ideal-customer-profile

Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)

The sharp definition of who you serve — used by marketing for targeting, sales for qualification, and product for prioritization.

When to use this skill

• Defining ICP for a new product / segment
• Refining ICP from observed closed customers
• Auditing when pipeline quality / conversion is poor
• Pre-fundraise to articulate market position
• Sales qualification rubric build
• Marketing targeting for outbound + paid

The 8 ICP dimensions

1. Firmographics — industry, vertical, size, geography, age
2. Tech-stack signals — what they use today (and what's missing)
3. Buyer persona — role, level, tenure, team size
4. Jobs-to-be-done (JTBD) — what they're trying to accomplish
5. Existing alternatives — how they solve the JTBD today
6. Trigger events — why now (new funding, new exec, regulation, etc.)
7. Budget authority — who controls spend
8. Reachability — can we find + contact them via channels we have

ICP vs Persona vs Segment

• ICP = the company/account (firmographics + tech + situation)
• Persona = the human buyer (role + motivations + objections)
• Segment = a cluster of similar ICPs (often by size or vertical)

Use ICP for "which companies." Use persona for "which humans within ICP."

Workflow

Step 1 — Start from your best customers

If you have customers:

• List top 20 by health, revenue, expansion
• Find common patterns across them
• That's your real ICP (not what you guessed)

If you don't have customers:

• Use design partners / pilot customers as proxy
• Be ready to revise after 10-20 real customers

Step 2 — Disqualify common myth-ICPs

Common "ICP" patterns that are wishful thinking:

• "Companies with 100-10,000 employees" — too broad
• "Innovative companies" — meaningless
• "Companies that want to grow" — everyone
• "Enterprise" — undefined; map to size

A real ICP excludes most companies.

Step 3 — Document the 8 dimensions

Per dimension, be specific.

Example for HR analytics SaaS:

| Dimension | Definition | |-----------|------------| | Firmographics | US, mid-market (200-2000 EE), SaaS or services vertical, > $20M revenue, 5+ years old | | Tech-stack | Workday or BambooHR + ADP or Gusto. Bonus: existing BI tool (Looker / Tableau / Mode) | | Buyer persona | HR Director or VP People; 5+ years tenure; built career on people analytics | | JTBD | "I need to be a strategic partner to the CFO/CEO; I'm stuck doing reports manually" | | Existing alternatives | Excel + analyst (often resigned to it); occasionally hired contractor | | Trigger events | Annual reporting cycle just done; new CFO joined; HR analyst departed; board asking for better data | | Budget authority | Director can recommend; VP People approves $50K; CHRO approves $200K+ | | Reachability | SHRM events, HR Tech podcast, LinkedIn (HR Director groups), HR Brew newsletter |

Step 4 — Build the qualification rubric

For sales qualification, distill ICP to a scorable checklist:

Qualification (BANT-style):
- Industry fit: SaaS/services? (yes/no)
- Size fit: 200-2000 EE? (yes/no)
- Tech fit: Workday/BambooHR + ADP/Gusto? (yes/no)
- Authority: VP People+ in deal? (yes/no)
- Pain: actively trying to solve HR analytics? (yes/no)
- Budget: confirmed > $50K? (yes/no)
- Timeline: decision in next 6 months? (yes/no)

5+ yes = strong lead. <3 yes = disqualify.

Step 5 — Run icp_scorer.py

Audit ICP definition for specificity, score account lists against ICP.

python3 project-management/gtm/ideal-customer-profile/scripts/icp_scorer.py \
  --input icp_spec.json --format markdown

Step 6 — Refresh per quarter

ICP shifts:

• New customers reveal new patterns
• Product evolution opens new segments
• Market shifts (recession, regulation, competition)

Don't refresh weekly. Quarterly is healthy.

Decision frameworks

Firmographic specificity test

For each dimension, ask:

• Could I send a list of companies matching this to my BDR tomorrow?
• If not, sharpen.

Vague: "growing SaaS companies" Sharp: "US-headquartered B2B SaaS companies, $10M-$100M ARR, post-Series B, that have hired their first VP of Sales in last 12 months"

Tech-stack signals

Tech stack reveals readiness:

• Have a CRM = likely structured sales process
• Have an HRIS = HR team beyond founder/HR-of-1
• Use a specific vendor = open to category
• Built in-house = NIH (Not Invented Here) bias risk

Tools like BuiltWith, G2, Crunchbase + scraping can reveal stack.

Trigger event types

Strongest triggers (cause buying activity):

• New executive in role (60-day window)
• Funding round closed (have budget; want to spend strategically)
• M&A activity (integration needs)
• Regulatory deadline (compliance pressure)
• Major incident (urgent need)
• Vendor consolidation push
• Annual planning cycle (Q4)
• Reorg / department restructure

Weaker triggers:

• "They might want it"
• "They have the budget"

Reachability test

For each ICP, can you:

• Find them via paid acquisition? (size of audience; CPC)
• Find them via outbound? (LinkedIn search, ZoomInfo, Apollo)
• Find them at events? (SHRM, RSA, AWS reInvent, etc.)
• Find them via content? (SEO keywords they search)
• Find them via partners? (which adjacent vendors)

If unreachable, ICP is academic.

Common engagements

"Define ICP for our new product"

1. Pull design partner / pilot data (or interview 5-10 ideal targets).
2. Document the 8 dimensions.
3. Build qualification rubric.
4. Validate with sales: can they recognize these in inbound?
5. Validate with marketing: can they target this list?

"Refine ICP from closed customers"

1. List top 20 paying customers by health/expansion.
2. Find patterns: size, vertical, role, trigger, tech stack.
3. Document refined ICP.
4. Compare to original ICP: what's different?
5. Update qualification rubric + targeting.
6. Sunset segments not in refined ICP.

"Pipeline conversion is bad — is it ICP?"

1. Audit closed-won vs closed-lost ICP fit scores.
2. Common failure: pipeline is full of "near-ICP" that don't convert.
3. Tighten qualification; reject more aggressively at intake.

Anti-patterns to avoid

• ICP = "everyone." Diluted GTM.
• ICP without trigger event. Targets without urgency.
• ICP unreachable via your channels. Academic exercise.
• ICP that doesn't disqualify anyone. Not really an ICP.
• Same ICP for 3 years post-launch. Customers reveal real ICP; refresh.
• ICP defined by product, not customer. "Companies that need X" = solution-thinking.
• ICP without qualification rubric. Sales can't apply it.

References

• references/icp-dimensions-deep.md — 8 dimensions in depth + signals
• references/icp-refinement-from-data.md — using closed customers to refine

Related skills

• project-management/gtm/gtm-strategy — uses ICP as input
• project-management/strategy-frameworks/business-model-canvas — segments block
• project-management/discovery/customer-interview-script — interview-based ICP discovery
• marketing/competitive-teardown — competitive context
• c-level-advisor/cro-advisor — sales context
• c-level-advisor/cmo-advisor — marketing context