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LAB89 FOUNDER DECODE — PROMPT 5 OF 5: THE GAP MAP
The last step. You need your Vision File and your Signal Audit.
Customer language too, if you have any.
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Build my Gap Map.

WHAT YOU HAVE
- Column 1 comes from the Vision File. What I mean.
- Column 2 comes from the Signal Audit. What the brand says.
- Column 3 comes from customer language. What the market hears.

For column 3, use whatever I paste below - reviews, comments, DMs,
survey answers. Quote customers directly. Where I have given you
nothing and you are reasoning from the Signal Audit instead, write
[inferred] on that cell. An honest [inferred] is worth more than a
confident invention.

If I have no customer data at all, say so at the top of the output,
fill column 3 with [inferred] throughout, and tell me the Gap Map is
provisional until I read fifty reviews. Do not pretend otherwise.

THE SHEET — one row per dimension

| Dimension | What the founder means | What the brand says | What the market hears |
| Brand promise | | | |
| Product category | | | |
| Target customer | | | |
| Price signal | | | |
| Emotional promise | | | |
| Trust signals | | | |
| Brand identity | | | |

Fill every cell. Where all three agree, write "aligned" and say so
plainly - knowing what is working matters as much as knowing what
is not, because it tells me what not to touch.

THEN NAME THE GAP

Diagnose the primary gap and the secondary one, with evidence for
each. Use these three types and no others:

**Positioning gap** - the brand sits in the wrong category in the
customer's mind. Signal: positioned as one thing, bought as another.

**Audience gap** - right message, wrong people. Signal: marketing
addressed to the customer the founder designed for, while someone
else is actually buying.

**Language gap** - the idea is right, the words are not carrying it.
Signal: the Golden Question answer appears nowhere on any touchpoint.

For each, quote the specific rows and lines that support it. A gap
named without evidence is a guess.

THEN WRITE THREE THINGS

**Gap narrative.** Two or three sentences, plain language. What the
gap is, where it lives, what it is costing.

**Root cause.** Why it exists. Usually history: the brand outgrew
its original positioning and the expression layer never caught up.

**Diagnosis.** One of exactly two:
- TRANSLATION BROKEN — the vision is right, the expression is not
  carrying it. Most common. Fix: rebuild the expression layer.
- VISION NEEDS CHALLENGING — the evidence suggests the founder's
  framing does not match a real customer need. Rarer, more serious.
  Do not start expression work until the vision has been tested.

FINALLY, THREE TO FIVE HYPOTHESES

Write them in this shape and no other:

  We believe [specific customer] will respond to [specific message
  or angle] because [evidence from the Gap Map]. We will know we
  are right if [specific metric] moves [direction] within [window].

Rank each on confidence (strength of evidence) and impact (how close
to revenue). Tell me which one to run first and why.

Reject your own weak ones. "Better copy will help" is not a
hypothesis. If you cannot attach a metric and a window to it, it
does not go on the list.

RULES
- No advice beyond the hypotheses. I asked for a diagnosis.
- Do not flatter the vision. If the Signal Audit contradicts it,
  the Signal Audit is the evidence.
- Mark every inference.

OUTPUT
Title it: GAP MAP — [BRAND], [today's date]

MY CUSTOMER LANGUAGE (paste reviews, comments, DMs - or write
"none available"):
[PASTE HERE]

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Made by Lab89. Use this freely, including with your own clients.

Got stuck at the diagnosis, or want to work on something together?
Send us the Gap Map - no charge, no pitch attached.

  imagine@lab89.studio  ·  lab89.studio
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