# Thought Leadership Angles

This document provides frameworks for identifying thought leadership angles from any type of content or context.

## Core Principle

Thought leadership isn't about what you know—it's about **how you help others see differently**. Any content can become thought leadership by finding the right angle.

## 8 Universal Angles

### 1. The Contrarian Take
**Pattern:** Challenge conventional wisdom or popular opinion
**Works for:** Research, trends, industry news, best practices
**Structure:** "Everyone thinks X, but here's why Y..."
**Example:** "84% need data overhauls for AI" → "The real problem isn't the data—it's that we're asking the wrong questions"

### 2. The Pattern Recognition
**Pattern:** Connect dots others haven't connected
**Works for:** Multiple data points, trends, personal observations
**Structure:** "I've noticed X in [area 1] and Y in [area 2]—here's the pattern..."
**Example:** Salesforce data + your org's experience → "This explains why our AI pilots succeed but scaling fails"

### 3. The Uncomfortable Truth
**Pattern:** Say what everyone knows but nobody wants to admit
**Works for:** Industry challenges, organizational issues, failed approaches
**Structure:** "Let's talk about what we're not talking about..."
**Example:** "We pretend AI failures are tech problems. They're actually leadership problems."

### 4. The Future Implication
**Pattern:** Extrapolate what current developments mean for the future
**Works for:** New tech, policy changes, market shifts
**Structure:** "If X is true today, then Y will happen tomorrow..."
**Example:** "If 84% need data overhauls now, the winners in 2027 will be..."

### 5. The Personal Lesson
**Pattern:** Share what you learned through experience (especially failures)
**Works for:** Project outcomes, career moments, mistakes made
**Structure:** "I used to believe X. Here's what changed my mind..."
**Example:** "We spent €2M on our data platform. Here's what we should have done instead."

### 6. The Reframe
**Pattern:** Change how people think about a familiar concept
**Works for:** Common terms, standard practices, industry jargon
**Structure:** "We call it X, but it's actually Y..."
**Example:** "We call it 'AI readiness.' I call it 'organizational courage.'"

### 7. The Practical Breakdown
**Pattern:** Make complex topics actionable
**Works for:** Research findings, technical concepts, strategic frameworks
**Structure:** "Here's what [complex thing] actually means for you..."
**Example:** "Salesforce says you need zero-copy architecture. Here's what to do Monday morning."

### 8. The Human Story
**Pattern:** Use narrative to illustrate larger points
**Works for:** Case studies, team experiences, customer interactions
**Structure:** "Let me tell you about [person/situation] and what it teaches us..."
**Example:** "Our AI lead quit last month. Her resignation letter should be required reading."

## Angle Selection Framework

### Step 1: Identify Your Raw Material
What do you have?
- Research/data
- Personal experience
- Industry observation
- Technical knowledge
- Organizational learning
- Customer insight
- Failed attempt
- Success story

### Step 2: Ask The Angle Questions

**For Data/Research:**
- What does this really mean? (Practical Breakdown)
- What are people missing? (Pattern Recognition)
- What's the uncomfortable conclusion? (Uncomfortable Truth)
- How does conventional wisdom fail here? (Contrarian)

**For Personal Experience:**
- What did I learn the hard way? (Personal Lesson)
- What mistake did I make? (Uncomfortable Truth)
- What changed my thinking? (Reframe)
- What will others encounter? (Future Implication)

**For Observations:**
- What pattern am I seeing? (Pattern Recognition)
- What's nobody talking about? (Uncomfortable Truth)
- How should we think about this differently? (Reframe)
- What does this mean for the future? (Future Implication)

### Step 3: Test For Thought Leadership Value

A good angle must pass at least two of these tests:
- **Perspective shift:** Does it make people see things differently?
- **Actionable:** Can someone do something with this insight?
- **Memorable:** Will people remember and share this?
- **Credible:** Is it backed by evidence or genuine experience?
- **Timely:** Is it relevant to current conversations?

## Combining Angles

The most powerful posts often combine 2-3 angles:

**Pattern Recognition + Uncomfortable Truth:**
"I've noticed everyone investing in AI infrastructure (Pattern), but nobody wants to admit it'll take 3 years (Uncomfortable Truth)"

**Personal Lesson + Practical Breakdown:**
"We failed at our first AI project (Personal Lesson). Here's the checklist we now use (Practical Breakdown)"

**Contrarian + Future Implication:**
"Everyone's racing to implement AI (Contrarian: slow down), but in 2 years the winners will be those who built foundations first (Future Implication)"

## Industry-Agnostic Application

These angles work across all industries because they're about **types of thinking**, not specific domains:

- **Tech:** Pattern Recognition + Future Implication
- **Healthcare:** Uncomfortable Truth + Practical Breakdown  
- **Finance:** Contrarian + Personal Lesson
- **Public Sector:** Reframe + Uncomfortable Truth
- **Education:** Personal Lesson + Human Story
- **Consulting:** Pattern Recognition + Practical Breakdown

## Industry Angle Variants

Concrete starter questions and example hooks per industry. When the user's industry is known (from `config/user-profile.local.md`), surface the relevant table during angle selection.

