The Customer Intelligence Standard

Most founders can describe their customer. Few know them.

A quarter of Y Combinator’s Winter 2025 startups had codebases that were 95% written by AI. You can ship a product in weeks now, and so can everyone else. When anyone can build fast, the edge goes to the founder who knows exactly who they’re building for. 74% of startup shutdowns since 2023 happened at pre-seed or seed. 8 out of 10 features in the average software product are rarely or never used. “Sally is 23 and likes froyo” tells you what she looks like — not why she buys, who she trusts, or what makes her walk away. This program is the upgrade: find what you’re assuming, learn where you’re wrong, and decide with what you find.

A Customer Map — every guess your business is betting on, ranked by risk and tagged to the 19 dimensions.

A tested ICP — named from research, pressure-tested live, and locked before you talk to anyone.

5–10 real customer conversations — turned into insight, with themes, contradictions and say-vs-do gaps.

Three decisions made — one strategy, one customer, one product.

Applied drafts — sales play cards, ad copy, targeting language and content ideas your team can pick up right away.

Four AI skills you install once and keep using after the program ends — plus a repeatable process for every new idea, launch or market.

6-Week Curriculum (plus an optional 7th)

Phase 1 – Map & Research (Weeks 1–3)

Week 1: What are you betting the business on? (Teaching) — pull out every guess across customer, market, product, pricing, positioning, marketing and growth; run your deck, site copy, one pager and roadmap through the Assumption Mapping skill; rank each guess by cost-if-wrong and confidence. Case: Juicero. You leave with your Customer Map, ranked by risk
Week 2: What is already known (Teaching) — where to look, and how to spot research written to sell you something; research your customer across the 19 dimensions; sort every guess as answered, still open, or new; name your ICP. Case: Quibi. You leave with a research library, customer brief and named ICP
Week 3: Check your research (Office hours) — Ashley reviews your work live, catching guesses closed too fast, ads disguised as reports, and ICPs named out of habit; Customer Research Brief in challenge mode. You leave with a locked ICP and a checked Customer Map

Phase 2 – Talk to Customers (Weeks 4–5)

Week 4: What to ask and how to listen (Teaching) — build an interview guide around the 19 dimensions; ask without leading, follow the interesting thread, update the guide between calls; book and record 5–10 calls over ~10 days. Case: Superhuman. You leave with an interview guide and 5–10 calls booked
Week 5: Bring me what you heard (Office hours) — write your own take first, then sort signal from politeness and say from do; Synthesis and Decisions (part one) finds patterns across calls. Case: Red Lobster. You leave with customer insight and a full Customer Map

Phase 3 – Decide (Week 6 + optional Week 7)

Week 6: Decide something (Teaching) — prioritize what you learned and turn it into decisions; write decision briefs and applied drafts with Synthesis and Decisions (part two). Case: Red Lobster today, live. You leave with 3 decisions, applied drafts and a repeatable process
Week 7 (optional): Extra time (Office hours) — finish calls, redo your take, or work through a decision you’re stuck on. No new content; nobody leaves with unfinished work

Who this program is for

First-time founders at pre-seed to Series A. You’re smart, you move fast, and you’re not starting from zero — you just aren’t sure yet who your customer is at the level your next decision needs.

01 Corporate operators You built a career inside big companies and now have to define the customer on your own.

02 Startup insiders You know the ecosystem but haven’t gone deep on the customer.

03 Former leaders You used to shape decisions and now you own them.

Format model

6-week structure plus an optional 7th · Teaching weeks alternate with office hours · Live, small group, one session a week · Every week: pre-read, case, AI skill, deliverable, outcome · Peer cohort + expert-led · Delivered via Forward Achieve platform · Application-gated, curated cohorts

Weeks 1–3 Map & Research — Customer Map, research across 19 dimensions, locked ICP Phase 1

Weeks 4–5 Talk to Customers — interview guide, 5–10 calls, synthesis Phase 2

Week 6 (+7) Decide — 3 decisions, applied drafts, repeatable process Phase 3

What your seat includes

Founding cohort

$999

First-time founders, pre-seed to Series A, 5–15 participants.

Ongoing

$1,500

Entry: ENTRY_OFFER_TBD.

A Customer Map

Every guess your business is betting on, ranked by risk and tagged to the 19 dimensions.

Research you can trust

A research library and 19-dimension customer brief, plus standing searches to keep it fresh.

A tested ICP + 5–10 customer conversations

Locked before the calls, turned into insight after them.

Three decisions made

One strategy, one customer, one product.

Applied drafts

Sales play cards, ad copy, targeting language and content ideas.

Four AI skills

One plugin, installed once in Week 1, yours to keep after the program.

Learn directly from Ashley

Ashley Jefferson

Founder, Startup Baddie · NYU Stern MBA · Former VP of Product, JPMorgan

A career in product and customer research, from VP of Product at JPMorgan to working with founders through Startup Baddie. The gap she sees over and over: smart founders making big calls on guesses they never checked. Creator of the 19-dimension customer framework and author of a Gen Z research brief that serves as the program’s model of a full customer picture.

Previously JPMorgan