When reviewing a pre-launch token design, screen for the PvP Casino pattern — ICO + points + airdrops + KOL deals + 100% TGE unlocks combined create a sell-pressure nuclear bomb where extraction dominates contribution. Diagnose as misalignment, not greed. Greed compounds value when aligned; greed without alignment causes ecosystem decay.
When evaluating a launch that's gaining viral traction through speculation mechanics (key trading, point farming, social-priced primitives), check whether the underlying utility actually exists. If <1% of users engage with the stated utility while 100% engage with the speculation layer, it's the Friend.tech trap — temporary hype that collapses within 3-6 months.
When beginning strategy research, structure discovery across four independent lenses — Company, Consumer, Category, Culture — and close each with an implication sentence ("If this is true, then our strategy must..."). Prevents lopsided research that skips lenses and forces findings to bridge into strategy direction rather than stopping at observation.
When translating product details into messaging, climb a 4-rung ladder from Feature → Product Truth → Functional Benefit → Emotional Benefit. Forces every emotional claim to have a credibility chain back to a verifiable feature, beating messaging that's either too technical (specs without meaning) or too floaty (emotion without proof).
When reviewing a Web3 marketing or growth strategy, surface contrarian reframes from a curated bank — "marketing is the product," "communities are built on shared enemies," "cultural architecture beats technical architecture," "consistency of tone is your signature." Used to challenge default assumptions before approving execution.
When building or auditing a brand's narrative foundation, ensure all four foundational stories exist and are coherent — Origin (how it began), Personal (why the founders), Group (the movement), Story of Now (how others join today). Missing any of the four creates a brittle narrative that depends on the others to compensate.
When a user needs a creative brief for a campaign, content program, or creative direction, structure it as GET (real person with a specific tension) → TO (the precise shift in thinking/feeling/doing) → BY (the creative mechanism, not a channel list). Refuses vague goals like "build awareness" and catches the strategy-in-BY pitfall.
When a Web3 project's content engagement is declining (>20% drop in 30 days), community can't explain what you do, or different team members give different elevator pitches, run a 12-step audit to identify narrative anti-patterns (Tech Trap, Wrong Hero, Hook Failure, Inconsistency) and produce a prioritized fix list. Use as a quarterly health check or pre-launch diagnostic.