Keystones: Who needs an extreme version of what you're best at
Refine each strength into keystones — the characteristics that make certain customers need an extreme version of it — and name the real market segments that embody each. Adapted from Chapter 3 of Hidden Multipliers: Speaking Carol Into Existence.
- Input
- Your STRENGTHS-WEAKNESSES.md (S1, S2, …) from the classification step — or a strengths list you can defend.
- Output
- A KEYSTONES.md: keystones (K1, K2, …) mapped to strengths, each with the real-world market segments that typify it — or the honest finding that your product isn't compelling yet.
What this is about
It takes a lot to make someone act. They must buy new software, change their workflows, and stake their reputation on you. Liking a few features is not enough to make them act. A keystone is what makes them act: a specific fact about a customer's situation that makes one of your strengths critical to them. The fact is so critical, the customer thinks "I must make this work for us." A fast website is a strength. An e-commerce store where every tenth of a second of load time changes revenue is a keystone. This keystone names exactly who must buy.
This skill checks your classified strengths one at a time. For each strength, it asks the chapter's key question: what characteristics, behaviors, or circumstances require an extreme version of this strength? Then it applies a hard rule: if you cannot name a significant real-world market segment that shows this need, the strength is not a keystone. It is table stakes — true, but not compelling — and the skill cuts it. What remains shows the forces that pull customers toward you, with each keystone naming its market. If only one keystone survives, or none survive, that is not a failed exercise. It is the most valuable strategic lesson you can get: your product is not compelling yet. Now you know this before the market teaches you the same lesson at a much higher cost.
Example invocation
You can invoke the skill like this:
/asb-carol-keystones Here's our STRENGTHS-WEAKNESSES.md — five
strengths, five weaknesses. Who actually needs what we're best at?
The skill takes each strength in turn. It asks "who requires an extreme version of this?" until the answer is specific. It gates every candidate: the candidate must name a real market segment. It records the survivors in KEYSTONES.md, the file the deal-breakers step uses next.
One practical note: tell the skill where you work. Name a directory, or point to your existing files, when you invoke the skill. Then the skill keeps the method's files together there. If you do not name a location, the skill asks before it creates anything.
From the source
Two sources form the foundation of this skill:
- As in Chapter 3 of Hidden Multipliers: Speaking Carol Into Existence (section "Strengths → Keystones → Target Market") — hiddenmultipliers.com — this source gives the keystone concept, the requires-an-extreme-version question, the no-segment-no-keystone rule, and the one-keystone warning. This skill enforces all of these.
- Selling to Carol: Why targeting an ICP brings 10x more customers than you expected — this source shows why keystones must be strong in your best customers and weak in your worst customers. A trait common to everyone predicts nothing.
Supporting sources each supply one part of the method:
- As in Chapter 2 of Hidden Multipliers: Carol Loves You for You — hiddenmultipliers.com — this source gives the classified strengths chart this skill uses, and the Profit Whale economics (the top ~5% of customers produce 20–40% of profit). This economics shows why finding these customers is worth the work.
- Specificity: A weapon of mass effectiveness — this source gives the wording rule: a keystone vague enough to describe everyone describes no one.