TABLE OF CONTENTS

Step 3: Brainstorm Segments

Step 4: Choose the Focus for Your Positioning Messages

Step 5: Send Your Completed Worksheet

Next: Core Unmet Needs

Ideal Client Worksheet: A Systematic Approach

Find your ideal client in record time using our worksheet

Innovation - Messaging & Positioning

Dan Wu, JD/PhD

Dec 20, 2025

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Find your ideal client in record time using our worksheet

This is part 3.2 in the series below.

View our related series on Positioning and Messaging (Toggle For More)

Messaging & Positioning Template
• Intro: (i) The Positioning Pyramid; (ii) 5 Expert Tips
• Needs: (i) Customer Unmet Needs; (ii) Persona Worksheet; (iii) Discover Needs
• Niche: (i) Ideal Client & (ii) Ideal Client Worksheet
• Differentiator: (i) Differentiators & (ii) Value Proposition Worksheet
• Category: Market Category

Overcoming Objections
• Proof
• Workflow Redesign
• Offers

Strategic Learning
• Clarify: Copy Testing
• Discover: Discover Needs; Use channel partners
• Validate: Customer Validation;
• Questions: 4 key questions (quick start)
• Scale: Smart Feedback

Worksheet: Ideal Client Profile

Last time, we discussed the risks of targeting generic or diverse markets for positioning and how to address them. Now, it's your turn to apply the steps we identified to your customer list.

(For further explanation of any of the steps below, see the related article on finding your ideal client profile)

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A Note From the Author (Dan Wu, JD/PhD)

As a former startup SVP of Product, I've lived the challenges this covers. I've used similar frameworks and tools to build and manage responsible, high-growth products generating 6-7 figures of annual revenue.

I help social impact leaders find who will buy, what to say, and what to sell, fusing Silicon Valley product thinking & Harvard PhD insight.

Step 1: Copy the worksheet

Fill this out. Provide comments on the linked article on finding your ideal client

Request access. I give access to those who fill the form out above.

Step 2: Identify your top criteria

These are the criteria that you’ll use to to score and compare segments against in Step 3

Go to the tab “Criteria”:

Add your top criteria

Add your top filters

Sample criteria and criteria filters to score and compare your segments against in Step 3.

Step 3: Brainstorm Segments

Brainstorm the top sub-segments or niches where you can gain a competitive advantage.

Document. Fill out the tab “Win/Loss.” (For more specific guidance on this tab, see Messaging & Positioning Template: Learning from Data)

Fill out the “Win/Loss” tab with organizations, outcomes, and predictors for analysis in your ideal client worksheet

Analyze. Identify attributes of your top bright spots in the “Win/Loss” (Analysis) Tab.

This displays outcomes (win/loss or stage) and predictors of those outcomes.

Add Segments. Draw from your analyses of win/loss or selected criteria.

Add new segments in your ideal client worksheet

Score Segments from 1-4 (high). Note: if desired, you can use more precise numbers, but I suggest a scale for simplicity.

Score the segments you’ve identified in your ideal client worksheet

Add to the reasoning column. This helps others understand the “why” behind your scoring.

Step 4: Choose the Focus for Your Positioning Messages

In the “Segments” tab:

5 minute “gut check.” See if the top-scoring result “feels” right. If not, make appropriate changes.

Optionally - fill out the “Concerns/Challenges” column. Identify your concerns around your top rated picks. We can brainstorm solutions to them.

Select your top items. Note: The more specific you can get the better. You will have opportunities to refine your thinking around the critical unmet need in future sections.

Organization category or sector

Buyer role

Critical unmet need

Ideal Client Worksheet: Select the top roles, needs, and category/sectors in your sheet that will form the basis of your positioning message

Step 5: Send Your Completed Worksheet

Check off completion of every key step in tab “Checklist”

Share this sheet with me providing “edit” access

Next: Core Unmet Needs

Go to the Core Unmet Needs post now that you’ve better prioritized some promising ideal client segments.

This dives deeper into clarifying what problem you’re solving and how. This then generates a critical artifact for discovery and testing with this segment.

See the next article in the series below

View our related series on Positioning and Messaging (Toggle For More)

👉 Want the Tools Mentioned Above?

Start with our free checklist to get on the path to the rest.

How to Find Your Ideal Client Your Value Proposition Checklist Results

Dan Wu, JD/PhD

Dan Wu is our Lead Innovation Advisor focused on helping leaders build safe, high-growth products. As an SVP of Product & Chief Strategy Officer, he has led and managed products to achieve 6 to 8 figures in revenue. His work is informed by his background as a Harvard JD/PhD, where he focused on responsible innovation, social networks, and mixed-methods research.

Ideal Client Worksheet: A Systematic Approach

Worksheet: Ideal Client Profile

A Note From the Author (Dan Wu, JD/PhD)

Step 1: Copy the worksheet

Step 2: Identify your top criteria

Step 3: Brainstorm Segments

Step 4: Choose the Focus for Your Positioning Messages

Step 5: Send Your Completed Worksheet

Next: Core Unmet Needs

👉 Want the Tools Mentioned Above?

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