Are you responsible for high-stakes growth bets where the cost of being wrong is high?

The Precoil EMT System helps executive teams decide which AI and growth investments deserve more capital.

What’s Really Holding You Back

Your growth bets aren’t failing because your people aren't putting in the effort. It’s because the risk isn’t visible yet.

Same Decisions Keep Getting Revisited

The same strategic bets continue circulating through meetings without reaching clear resolution. Teams spend more time revisiting discussions than moving initiatives forward with confidence. As momentum slows, opportunities narrow and decision fatigue starts to build.

Teams Aren’t Aligned on What Must Be True

Each function is operating from different assumptions about customers (desirability), business impact (viability), and execution risk (feasibility). Product, strategy, finance, and operations are often optimizing for different outcomes and tradeoffs. Without a shared clarity throughout, decisions become harder to make and harder to defend.

Investment Outpaces Learning

AI has made this worse. Building is now cheap and fast, so more initiatives reach the scaling decision with less evidence behind them. Critical risks stay hidden until late-stage execution. By then, teams are managing momentum instead of making deliberate decisions.

Assess Your Growth Initiative

How We Help You.

Higher returns on investment decisions

See How Your Team Would Apply EMT

$24M in New Growth and $12M saved in 36 months

DuPont generated $24M from the combined 57% of the projects (Commit + Correct) that launched in the market and saved $12M by re-deploying resources from the 43% of the Cut projects.

26% Commit
Customer-validated value propositions with strong sponsorship and competitive advantage
31% Correct
Early course correction based on customer, market, or value-chain evidence
43% Cut
Projects discontinued early due to lack of viable path forward, liberating capital and talent

35 different strategic bets across all lines of business at DuPont

Three Levers. One Integrated Solution.

The Precoil EMT System

One principled approach to building a scalable growth engine.

Extract Map Test

EMT is a proven system for improving the speed and impact of high-uncertainty investments by making risk visible and testable early.

And it works by pulling three critical levers:

Extract. Map. Test.

See If EMT Is Right For Your Organization

Most assumptions are implicit, which means different teams are operating from different versions of reality, which causes teams to talk past one another, revisit the same decisions, and create unnecessary rework.
The Extract lever solves these discrepancies by making hidden assumptions visible so teams stop debating opinions and start aligning on facts.
At its core: Do customers want it? Does it make financial sense? And can your organization actually deliver it?
Once those assumptions are visible, teams can separate signals from opinion. They can focus on what truly needs evidence to move forward.
Not every risk matters equally, and not everything needs testing.
We focus on what’s both critical to success and unsupported by evidence.
That’s usually where progress gets stuck.
The Map lever creates a shared view of risk across the organization, making ownership and dependencies clear so issues get resolved early, not escalated late.
Now teams can see how their risks connect. They can see where trade-offs exist, and can resolve issues before they land on an executive’s desk.
No early big launches. No full builds upfront.
Instead, we run fast, focused tests to reduce uncertainty and move decisions forward.
The Test lever turns risk into learning with real-world insights, so you can decide with evidence, not opinion.
Each EMT cycle prepares one investment or initiative. But across decisions the impact compounds. Your organization begins to experience shorter cycles from idea to evidence. Fewer late stage escalations. Clearer capital allocation. Higher return on investment decision. And higher confidence without endless analysis.

Hi, I’m David J Bland

I’m the founder of Precoil and lead author of Testing Business Ideas, which has sold more than 100,000 copies in over 20 languages worldwide.

For more than 15 years, I’ve worked with executive teams on high-uncertainty growth initiatives where the cost of being wrong is significant.

I specialize in helping organizations make risk explicit, align teams around what must be true, and generate evidence before major growth investments are made.

My work has supported companies including DuPont, Toyota, Adobe, HP, and GE in improving the speed and impact of strategic investment decisions through structured experimentation and evidence-based decision-making.

Talk Through Your Growth Investment Strategy

Client Results

What Becomes Possible With The EMT System

You've invested in growth bets before.

But most organizations still make high-stakes decisions with incomplete evidence. Teams work from different assumptions, uncertainty remains hidden, and leaders are asked to commit more resources before the biggest risks are understood. Precoil helps make those risks visible, testable, and easier to decide.