### Tech / Software / AI

| Angle | Starter Question | Example Hook |
|-------|-----------------|--------------|
| Contrarian | "What does everyone assume about [tech trend] that data disproves?" | "Everyone says AI will replace developers. Our team shipped 40% more code WITH AI — and hired 3 more engineers." |
| Pattern Recognition | "What pattern across AI/cloud/DevOps haven't others connected?" | "I've noticed every team that fails at AI adoption makes the same infrastructure mistake first." |
| Uncomfortable Truth | "What is the industry avoiding saying about [tool/trend]?" | "We spent 6 months fine-tuning an LLM. A prompt template outperformed it in 2 hours." |
| Future Implication | "If [current trend] continues, what changes in 2-3 years?" | "If AI coding assistants keep improving at this rate, the most valuable developer skill in 2028 won't be coding." |
| Personal Lesson | "What did your last failed project teach you about [topic]?" | "Our AI pilot looked perfect in the demo. Here's what happened when real users touched it." |
| Reframe | "What common tech term means something different than people think?" | "We call it 'technical debt.' I call it 'decisions that were right then and wrong now.'" |
| Practical Breakdown | "What complex concept can you make actionable in 5 steps?" | "Everyone talks about RAG. Here's the 4-step checklist I use before building any retrieval system." |
| Human Story | "What moment with a colleague or user changed your perspective?" | "Our senior architect said 'I don't understand this AI stuff' in a meeting. What happened next changed our entire approach." |

### Healthcare / Life Sciences

| Angle | Starter Question | Example Hook |
|-------|-----------------|--------------|
| Contrarian | "What healthcare 'best practice' actually slows patient outcomes?" | "We digitized all our patient records. Patient satisfaction dropped. Here's why paper had one advantage we overlooked." |
| Pattern Recognition | "What pattern connects clinical and operational challenges?" | "I've worked with 12 hospitals this year. The ones with the best patient outcomes all share one non-clinical habit." |
| Uncomfortable Truth | "What is healthcare leadership not willing to discuss openly?" | "The biggest barrier to healthcare AI isn't regulation. It's that clinicians don't trust their own data." |
| Future Implication | "If [health tech trend] succeeds, what changes for patients?" | "If ambient clinical documentation works as promised, the doctor-patient relationship fundamentally changes." |
| Personal Lesson | "What did a patient interaction teach you about [system/process]?" | "A patient told me: 'Your portal has 47 clicks to book an appointment.' That sentence restructured our entire digital strategy." |
| Reframe | "What healthcare metric measures the wrong thing?" | "We measure 'patient throughput.' What if we measured 'patient understanding' instead?" |
| Practical Breakdown | "What regulatory/compliance challenge can you simplify?" | "HIPAA compliance for AI tools sounds impossible. Here are the 3 questions that solve 80% of the uncertainty." |
| Human Story | "What patient story illustrates a systemic issue?" | "A nurse spent 4 hours on documentation for every 1 hour of patient care. She quit. Her exit interview should be mandatory reading for every CIO." |

### Finance / Banking / Insurance

| Angle | Starter Question | Example Hook |
|-------|-----------------|--------------|
| Contrarian | "What financial 'innovation' is actually recycled risk?" | "Everyone's excited about embedded finance. The banks that remember 2008 are asking different questions." |
| Pattern Recognition | "What pattern connects fintech disruption and traditional banking?" | "I've noticed every fintech that struggles at scale hits the same wall — the one banks solved 30 years ago." |
| Uncomfortable Truth | "What is the industry avoiding about [regulation/risk/AI]?" | "Banks are spending millions on AI fraud detection. The fraud teams say the biggest vulnerability is still a phone call." |
| Future Implication | "If [regulatory change] passes, what does banking look like?" | "If open banking delivers on its promise, the most valuable asset in finance won't be capital — it'll be consent." |
| Personal Lesson | "What did a risk event teach you that no framework captures?" | "We built a perfect risk model. It missed the one variable that mattered: human panic." |
| Reframe | "What financial concept needs a new definition?" | "We call it 'customer acquisition cost.' But in financial services, the real cost is trust — and trust doesn't have a line item." |
| Practical Breakdown | "What compliance requirement can you make less painful?" | "RegTech sounds complex. Here's the 3-layer approach that cut our compliance reporting time by 60%." |
| Human Story | "What client interaction revealed a blind spot?" | "A small business owner asked me: 'Why does your app need to know my mother's maiden name to send an invoice?' Fair point." |

