This is a real excavation. Names and companies have been anonymized.
We launched a new pricing tier 2 months ago and conversions dropped 30% but nobody can agree on why
Organizations that measure value solely through visible shipped output systematically deprioritize evaluation infrastructure and diagnostic work, creating a structural inability to determine whether shipped features actually work or understand why they fail. This produces a pattern where teams launch without success criteria or diagnostic ownership, leaving failures undiagnosed not because they're technically hard to solve but because the organizational incentive structure cannot prioritize that type of work.
Path B: PATH C — Use this crisis as the proof case
Run PATH A first to generate results, then use those results to demonstrate to leadership the exact revenue cost of the two-month diagnostic delay, turning the pricing tier incident into a concrete dollar figure that makes the case for evaluative work.
Timeframe:
Addresses: The CEO's mental model that evaluation is not real work, by making the cost of skipping it viscerally concrete
Requires: Sequence deliberately — first solve the problem, then use the solution to change culture, and make the case directly
Works if: The conversion drop translates to a revenue number large enough to get the CEO's attention and you are willing to make the business case directly
Learn more about the method: Read the blog