# Coaches ICP And Segmentation

## Status
- Stage: draft
- Evidence level: hypothesis only until form responses and interviews arrive

## Segments To Evaluate

| Segment | Description | Pain severity hypothesis | Willingness to pay hypothesis | ATC dependence hypothesis | Acquisition ease | Notes |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Freelance coach | Independent coach renting or coordinating courts across clubs | Medium | Medium | Medium to high | Medium | Likely pain in scheduling and coordination |
| Group-class coach | Coach running repeated groups or clinics | High | Medium | High | Medium | Strong fit for scheduling/reprogramming wedge |
| Academy coordinator | Runs multiple coaches, groups, and time slots | High | High | Medium to high | Low to medium | More ops pain, maybe better buyer |
| Club sports manager | Internal operator managing classes and occupancy | High | High | Lower as buyer may already have tools | Low | Could prefer club-wide solution over coach tool |
| Premium/private coach | Higher-ticket private sessions, fewer students | Medium | Medium | Medium | Medium | Might pay for time-saving but workflow may be niche |

## Scoring Lens
- Pain frequency
- Pain cost
- Ability to pay
- Ease of reaching them
- Need for court/availability data
- Fit with Ballbox current foundations
- Risk of being too custom or service-heavy

## Initial Ranking Hypothesis
1. Group-class coach
2. Academy coordinator
3. Freelance coach
4. Club sports manager
5. Premium/private coach

## Why This Is The Tentative Order
- Group-class workflows likely create recurring coordination pain, court dependency, attendance issues, and reprogramming stress.
- Academy coordinators may be a stronger buyer, but may also imply broader operational scope too early.
- Freelance coaches are easier to access, but risk being too heterogeneous.

## What Would Change The Ranking
- Strong evidence that payment/collections pain dominates over scheduling pain.
- Evidence that the buyer is consistently the club, not the coach.
- Evidence that court availability is not central to the most painful workflow.

## Immediate Decision Rule
- Use this segmentation to choose who gets priority in interviews.
- Re-rank only when repeated evidence appears in `docs/coaches-research-repository.md`.