Don’t build a perfect ICP, just play Snakes N Ladders

Émilie Carignan
Jun 11
3 min read

You’ve heard it over and over again.

Find your ideal customer. Be specific.

It’s solid advice. But when you’re the one doing the work, it can feel overwhelming, even a little scary!

Focusing too tightly on one persona can feel like you’re closing the door on a broader market of people who could benefit from your product.

The good news is, you don’t need to have it all figured out on day one.

It’s okay if your ideal customer profile (ICP) isn’t perfect yet. In fact, trying to get it perfect right out of the gate can lead to more confusion than clarity.

So here’s a game I play with founders to figure it out as we go.

Let’s play.

Snakes and Ladders, the Strategic Version

Imagine your market like a Snakes and Ladders board.

Your prospects are the players. Some are moving forward. Some are slipping back.

Your job is to notice which conditions signal that someone is a stronger fit and which ones suggest they’re not quite there yet.

Each snake is a real-world signal that progress has stalled. Each ladder is a sign that something’s working and momentum is building.

This is a tool for observation. You’re not guessing or predicting. You’re watching what’s happening.

The Rules of the Game

Rule one: Only play with facts.

You don't get to move someone on the board because you liked them. You move them because they said something specific or acted in a way you've seen before. Ideally, more than once.

Rule two: Be precise.

“They’re not ready” doesn’t mean much. Are they stuck in procurement? Missing internal buy-in? The clearer you are about what “not ready” really looks like, the more useful your board becomes.

Take the time to sharpen your observations.

Define Your Snakes

Let’s say you're building a CRM for companies that install and service solar systems.

You start broad. Solar installers and maintenance teams.

But over a few weeks, some clear patterns show up.

Installers with fewer than 20 projects a year told you they track everything in a spreadsheet and don’t feel the pain yet.
Two teams mentioned that their entire ops stack was chosen by the parent energy company and that new tools have to go through them.

These snakes help you refine your focus. That’s your cue to step back from prospects who aren’t moving.

Define Your Ladders

Now look at what’s making them move.

A mid-sized operator said they had to send the same crew to a site twice last month because of missing client notes. The ops manager asked if your CRM could show service history by address.
One founder said their pipeline lives in someone’s inbox and they’re “constantly scrambling to remember who’s waiting on what.” They booked a second call before the first one ended.

As you gather more of these ladder moments, you start to see patterns and they will shape what happens next.

From Game to Play

Once you start tracking who’s climbing and who’s slipping, you can begin acting on it.

Snakes don’t necessarily mean delete. They might go into a “not ready yet” list. Or pause an email sequence.

Ladders might trigger a call from sales, a new nurturing campaign, or a personal email from the founder.

The more consistent the patterns, the bigger the decisions:

Targeting a different profile.
Adapting the homepage.
Rewriting the demo to show the most urgent use case first.

You’re adapting your strategy as you build your ICP. It’s the same project.

This Game Doesn’t End

One of the most crucial things to remember in this game is that it’s a living process.

Your ICP will evolve over time, and that’s okay. As you collect more facts, observe more behaviors, and engage with more people, your board will continue to change.

Start with your first set of Snakes and Ladders, keep playing, and over time, you’ll create a precise persona and a tailored strategy.

Keep learning. Keep iterating. And most importantly, keep playing.