# How it works: three steps, at the pace of your evidence

Join the intake queue and we email your materials when your place is ready. Aim to complete Steps 1 and 2 within four weeks of receiving them. Customer evidence and the Crosscheck may take longer; the full process has no fixed deadline.

## 1. When your place is ready: start with your workbook

We release pilot places in batches and email the workbook matched to your situation, the Pilot Guide and The Method when your access is ready. Time in the queue doesn’t count toward your four weeks. You can switch to a different workbook at any time. Start with your workbook. The Pilot Guide explains the timeline. The Method is there if you want the thinking behind it. Do Step 1 on your own, before discussing your answers with your team.

## 2. Within four weeks: write down what you believe, and see if the team agrees

- **Step 1.** The leader answers six questions alone, in writing, in about an hour. Each answer is marked Known or Assumed.
- **Step 2.** Five people from five functions answer the same questions on their own, about 20 minutes each. Optional for solo founders.
- Where answers differ is a gap. No gaps doesn’t mean the team is right, so everyone goes on to Step 3.

When you finish Steps 1 and 2, request your outside read from your pilot page. Reports are scheduled separately.

## 3. At the pace of your evidence: check it against customers

Collect what customers say without being asked, log what they do that doesn’t fit the plan, and run the four signal checks: repeated, consistent, costly, lasting. Until all four are Yes, a behavior is a lead, not a pattern.

You finish with a one-page Brand Brief: the customer role your evidence supports, what remains uncertain, and what to test next.

## 4. Scheduled separately: the outside read

Once we start your report, we research your market from public evidence only: a Brand Intelligence Report if you have customers, an Idea Intelligence Assessment if you don’t. We never receive your workbook or internal findings.

When your report is ready, we ask you to confirm your completed internal findings are saved and dated. Only then do we release it. Keep the original; record any later revisions separately.

## 5. When both sides are done: run the Crosscheck yourself

Set your sealed findings beside the outside read, claim by claim, using the Crosscheck worksheet and the optional AI assistant file. Crosscheck is participant-led; a facilitated review isn’t part of the pilot. Each claim comes out:

- **Supported.** Both reads point the same way. That strengthens a claim; it doesn’t prove it.
- **Challenged.** The reads differ. The better-supported evidence wins, whichever side it came from, and the reason is written down.
- **Unresolved.** Neither side can support it yet. It stays open, with the next test named.

[See the whole journey: workbook, outside read, Crosscheck and decision, for one fictional company. Follow Velmont →](https://themarketverdict.com/worked-example/velmont.md)

## Workbooks now, the app next

The pilot runs on workbooks. The app will walk your team through the same steps. It is in development and takes these steps online: it invites your team by function, tells each person when it’s their turn, saves as you go, and keeps everyone’s answers hidden until all of them are in. What pilot teams find hard on paper tells us what the app has to do first.

## The pilot timeline

| When | What |
| --- | --- |
| When access is sent | Your workbook, the Pilot Guide and The Method arrive by email. Your four weeks start here |
| Within four weeks | Aim to complete Steps 1 and 2 |
| Within six weeks | Share honest progress feedback, even if you haven’t finished |
| No fixed deadline | Customer evidence and the Crosscheck may take longer |

[Join the free pilot](https://themarketverdict.com/waitlist)