The Method — Engineer
Questions to ask yourself during engineer
Five questions to ask yourself during Engineer, starting with the hardest: what would have to be true for your current plan to be wrong?
7 min read · Reviewed by both partners
These are diagnostic, not rhetorical. Answer them in writing and the phase largely runs itself.
Engineer exists to produce a causal explanation the owner agrees with. Each question below moves you toward it.
Step by step
What would have to be true for me to be wrong?
The single most useful question in the phase, and the one owners skip because it is uncomfortable.
Which number would change my mind?
If no number would, the belief is not a conclusion and this phase cannot test it.
What am I measuring because it is easy?
Convenient metrics crowd out decisive ones and they look identical on a report.
Who disagrees, and have I actually heard them out?
Someone in the business usually knows. They are rarely in the meeting.
Is a causal explanation the owner agrees with written down?
If not, the phase is unfinished regardless of how much thinking has happened.
Common mistakes
Answering them out loud and moving on
Spoken answers feel complete and vanish. Written ones can be checked next quarter.
Asking them after the decision
Used retrospectively these become justification. Used first they are a diagnostic.
Frequently Asked Questions
Questions to ask yourself during engineer?
These are diagnostic, not rhetorical. Answer them in writing and the phase largely runs itself.
What should a business owner do with this before booking an Assessment?
It sits under The Engineer Phase in the Growth Scaling Method. The next step for an owner is the $1,500 Assessment, which reads your own numbers against everything described above.
What would this cost us?
Start at $4,500 for the diagnosis, standard, and route. Ongoing engagement is optional, quoted by the Plan, and floored at $5,000 monthly.
Do partners stay involved after the sale?
They are the only people involved. There is no handoff, because there is nobody to hand it to.
References
- www.uspto.gov — primary source
- www.sba.gov — primary source
- www.bbb.org — primary source
Answer these with someone outside the business
That is most of what the Assessment is: two hours of exactly these questions, asked properly.
Growth-Scaling is a marketing and business-scaling firm. It is not a licensed practitioner in any client vertical and does not provide medical, legal, financial, or contracting services; all industry content on this site is marketing and growth guidance for owners in those fields. Figures describing past engagements refer to specific businesses under specific conditions and are not a prediction of any future result. No outcome is promised.
Written by Steven Lockhart, reviewed by David Mitroff, Ph.D. Figures and regulatory details reflect the cited public sources; requirements vary by state and situation. Growth-Scaling is a marketing and business-scaling firm, not a licensed practitioner in any client vertical.