Most AI-generated marketing plans are forgettable — generic, surface-level, the kind of thing you skim once and never open again. The fix isn’t a better prompt asking for “recommendations.” It’s changing who’s doing the talking.

Instead of asking the model to hand me answers directly, I have it role-play an entire focus group — 100 simulated participants reacting to the company in question. But I don’t let them talk all at once. I break them into 20 small clusters of 5, mixed up at random, and let each cluster debate the company on its own first. Only after that do I merge all 20 conversations together, pulling out the specific, actionable ideas that surface repeatedly or stand out.

What comes out the other end is a real working document — usually somewhere between 5 and 20 pages — followed by a second pass where I compress all of that into a single-page summary anyone can act on.

Here’s a sample 1-page run using Essent as the test subject (no relationship to the company — just a good example to work through). Longer version is also available.

Claude Penland builds the marketing and business strategy for companies that are good at what they do and hard to find. Thirty years operating, one exit, eight of them as a practicing casualty actuary.

The free two-page read is genuinely free. Email claude@1000startups.com and I'll send back what I can see from the outside. Or see the work samples and how to work with me.