Ideal Customer Profile
Locked Decisions
- ✓ Segment: 5–50 staff (sweet spot 10–30). Agencies with 200–300 staff are outliers — don't build for them.
- ✓ Sequence: Canada first, US follows on the same template.
- ✓ Ownership: Andrew Lee owns outcome; Viscount partners & steps up; Matt is sounding board + marketing.
- ✓ Direction: No clearinghouse integrations (payroll-advance vs claims-clearinghouse = qualification question only).
- ✓ Method: Raw transcripts, not AI summaries — form our own view.
- ✓ Bias: Quick wins over analysis; ship something in month 1.
Segment Hypotheses
Four working hypotheses from Week 1 forum trawl + transcript analysis. Each carries a confidence level and will be confirmed or killed by transcripts, Q&A, and churn re-cut.
Claim: Buys when scheduling + invoicing admin exceeds ~1 owner-day/week. Pays $30–40/hr to clients, uses QuickBooks for payroll.
Trigger: "Spreadsheet broke" / first missed invoice.
Wedge vs AlayaCare: Price ($5k + $1,150/mo vs our tiers) + implementation time.
Evidence: Forum trawl (rate + QBO norm). Transcript check pending.
Claim: Lighter payroll needs, heavier invoicing/timesheet needs. Likely under-served by enterprise tools.
Evidence: None yet — needs Q&A question answered.
Open question: Employee vs contractor split in our base — what's the real ratio?
Claim: Families direct care; agency bills CDHCI — needs provincial invoicing format support.
Evidence: Forum trawl (mechanics confirmed), one quick-win candidate aligns.
Open question: Do CDHCI agencies bill families or the province — who receives our invoice?
Claim: Increasingly unwinnable in Champlain region (group-purchased AlayaCare). Winnable private-pay elsewhere in Ontario.
Evidence: AlayaCare press releases + churn re-cut pending. See Ontario Hypothesis — Early Evidence.
Open question: Ontario churners: atHome-contracted or private-pay? (kills/confirms S4)
Segment Axes
The profile is the matrix, not one persona. Every prospect scores across all five axes.
| Axis | Values | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| How they get paid | Private pay · Ontario Health atHome / CSS contract · CDHCI/SMC (AB) · LTCI/WSIB · mixed | Determines invoicing features + winnability (Champlain group-purchase risk) |
| How they pay staff | Employees (T4, RP account) · Contractors (T4A) · mixed | Payroll depth, compliance burden (PSW tax credit hits employers only) |
| Growth stage | Pre-revenue · Spreadsheet-graduate · Systems-in-place · Scaling-into-contracts | Predicts trigger event + message |
| Size band | 5–15 · 16–30 · 31–50 (screen: 5–50; 200+ = outlier) | Feature depth, price tolerance |
| Region | Ontario (GTA / Eastern / rest) · Alberta · BC · other | Funder differs; Eastern ON = AlayaCare displacement zone |
Jobs to Be Done
Fill from transcripts — verbatim quotes only. No invented personas.
| Job | Quote (source, date) | Frequency | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fill an overnight cancellation without phoning down a list | — | — | — |
| Produce a clean invoice per funding source | — | — | — |
| Certify PSW eligible earnings (2026 tax year, ON employers) | synerz.ca writeup (vendor) — confirm in Q&A | new | low |
Trigger Events
The buying moments — when a prospect enters the market.
| # | Trigger | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Spreadsheet graduation | med — confirm in transcripts |
| 2 | Winning first government / atHome contract | med — confirm |
| 3 | AlayaCare renewal / price shock | med — Reddit pricing threads |
| 4 | First CRA payroll penalty / wage-enhancement complexity | low |
SDR Scoring Rubric
3-minute qualification. Doubles as HubSpot required fields.
| Question | Weight | Good answer |
|---|---|---|
| How do you get paid? (funder mix) | 30% | Private pay or CDHCI/SMC (winnable paths) |
| Staff count | 20% | 5–50 (sweet 10–30) |
| How do you pay staff? | 20% | Either, but answer must exist |
| What runs scheduling/billing today? | 20% | Spreadsheet/paper or expiring competitor |
| Stage / trigger | 10% | Active trigger event |
Design Implications
Mat's directive: designs must reflect the 5–50 staff reality. The admin/coordinator is often also doing shifts.
Do: Fast, glanceable, human. Mobile-first. Remove screens and checkboxes.
Don't: Dense enterprise console. 12-level nav. Features built for 200+ staff agencies.
| Implication | Source | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Mobile admin is critical — small agencies live on their phone (Tender Nursing Care churn case) | When I Work analysis, churn data | evidence |
| Onboarding skip is a problem — ¾ of users skip the welcome screen | Quick-win candidate | to validate |
| Financial Section is under-promoted — 3.3× AU usage, zero NA promotion | Quick-win candidate | evidence |
| Small teams bucket ShiftCare with generic schedulers (Connecteam, WhenToWork) — positioning risk | Canada ICP context file | evidence |
Customer Profiles & Case Studies
Real accounts that illustrate the ICP — wins, churns, and edge cases. Add as they surface from transcripts and churn analysis.
Cancelled because they "wanted a replica of When I Work" for mobile admin/scheduling. Staff relied almost exclusively on the mobile interface. On CS Watchlist as Tier 3 at-risk (Apr 2026): "Relies heavily on their phone... thinking of going back to When I Work, even though SC has tons of industry specific features."
Lesson: Small mobile-first agencies that haven't hit care-specific workflows don't value ShiftCare's depth enough to stay. Mobile UX is table stakes, not a feature.
Open Questions
The 3-week NA kickoff must answer these. Success criteria for the strategy.
| # | Question | Method | Week |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Why do Ontario customers churn more? | Churn re-cut + Q&A | 1 |
| 2 | Actual top 10 problems for 5–50 staff Canadian agency? | Transcripts + Q&A + forum trawl | 1–2 |
| 3 | Minimum to get paid, per province? | Market map + CS onboarding transcripts | 2 |
| 4 | Who do we actually lose to? | Fix closed-lost capture + 20 sales demo transcripts | 2 |
| 5 | Where is the product too complicated for a 5-person agency? | Onboarding transcripts | 2–3 |
| 6 | Employee vs contractor split in our base — what's the real ratio? | Q&A | 1 |
| 7 | Do CDHCI agencies bill families or the province? | Q&A | 1 |
| 8 | What made retained accounts adopt invoicing+payroll (the 7–8× signal)? | Transcripts | 1–2 |
Evidence Log
Append-only. Every claim that touches the ICP gets logged with its evidence and effect.
| Date | Claim touched | Evidence | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-09-10 | S1 rate/QBO | Forum trawl | med confidence |
| 2026-09-10 | S3 CDHCI | r/AHSEmployees | med confidence |
| 2026-09-10 | S4 displacement | AlayaCare Champlain PR | med confidence |
| 2026-09-14 | Mobile-first churn risk | Tender Nursing Care churn (Slack) | Design implication added |