Speaking Powers Product Development Programme
A strategic roadmap for transforming Stage Heroes' Speaking Powers framework into a commercially viable self-discovery and team development tool, at a fraction of full psychometric development cost.
Executive Summary
Stage Heroes has developed a rich, practitioner-derived communication style framework, the 12 Speaking Powers, over more than a decade of workshop delivery. This proposal sets out the roadmap for productising that framework: from a working prototype to an autonomous digital product combining assessment, personalised reporting, and video-based learning.
The Speaking Powers model classifies communicators across 12 archetypes, split between Animated (Comedian, Storyteller, Teacher, Energy Bomb, Persuader, Improvisor) and Calm (Peaceful Panda, Investigator, People Magnet, Straight Shooter, Scholar, Diplomat) poles. It further distinguishes between Core (innate), Learned (developed through life experience), and Hidden (aspirational) powers, giving each participant a layered, nuanced profile.
Following an initial audit of the existing assessment materials, question bank, and supporting content, Psychometric Studio recommends building a prototype report generator as the first step. This prototype produces beautiful, personalised HTML and PDF reports from the existing question bank, with embedded video content and QR codes. It is designed from day one to feed into the larger digital platform, so nothing built in the prototype phase gets thrown away.
The end-state vision is an autonomous digital product where participants pay, complete the assessment, receive a personalised interactive report, and access a curated video learning journey based on their results, all self-service, no facilitator required. Stage Heroes' existing 40+ video content library is the differentiator that turns this from "just another assessment" into a genuinely unique learning experience.
"The Speaking Powers Survey is a developmental self-discovery tool designed to help individuals and teams identify, understand, and develop their communication strengths. It is not intended for selection, screening, or clinical purposes. It draws on 10+ years of practitioner experience in communication coaching and public speaking development."
Why Not Full Psychometric Validation?
Full psychometric validation is the gold standard for selection and clinical tools. But for Speaking Powers, it's the wrong tool for the job. Here's why.
What Full Validation Would Require
Developing Speaking Powers as a formally validated psychometric instrument would involve a rigorous, multi-phase process:
- Phase 1: Item review & refinement: Systematic expert review of all items, cognitive interviews with test-takers, rewriting and piloting. (2–3 months, €5,000–€8,000)
- Phase 2: Pilot study (n=300–500): Administer the revised instrument to a large sample. Run exploratory factor analysis to test whether the 12 types hold up statistically. Examine internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha) for each scale. (3–4 months, €8,000–€15,000)
- Phase 3: Validation study (n=400–600): Confirmatory factor analysis on a fresh sample. Convergent and discriminant validity against established instruments (e.g. Big Five, DISC). Test-retest reliability over 4–8 weeks. (4–6 months, €15,000–€25,000)
- Phase 4: Norming & technical manual: Establish normative tables by age, gender, industry. Write a formal technical manual documenting all psychometric properties. (2–3 months, €5,000–€10,000)
Total estimated investment: €35,000–€60,000 over 12–18 months, and that's before any platform build or report design. The total programme including platform could exceed €80,000–€100,000.
Why It's Not the Right Path
- The 12-factor structure may not survive: Our audit suggests Scholar/Teacher/Investigator and People Magnet/Diplomat likely overlap significantly. Factor analysis could force you to collapse types, breaking the very framework your workshops are built on.
- Core vs. Learned distinction is hard to validate: The distinction relies on self-reported effort/energy. Research consistently shows people are poor at distinguishing learned automaticity from innate preference. This would be flagged in any formal validation.
- The use case doesn't require it: Speaking Powers is not being used for hiring, selection, or clinical decision-making. Formal validation is designed to protect against high-stakes misuse. For a developmental self-discovery tool, it's over-engineering.
- Commercial risk is high: If the factor structure doesn't hold, you've spent €35,000–€60,000 and may need to redesign the entire framework.
The MBTI & Motivator Precedent
The most commercially successful personality frameworks in the world are not the most psychometrically rigorous. They're the ones people find most useful for self-reflection and team conversation.
The MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator) has been criticised for decades on psychometric grounds: poor test-retest reliability, forced dichotomies that don't reflect continuous distributions, weak predictive validity, and a factor structure that doesn't cleanly replicate. Wikipedia's opening line calls it "pseudoscientific." Yet it remains one of the most widely used personality frameworks globally, generating hundreds of millions of euros in annual revenue. Why? Because people find it useful. It gives teams a shared language. It creates coaching conversations. It drives self-awareness.
Similarly, Motivator assessments (DISC + Motivators, FindMojo, Motivation Code) have built large commercial businesses on frameworks that prioritise practical insight over academic rigour. These tools position themselves as self-discovery and development instruments, not psychometric tests, and their users don't care about Cronbach's alpha. They care about whether the results feel accurate, actionable, and worth talking about.