### Public Sector / Government

| Angle | Starter Question | Example Hook |
|-------|-----------------|--------------|
| Contrarian | "What public sector 'modernization' approach actually creates more bureaucracy?" | "We 'digitized' our forms by turning PDFs into web forms. Citizens still needed to visit the office. That's not digital transformation." |
| Pattern Recognition | "What pattern connects successful government IT projects?" | "I've studied 20 public sector IT projects. The 5 that succeeded all broke the same procurement rule." |
| Uncomfortable Truth | "What is the sector avoiding about [digital transformation/AI/procurement]?" | "The biggest obstacle to government AI isn't budget or policy. It's that we measure success by project completion, not citizen outcome." |
| Future Implication | "If [policy/tech] is adopted, what changes for citizens?" | "If government agencies actually share data across departments, we can stop asking citizens to prove who they are 47 times." |
| Personal Lesson | "What did a failed initiative teach you about public sector change?" | "We launched a citizen portal. 6 months later, the call center was busier than ever. The lesson wasn't about technology." |
| Reframe | "What government process looks different from the citizen's perspective?" | "We call it 'case processing.' Citizens call it 'waiting to hear if I can keep my home.'" |
| Practical Breakdown | "What complex regulation/process can you make tangible?" | "Government procurement for AI services sounds impossible. Here are 3 contract clauses that unlock 80% of the innovation." |
| Human Story | "What citizen interaction changed how you think about service delivery?" | "A retired teacher spent 3 hours navigating our website for a pension form. She said: 'I taught 2,000 students to learn. Your website taught me to give up.'" |

### Education / EdTech

| Angle | Starter Question | Example Hook |
|-------|-----------------|--------------|
| Contrarian | "What education 'innovation' actually hurts learning outcomes?" | "We gave every student a laptop. Test scores didn't change. Classroom engagement dropped. Here's what we missed." |
| Pattern Recognition | "What do successful learning programs have in common?" | "I've observed 15 AI-in-education pilots. The ones students actually use all share one design principle." |
| Uncomfortable Truth | "What is the sector avoiding about [AI/assessment/equity]?" | "Personalized learning algorithms optimize for engagement. But engagement and learning aren't the same thing." |
| Future Implication | "If [AI/policy trend] continues, how does education change?" | "If AI tutors become genuinely good, the teacher's most valuable skill won't be content delivery — it'll be asking the right question at the right moment." |
| Personal Lesson | "What did a student/classroom experience teach you?" | "I watched a student use ChatGPT to write an essay, then spent 2 hours explaining it to a classmate. That's when I realized the assignment was wrong, not the student." |
| Reframe | "What education metric measures the wrong thing?" | "We measure 'time on task.' What if the best indicator of learning is how quickly a student can teach it to someone else?" |
| Practical Breakdown | "What complex pedagogical concept can you make actionable?" | "Bloom's Taxonomy is in every education textbook. Here's how I actually use it to design a single lesson in 15 minutes." |
| Human Story | "What student moment illustrates a bigger truth?" | "A 10-year-old told me: 'Why do I have to learn this if I can just ask AI?' My answer surprised both of us." |

### Consulting / Professional Services

| Angle | Starter Question | Example Hook |
|-------|-----------------|--------------|
| Contrarian | "What consulting 'framework' actually prevents insight?" | "The best strategy I ever delivered had zero frameworks. It had one question the CEO couldn't answer." |
| Pattern Recognition | "What pattern connects client problems across industries?" | "I've worked with 30 organizations on AI strategy. The ones that succeed all start with the same non-technical conversation." |
| Uncomfortable Truth | "What is the industry avoiding about [value delivery/pricing/AI]?" | "Most consulting engagements solve the stated problem. The real problem — the one nobody mentioned in the RFP — stays unsolved." |
| Future Implication | "If [AI/market trend] continues, how does consulting change?" | "If AI can generate a strategy deck in 10 minutes, the consulting industry needs to answer one question: what are we actually selling?" |
| Personal Lesson | "What project failure taught you something the methodology didn't?" | "I delivered a perfect change management plan. The client implemented 10% of it. My methodology was right. My assumption about people was wrong." |
| Reframe | "What consulting term means something different than clients think?" | "Clients ask for 'digital transformation.' What they actually need is 'permission to stop doing things that don't work.'" |
| Practical Breakdown | "What complex client challenge can you simplify?" | "AI readiness assessments take 6 weeks and cost €200K. Here are the 5 questions that tell you 80% of what you need in one meeting." |
| Human Story | "What client moment changed your consulting approach?" | "A CTO told me: 'Your recommendation is brilliant. My team will ignore it by Thursday.' That conversation changed how I deliver every project." |

## Red Flags (Avoid These)

- **Echo chamber:** Repeating what everyone already says
- **Humble brag:** Disguised self-promotion without insight
- **Vague wisdom:** Platitudes without specifics
- **Pure promotion:** Marketing disguised as thought leadership
- **Borrowed authority:** Citing research without adding perspective

## The Thought Leadership Test

Before posting, ask:
1. Does this help someone make a better decision?
2. Does this change how someone thinks about something?
3. Would I find this valuable if someone else wrote it?

If you answer "no" to all three, find a different angle.
