Does Common Enemy Audit use a benchmark or AI?

No. The result uses visible deterministic rules and only the user's inputs. It is not compared with other customers.

When should I take the Common Enemy score and verification brief into a workshop?

When the unresolved work requires team challenge, evidence reconciliation, ownership, and a committed organizational decision.

Core strategy instrument · Tester

Common Enemy Audit

Q: What does Common Enemy Audit produce?

A versioned Common Enemy score and verification brief with visible reasoning, evidence status, next action, review date, and structured exports.

Score eight observable signals across enemy identity, customer receipts, surface deployment, and enemy ownership, then name the first repair.

Start with my inputs

No account. No email gate. The primary result and exports are free.

Work locally. Structured inputs calculate in this browser. Do not enter customer names, personal information, confidential evidence, or private deal details.

Definition and worked example

See the method before entering your own evidence.

Who should use it: Find out whether your positioning has an enemy your customers share, or a founder grudge dressed up as strategy.

Decision basis: The swap test redlines transparent generic phrases and competitor interchangeability; pressure mode records a response, proof, failure condition, and owner; the quotability test scores whether a stranger can restate each claim; the common enemy audit scores whether brand and customers share a verified enemy. The generic-language dictionary is published in the method code and is directional.

Read the complete versioned method · Read the highest-intent answer

Clearly fictional input

If a buyer asked what your company is against, what would your team say?: 2 — Roughly the same theme, different words each time
What kind of enemy does your positioning attack?: 1 — A practice or default the industry accepted as normal
What proof do you have that customers share this enemy?: 3 — It comes from internal team discussion
When did you last hear a customer complain about this enemy in their own words?: 2 — In the last quarter, when asked
Where does the enemy show up on your website?: 3 — A blog post mentions it somewhere
How does the enemy show up in sales conversations?: 2 — It appears when reps improvise

This sample runs through the same method and artifact structure as your own work.

Structured work

Build the common enemy score and verification brief

Every field affects the result or the working artifact. Add up to 1 records.

Ungated result

Your common enemy score and verification brief

Method 1.0.0 · Input schema 1.0.0
Artifact · Due · Review

Decision state

Input confidence

Strongest evidence

Riskiest input

Do within seven days

Limits

Import a prior JSON Download blank template Watch the 90-second walkthrough

Carry the work forward

Create a Workshop Pre-Read

The default pre-read includes versions, result, open questions, and requested outcome. Your raw working text stays out unless you deliberately include it.

Include my strategic working text

Where the free tool stops

The artifact makes the issue visible. The engagement resolves the organizational decision.

Petrichor helps the team reconcile disagreement, challenge evidence, assign ownership, and leave with a committed decision. You will not be asked to recreate this artifact.

Take this into the matching Petrichor work

Transparent method

How this instrument reaches a result

The swap test redlines transparent generic phrases and competitor interchangeability; pressure mode records a response, proof, failure condition, and owner; the quotability test scores whether a stranger can restate each claim; the common enemy audit scores whether brand and customers share a verified enemy. The generic-language dictionary is published in the method code and is directional.

See the fields and decision basis

If a buyer asked what your company is against, what would your team say?: required input used in the result and artifact.
What kind of enemy does your positioning attack?: required input used in the result and artifact.
What proof do you have that customers share this enemy?: required input used in the result and artifact.
When did you last hear a customer complain about this enemy in their own words?: required input used in the result and artifact.
Where does the enemy show up on your website?: required input used in the result and artifact.
How does the enemy show up in sales conversations?: required input used in the result and artifact.
Read your top three competitors' homepages. Who are they against?: required input used in the result and artifact.
If you dropped the enemy from your positioning tomorrow, who would notice?: required input used in the result and artifact.

Questions about Common Enemy Audit

What do I leave with?

A versioned common enemy score and verification brief with visible reasoning, evidence status, next action, review date, and structured exports.

Does the result use a benchmark or AI?

No. The result uses the visible deterministic rules for this instrument and only the inputs you provide. It is not compared with other customers.

When does the paid work begin?

After the artifact. Petrichor helps the team challenge evidence, reconcile disagreement, assign ownership, and commit to the organizational decision without making you repeat the free work.

The method is versioned. No cross-customer benchmark is used. Review the full method and change history, the relevant plain-language answer, or the permanent Tool Trust Charter.

Related decision instruments: Pricing Authority · Reality Audit · Relevancy Audit