Speaking Powers can occupy exactly this space. The framework doesn't need to prove it measures 12 statistically independent constructs. It needs to prove it helps people understand how they communicate, where their blind spots are, and how to develop.
Audit Findings
Our review covered the presentation/workbook (78 slides), the test manual (v1), the full question bank (7 blocks), and the masters map linking Core Behaviours, Learned Origins, and Hidden Cues for each of the 12 powers.
Three-layer model: The Core / Learned / Hidden structure has genuine theoretical legs, mapping loosely onto trait psychology, social learning theory, and possible-selves theory respectively.
Substantial item bank: 7 blocks covering this-or-that forced choice, core energy items, pitfall recognition, learned power checks, learned origin scenarios, and hidden power admiration/aspiration rounds.
Rich developmental content: Exercises like "picture yourself at age 4" and peer-feedback tasks are coaching methodology at its best and ideal for workshop delivery.
10+ years of practitioner insight: The framework has been road-tested across hundreds of corporate workshops, giving it an experiential validity that many academic tools lack.
No documented theoretical framework: The "why 12?" question needs a narrative answer for credibility with corporate L&D buyers.
Likely factor overlap: Scholar/Teacher/Investigator and People Magnet/Diplomat may not be statistically distinct. This doesn't invalidate the model as a development tool, but needs acknowledging.
No scoring algorithm: Mixed item formats across 7 blocks without a documented scoring model. Needs formalising before any build.
Incomplete content: Several of the 12 powers have placeholder text in the current workbook. All 12 need complete descriptions, blind spots, superpowers, and exercises.
Recommended Products
Two distinct but complementary products, one for individuals, one for teams. Both positioned as developmental self-discovery tools.
Speaking Powers Self-Discovery Survey
A self-report survey (15–20 minutes) that generates a personalised report showing the participant's Core, Learned, and Hidden Speaking Powers, with blind spots, superpowers, and development tips.
- Standalone product for individual purchase or workshop inclusion
- Optional lightweight 360 component: 3–5 raters answering 12 forced-choice questions
- Self-vs-others gap creates powerful coaching conversations
- Rich, visually engaging report with developmental exercises
Speaking Powers Team Map
A team-level view aggregating individual results into a team profile showing distribution, gaps, and complementary pairings.
- Natural upsell from individual surveys for corporate clients
- Team gap analysis: "No one on this team is a Diplomat. Who can develop that?"
- Visual, shareable output for team workshops and off-sites
The Prototype
The prototype is the foundation of everything that follows. It proves the assessment works, produces beautiful reports, and creates all the reusable assets (scoring engine, content library, report templates) that feed directly into the digital platform. Nothing built here gets thrown away.
The Traditional Approach (€15,000–€30,000+)
Build or license a bespoke survey platform with hard-coded scoring algorithms, template-driven report generation, and manual rater management. Every change to questions, scoring, or report content requires developer involvement. Ongoing hosting, maintenance, and support costs compound annually.
The Offline Report Generator (€2,000–€5,000)
Instead of building a custom platform or sending data to an AI service, we take a different approach entirely. Psychometric Studio pre-writes a comprehensive library of narrative building blocks: strong sentences, paragraph variants, blind spot descriptions, development tips, and coaching exercises for each of the 12 Speaking Powers across all three layers (Core, Learned, Hidden). These are crafted by a psychologist and polished to read as individually written prose.
We then build a lightweight report generator, a simple application that runs locally on your laptop, that assembles the right narrative blocks based on each participant's score profile. The result is a rich, personalised report that reads like it was written by hand, but is generated in seconds with no internet connection required.
How It Works
- Survey collection: Typeform or similar collects participant responses online. Cost: €0–€50/month depending on volume.
- Scoring: A simple spreadsheet or script calculates Core / Learned / Hidden scores from raw responses. Cost: included in Phase 1 design work.
- Report generation: You export the scores and run them through the report generator on your laptop. The generator selects and assembles the right pre-written narrative blocks for each participant's unique profile. No data is sent anywhere. No AI API calls. No internet connection needed.
- Quality control: You review each report before delivery (initially). As confidence grows, this can be reduced to spot-checking.
- Team Map: Individual scores are aggregated in a dashboard spreadsheet that auto-generates the team distribution view.
Why This Works
- GDPR-safe by design: No participant data is transmitted to any third-party service. Everything runs on your machine. This eliminates the need for data processing agreements with AI providers and removes any risk of personal data being used to train external models.
- No platform build required: Eliminates the single biggest cost item in traditional assessment product development.