Saved Development Costs and Reduced Risk at Realtor.com

When Dave Masters was leading product teams at Realtor.com, his team faced a familiar challenge: multiple options, strong opinions, and no clear path forward. Instead of debating endlessly or committing based on instinct, they used Precoil's approach to extract assumptions, map risk, and design tests before investing further. What began as a single workshop evolved into a new way of making decisions, replacing lengthy debates with evidence, reducing risk before building, and giving teams a structured path to move forward with confidence. As Dave later reflected, the experience fundamentally changed how he approached product leadership and decision-making.

Rapidly Validated Ideas in a Regulated Industry at GuideWell

When Moses Adedoyin was helping build new ventures at GuideWell, he encountered a challenge common to large organizations, every team had a different definition. Ideas moved forward, but there was no shared framework for evaluating risk, testing assumptions, or determining what evidence was required before investment decisions were made. Rather than treating ideas as projects that immediately deserved funding, Moses and his team adopted a more disciplined approach focused on identifying assumptions, categorizing risks, and generating evidence before scaling commitment.

10x Speed with Breakthrough Products at Behr

When Darren Stoddart was leading innovation at Behr, he faced a challenge common to many established organizations: how do you pursue higher-risk growth opportunities without abandoning the rigor that made the company successful? Rather than relying on instinct or waiting for expensive research, Darren's team began surfacing assumptions, identifying risks, and generating evidence before major commitments were made. The result was a more disciplined approach to innovation, one that helped the team cut weak ideas earlier, build confidence in stronger opportunities, and bring evidence-backed recommendations into executive discussions.

Testimonials

“David is our journey partner for fast-learning and de-risking. He helps us keep innovation and sustainability priorities interwoven to find new value and growth.”

Alexa Dembek - Chief Technology and Sustainability Officer at DuPont
“David’s advising helped us apply lean startup to our new mobility products and services, by rapidly testing them in the market with customers.”

Vinuth Rai - Director of Connected Services Division at Toyota InfoTechnology Center
"When David gave us cardboard, I wasn’t sure at first but now use it to test our curved displays with customers before we start building."

Aaron Slessinger - Vice President - Consumer Print Product Portfolio at HP

David J Bland - Testing Business Ideas Book

Who this is for

Built for Leaders Responsible for High-Uncertainty Growth

The EMT System is designed for executive teams and growth operators who are responsible for making decisions about new ventures, strategic investments, and growth initiatives where the path forward is not yet clear.

These leaders are under pressure to move faster, align stakeholders, and make confident decisions despite incomplete information. They recognize that the biggest risk isn't uncertainty itself, it's committing resources before the critical assumptions have been tested.

Evaluate Your Current Decision Process

This Is For You If

You are a CEO, COO, CSO, business unit leader, or executive responsible for future growth
You oversee growth bets, AI initiatives, venture portfolios, or new business opportunities
You want teams to surface risks earlier instead of discovering them after major investments have been made
You need a repeatable process for deciding what to Commit, Correct, or Cut
You are tired of funding assumptions and want stronger evidence before scaling initiatives
You believe better decisions come from faster learning, not bigger presentations

This Is Not For You If

You're looking for a quick innovation workshop without changing how decisions are made
You already have a proven system for evaluating growth opportunities and generating evidence before investment decisions
Your teams are aligned on assumptions, risks, and priorities, and consistently make fast, confident decisions under uncertainty
You're satisfied funding initiatives based primarily on intuition alone
You aren't willing to challenge existing assumptions or stop initiatives when the evidence suggests a different path
You're not ready to invest time and leadership attention into improving how growth decisions are made

It’s Time To Make A Decision

Every growth bet begins as a set of assumptions.

The question is whether you'll discover what's true before or after significant resources have been committed.

Apply for a Growth Strategy Call below

If you're ready to improve the speed and quality of growth decisions, we'll review your current approach, identify where uncertainty is creating friction, and determine whether Precoil can help your team turn assumptions into evidence before you scale.

Review a Growth Investment