What you don't know about yourself might not kill you, but it could make you really sick

There are three categories of questions you must -- MUST -- get answers to before you're ready to launch any kind of marketing initiative, whether it's a big strategy shift or the announcement of single product. So, in the interest of providing news you can use, here they are along with the questions themselves. Thanks, Cynthia Stirling. Caveat: Answers must stand up to scrutiny (be understood) by reasonably intelligent, disinterested, independent third parties. This means somebody not already bought into your worldview or trying to curry your favor. I. Product/Technology. 1. What problem(s) are we solving and how critical is it? Why is this such a big deal? 2. What is our solution? What does it consist of? How does the product work? Is it a new product or a replacement? If so, what does it replace? 3. What are the differentiating strengths of this product? 4. Describe the key features/benefits. 5. Overall, how would we prioritize the benefits? 6. What are the technological/architectural barriers to entry? 7. What are the supporting products/services? 8. What are its weaknesses? 9. What's on the horizon in terms of futures features/services? 10. Describe the product category. 11. What's the value proposition here? II. Market 1. Describe the target customer. Describe the target "partner". 2. What are the reasons for purchasing this product, or partnering with us? 3. What are the barriers to sale? 4. Quantify the market opportunity: how big, how fast? 5. How do we compare competitively: feature-by-feature and "whole product"? III. Company 1. What best describes the business we're in right now? 2. What is the best analogy that describes what we're doing? 3. What is our current vision and mission? 4. What's our primary business goal: Marketshare? Sales? Acquisition? Other? 5. What's our financing strategy? 6. How do we make money in this business? 7. What is our core competency -- what are we best at? 8. Rank the following in terms of strengths and weaknesses: a. Management b. Funding c. Customers d. Partners e. Technology 9. What's keeping us up at night and why? Thoughtful and thorough answers to these questions will, at the very least, give you the basis of a decent press release. That would be time well spent right there.