output published unedited.
Auto-Run completes all 18 modules in about 20 minutes with no user input required. Guided mode pauses after each module for review and refinement, typically taking about 60 minutes. Guided produces the best results when the user has insider knowledge to debate and course-correct the Foundation modules from the start.
Phase 1
Foundation
Research phase · Understand the landscape before you build anything
How big is the opportunity? Who are you building for? What jobs do they need done? Who else is trying to solve this? These modules replace the first phase of a consulting engagement: the research where you gather context, size the market, map competitors, and define your target customer.
Value: Stop building for imaginary demand. Understand the target customer, user, stakeholder, or participant ecosystem, their switching triggers, and your competitive gaps before you write code, launch operations, or commit capital.
Company Context
Parses your company, initiative, and scope. Classifies the business model (B2B, B2C, platform, marketplace, and so on) to shape every downstream module. Identifies competitors from public sources and tests initial assumptions about market position. Sets the frame for every module that follows.
Market Sizing & TAM
Sizes the opportunity with TAM, SAM, and SOM, defining the market boundary and citing sources. Prioritizes segments and tests whether there is a logical expansion path from a beachhead to the core market. The segment priorities here flow into the customer profile, discovery plan, and unit economics.
Ideal Customer Profile
Defines the target customer, user, buyer, operator, partner, or participant groups that matter most. Surfaces who drives adoption, conversion, retention, or expansion depending on the business model. Includes emerging agentic and programmatic personas.
Jobs To Be Done
Maps the functional, emotional, and social needs that target customers, users, or participants are trying to solve. Identifies current workarounds and switching triggers. Reveals whether the need is strong enough to drive adoption, switching, or willingness to pay.
Competitive Landscape
Benchmarks direct competitors, substitutes, adjacent entrants, and ecosystem incumbents. Assesses relevant DIY, partner, channel, and operational replication risks on a 1-3 year horizon. Identifies your competitive position and underserved beachhead.
Phase 2
Proposition
Proposition phase · Turn research into something you can pitch
The proposition phase transforms Foundation research into artifacts you can share with boards, investors, and teams. It builds progressively: a positioning statement, then elevator pitches, then customer quotes that capture what success looks like from each persona's perspective.
The culmination is the future press release: an Amazon Working Backwards artifact written as if the initiative already succeeded, two years from now. It forces clarity about what you are actually promising and to whom. It is designed to be shared in board meetings and leadership reviews to frame the strategic debate: is this future compelling enough to fund?
Value: Walk into any meeting with a coherent story. The press release alone forces the kind of clarity that most teams never achieve without weeks of iteration.
Positioning Statement
Synthesizes all foundation research into a clear positioning statement plus a 10x bolder version for stretch thinking. Includes a critique of both, a "what we are NOT" declaration, and a tangible value question.
Elevator Pitches
Two targeted pitches: one for the relevant external audience (customers, users, partners, or market participants), and one for leadership, board, or investors. Each under 100 words. Includes the #1 likely objection and a prepared rebuttal.
Stakeholder Quotes
Illustrative quotes from the most important stakeholder perspectives, showing what success would sound like if the proposition solved a meaningful need. Rated for strength. The top 3 flow directly into the future press release.
Future Press ReleaseCenterpiece artifact
The centerpiece of the analysis. An Amazon Working Backwards press release set 2 years in the future, written as if the initiative already succeeded. Three stakeholder quotes, an external FAQ, and an internal FAQ using the IDEO Desirability/Feasibility/Viability framework. This artifact is designed to be shared with leadership teams to frame the strategic debate: is this future compelling enough to fund?
Discovery & Validation Plan
Structured around the riskiest assumptions: demand, behavior change, willingness to pay, willingness to switch, supply-side formation where relevant, operational feasibility, and economic viability. Includes success criteria, timelines, and an interview script. Grounded in the principle: Nothing Important Happens In The Office.
Gap Analysis
Maps the gap between the press release vision and current reality. Defines the Minimum Sellable Product. Categorizes features as non-negotiable, deferrable, or gray zone. Sizes effort and risk for each critical gap.
Phase 3
Strategic Depth
Business Model phase · Stress-test the business model
Strategic Depth is where the hard questions live. These modules stress-test whether the opportunity justifies the investment. They examine where value is shifting in the stack, what the moat really is, how the economics work, how the initiative goes to market, and which unanswered questions matter most.
Value: Kill bad ideas before they consume capital. Surface the assumptions that will make or break you. For investors, this is the diligence that separates signal from noise.
