1 min lesson
The scenario to run against
Rebuild the parts of "The scenario to run against", then say why each one matters.
Step 1 of 2
The scenario to run againstBuild the persona before you start the clock
- Surface pain
- Cursor usage is scattered across teams; nobody owns it and there is no org-wide picture
- Hidden driver
- She has been asked to show measurable engineering velocity and shadow AI tools are a growing audit risk
- Security state
- A security review is pending; Legal flagged code privacy and IP before any expansion
- Incumbent reality
- A company-wide Copilot license exists with low real usage; developers quietly prefer Cursor
- Absent veto
- A Platform/DevEx lead and a Security architect are not on the call but can block a contract
The trap is built into the setup. Scattered usage and a pending security review look like a deal that wants to close itself and that is exactly the situation where reps coast on developer love instead of quantifying pain and finding the economic buyer.
Learn more
Full explanation
Run the 15 minutes in five moves
Run the 15 minutes in five moves
Interactive diagram. Step through it with the Next and Previous controls below, or Tab to a region to read its detail.
Move through these in order; the mutual next step is the gate that decides whether the deal is actually qualified.
“It sounds like teams already reach for Cursor on their own. Before we talk expansion, help me understand the cost of the status quo: if a new engineer takes six weeks to get productive in your monorepo, what would two weeks be worth across the people you hire this year?”
Learn more
Advanced table
The rubric - score each line 1 to 5
The rubric - score each line 1 to 5MEDDPICC mapped to what discovery must surface
- Element
- Metrics
- What a 5 sounds like
- You leave with a quantified pain: onboarding weeks, PR cycle time, active-dev count
- Common 2-3 tell
- “They are slow and want to be faster” with no number attached
- Element
- Economic buyer
- What a 5 sounds like
- You named who owns the budget and asked to meet them
- Common 2-3 tell
- You assumed the VP Eng is the buyer and never tested it
- Element
- Decision process
- What a 5 sounds like
- You mapped the security review, budget cycle and evaluation steps
- Common 2-3 tell
- You know they will “decide soon” and nothing more
- Element
- Pain
- What a 5 sounds like
- You connected scattered usage to a business cost the buyer feels
- Common 2-3 tell
- You accepted “we like it” as the pain
- Element
- Champion
- What a 5 sounds like
- You identified a person motivated to sell internally for you
- Common 2-3 tell
- You have a fan, not a champion with influence
- Element
- Discipline
- What a 5 sounds like
- You asked more than you told; you did not demo
- Common 2-3 tell
- You started pitching features in the first five minutes
| Element | What a 5 sounds like | Common 2-3 tell |
|---|---|---|
| Metrics | You leave with a quantified pain: onboarding weeks, PR cycle time, active-dev count | “They are slow and want to be faster” with no number attached |
| Economic buyer | You named who owns the budget and asked to meet them | You assumed the VP Eng is the buyer and never tested it |
| Decision process | You mapped the security review, budget cycle and evaluation steps | You know they will “decide soon” and nothing more |
| Pain | You connected scattered usage to a business cost the buyer feels | You accepted “we like it” as the pain |
| Champion | You identified a person motivated to sell internally for you | You have a fan, not a champion with influence |
| Discipline | You asked more than you told; you did not demo | You started pitching features in the first five minutes |
Anything under 4 on a line means rerun that move before you stop.