The PULL framework
book spoiler, and your chance to get a book shoutout
Five days before I submitted my book’s first draft to the publisher, my good friend (and great author) Gorick Ng caused me to rewrite the whole damn thing.
He came up with an idea - a framework for “pull” - that ties the entire book together. It’s was totally worth burning the book’s prior draft to the ground.
But I need your help, because the framework isn’t quite perfect. And if you send me the fix… you’ll get a shoutout in the book! (And a place in my heart.)
What is PULL?
“Pull” is usually used as a verb: Customers pull more than you push.
The PULL framework uses “pull” as a noun: PULL is “the state of having demand.” When you find PULL, customers pull the product out of your hands.
Buyers will “pull” when four things are true:
P = There is a Project their to-do list…
U = …that is Unavoidable right now…
L = … and the option (or options) they Look into…
L = … are Lacking for some critical reason(s)
Want an example of this in practice? I used this to articulate different features we could build next for Waffle:
You can see in red what I feel is weak, and what I’m testing for.
PULL is designed to be the gold standard of intense demand - when someone has these four PULL characteristics, they will rip the product out of your hands (of course, as long as your product “fits” their PULL).
I love the framework. BUT. I don’t love the “L’s”. Here’s why:
They’re not super punchy (but I can get over that)
They don’t quite convey what I believe to be the true gold standard of demand: They LITERALLY CAN’T IMPLEMENT the other options.
Any ideas, my brilliant friends?
BTW - You can use the PULL framework in your sales calls, in product development, etc. More on that in the book…
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PS:
Last chance to get early pricing for Finding Pull’s June cohort! Come work with me, I’ll help debug your calls & sales & help you find pull. All the info you need is HERE.
Waffle research: Which of these projects is on your to-do list??? Reply to this email and let me know!
“Debug deployments without leaving Cursor”
“Deploy & scale real-time AI features (streaming stuff like chatbots, dashboards) without thinking about infra”
“Get infra setup + management totally off our team’s plate”
Nice framework that rhymes with JTBD, Running Lean, etc. What about...
- LIMITED options (if your prospects can get the project done with many other options, you're not focused enough)
- LIMITATIONS of the options (where the alternatives break down and your option shines)
This fits the PULL acronym and has the benefit of making the "L"s feel similar and coherent.
… and has a LIABILITY that is clear to them … they are actively LOOKING to solve.
Wdyt?