Value Stack
Positions the proposition within the value stack. Assesses what becomes cheaper, what becomes more valuable, and where defensibility may migrate. Evaluates substitutes, internal alternatives, and DIY risk where relevant. Applies Jevons Paradox on a 1-3 year horizon.
Moat Deep Dive
Scores competitive defensibility across Hamilton Helmer's 7 Powers: Scale Economics, Network Effects, Counter-Positioning, Switching Costs, Branding, Cornered Resource, and Process Power. Includes 3-year trend projections and a DIY/agentic risk table. Surfaces the riskiest assumptions about long-term defensibility.
Unit Economics
Quantifies value creation, cost to serve, monetization logic, and scaling economics. Three scenarios (conservative, base, optimistic) with revenue projections. Supports subscription, transaction, marketplace, services, and hybrid business models. Highlights the validation questions that must be answered before committing.
Go-To-Market
A summary GTM frame for an internal leader taking the initiative to market. Eight tight sections: GTM diagnosis, current GTM baseline, initiative fit, beachhead and deferrals, recommended motion and channels, adoption readiness, leading indicators with thresholds, pitfalls. Framework emphasis adapts to the SETUP business model: PLG vs sales-led by ACV for B2B; Christensen JTBD plus a consumer adoption stack and AIDA funnel mapping for B2C and marketplace; distribution-channel strategy for physical. A conditional Category Design section is added when the initiative is new-category creation.
Top Questions & Action Plan
The five most critical unanswered questions and five concrete action items for the next 30 days. Framed for the most important stakeholder groups so they know what matters to them. This is the "so what, now what" module.
Five Additional Ideas
Five strategic initiatives ranked by risk-adjusted impact. Each with thesis, target audience, business model, moat potential, complexity, and strategic value assessment. Designed to expand thinking beyond the primary hypothesis.
Synthesis
Executive Summary
Runs last · Synthesizes the full analysis package
The Executive Summary runs after every other module has completed. During the analysis it keeps a short living draft, but its real job is the final synthesis pass: once the full pack is in hand, it rewrites the whole summary from scratch to represent the breadth of the analysis, not to recap it module by module. It is written to stand on its own for an educated board member, executive, or investor who does not live the day-to-day detail, and it is decision support rather than a verdict: it lays out the customer win, the numbers spine, strengths and risks, the business-model moat, the single critical bet, and the next 30 days, so the reader can make the call.
Value: One document that carries the whole analysis. Read first, shared widely, and the artifact most likely to travel without the rest of the pack.
What You Walk Away With
Complete Analysis Package
All 18 modules in a single, professionally formatted document. Export as HTML (for sharing links), DOCX (for leadership reviews, board materials, and investor memos), or ZIP (complete package with all assets).
Individual Module Outputs
Each module produces a standalone section you can excerpt for presentations, memos, or business cases. The executive summary, elevator pitches, and press release are each designed to be shared independently.
Google Drive Sync
Automatically save analyses to your Drive with an organized folder structure: inputs, analysis outputs, exports, and archives. Access from any device. Previous versions preserved when you re-run modules.
Guided Discussion
In guided mode, the AI asks probing questions and you refine answers together. The conversation itself becomes a valuable record of strategic thinking: the reasoning behind the numbers, the debates that shaped the positioning, the assumptions you chose to challenge.
How It Is Built
SeanPropApp is a Next.js application with a client-first architecture. The full Proposition Prompt methodology is embedded in the client bundle and executes against your chosen AI provider. You can run it on your existing Claude subscription with no API key (via the local CLI bridge or by connecting an MCP host), or bring your own Anthropic or OpenAI API key. The server acts as a thin CORS proxy: it relays requests without storing, logging, or reading any content, and on the bridge path your content never reaches our servers at all.
Authentication and session management run on Supabase. Optional Google Drive sync stores analysis outputs in your own Drive account. All analysis data lives in your browser's IndexedDB by default, with cloud storage as an opt-in addition.
Development is powered by Claude Code CLI with gstack skills for QA testing, code review, and shipping workflows, plus Agent Teams for parallel development across features. The methodology itself is version-controlled and tested across hundreds of real analyses to ensure consistent, high-quality output.
Free During Beta
SeanPropApp is free to use while in beta. Run it on your existing Claude subscription with no API key by pairing the local CLI bridge, or supply your own Anthropic or OpenAI API key and pay only for token usage, roughly $1 to $3 per full analysis on the mainstream tiers (less on the cheapest, more at the frontier). See the benchmark for the per-tier costs.
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Get Started (Free Beta)Wondering which AI model to run this methodology on? See the model benchmark comparing 4 configurations across 4 companies, every output published unedited.