Marketing fails
at the wrong layer.
Most campaigns are diagnosed where symptoms show up, not where problems originate.
Good Assumptions teaches the framework that finds the right layer before anyone reaches for a fix.
Explained.
Running.
Strategy failure looks different from execution failure.
Treating them the same way is how marketing budgets disappear.
The symptom and the source are almost never in the same layer.
Good Assumptions teaches you to find the layer before you reach for the fix.
Eight layers.
Each one answers a question the previous couldn’t.
Every layer exists because a question went unanswered.
Brand Identity exists because campaigns kept failing from incoherent foundations, not bad execution.
Liminal Transitions exist because journey maps never said when alignment was fragile — only where the customer was.
Not a content library.
A map of how behavior actually works.
Five entity types. 9,000+ cross-reference links.
Each one connected to the others through semantic similarity scores, not category tags.
When SAEO surfaces a liminal transition, it doesn’t just name it —
it surfaces the biases active at that moment, the vectors that shift behavior during it,
and the tactics that match the mechanism.
Liminal Transitions164 activeThreshold moments — the when layer
Cognitive Biases201 mappedPsychological mechanisms — the why
Choice Vectors343 vectorsBehavioral forces — the mechanism
Primary Tactics3,334 tacticsExecutable actions — the what
SAEO Diagnostic4 dimensionsProblem localization — before the fix