- Rich, natural reports: Pre-written narrative blocks are crafted by a psychologist to read as individually written prose, not fill-in-the-blank template text. Because the content library covers every combination of types and layers, each report feels genuinely personal.
- Easy to iterate: Want to change a question, update a type description, or add new content? Edit the content library and the generator picks it up immediately. No developer needed.
- No ongoing subscription costs: Once built, the generator runs independently with no API fees, no hosting costs, and no dependencies on external services.
- You own everything: The content library, the generator, the scoring model. Full IP ownership with no vendor lock-in.
This is the same architecture Psychometric Studio uses for its own assessment reporting. All report generation happens offline, with no participant data ever sent to external AI services. The narrative content library is pre-built by a psychologist, and the generator assembles personalised reports locally. It's fast, it's GDPR-compliant by design, and it produces reports that are indistinguishable from hand-written practitioner reports.
Option A: Phased Plan & Cost Model
All costs below are indicative estimates to support decision-making. Final pricing will be confirmed once the preferred option and scope are agreed. Several phases involve collaborative work between Psychometric Studio and Stage Heroes, and pricing reflects this shared effort. Each phase includes a defined scope and up to two rounds of revisions. Additional iterations or scope changes beyond the agreed deliverables will be handled through a change order at an agreed day rate.
Collaborative review of the full question bank with Stage Heroes. Rationalise the 7 blocks into a streamlined, scoreable survey. Design the scoring algorithm that produces Core / Learned / Hidden profiles. Complete all 12 type descriptions, blind spots, superpowers, and exercises (working closely with Stage Heroes' existing content and practitioner expertise). Draft positioning language and user-facing disclaimers. Deliverable: finalised item set, scoring model, complete content library, survey specification document.
Write the full narrative content library: paragraph variants, strong sentences, blind spot descriptions, and development tips for each of the 12 Speaking Powers across all three layers. Build the offline report generator that assembles personalised reports from scores. Set up the survey in Typeform/Tally. Build the scoring spreadsheet/script. Create the Team Map aggregation template. Test end-to-end with 10–15 internal participants. Design the optional 360 rater questionnaire (12 forced-choice items). Deliverable: working survey → score → offline report pipeline, Team Map template, rater questionnaire.
Stage Heroes runs the survey with 50–100 workshop participants and gathers feedback on user experience, report clarity, and perceived value. This is Stage Heroes' time investment: collecting real data from live workshops to test the product in the field. Psychometric Studio is available for questions and light adjustments during this period. Deliverable: pilot data, participant feedback, refined product ready for commercial launch.
Once 200–300 completions have been accumulated organically, Psychometric Studio runs a lightweight statistical analysis: internal consistency of the 12 types, cluster patterns, self-vs-rater correlations. The results are published as a short white paper for the Stage Heroes website. Not full validation, but credibility evidence that answers "Is this legit?" for corporate buyers. Deliverable: white paper, data summary, updated positioning materials.
An optional annual engagement where Psychometric Studio reviews the accumulated data, checks statistical patterns, identifies emerging insights (e.g. common type combinations, industry-specific trends), and recommends updates to scoring, report content, or narrative blocks. Keeps the product fresh, evidence-informed, and improving over time. Deliverable: annual data review report, recommended updates, revised content where applicable.
| Phase | Timeline | Investment |
|---|---|---|
| Phase 1: Item Review, Scoring & Content | Months 1–2 | €2,500 – €3,500 |
| Phase 2: Report Generator & Survey Setup | Months 2–3 | €3,000 – €5,000 |
| Phase 3: Pilot & Soft Launch | Months 3–4 | Stage Heroes |
| Phase 4: Credibility Evidence | Months 8–12 | €1,500 |
| Total Programme | ~12 months | €7,000 – €10,000 |
| Phase 5: Annual Review (optional) | Yearly | €1,500 – €3,000/year |
Ongoing costs
€0 per assessment. The report generator runs locally on your laptop with no platform fees, no API costs, and no per-test charges. The only ongoing cost is the survey platform (Typeform or similar) at €0–€600/year depending on volume.
What the Report Could Look Like
Below is a working mockup of the Speaking Powers report for a sample participant (Core Storyteller, Learned Diplomat, Hidden Persuader). This is the actual report template we would build in the prototype phase.
A Guided, Click-Through Experience
The HTML report is not a passive document. It's a 9-step interactive journey where participants click through their results one section at a time: from their overview chart, through their Core, Learned, and Hidden powers, with embedded video content at each stage. A progress bar tracks their position, and expandable sections invite deeper exploration.
Team-Level Power Distribution
The Team Map aggregates individual results into a team-level view: power distribution, Animated vs Calm balance, gap analysis, complementary pairings, and workshop discussion starters. A 6-step interactive journey designed to drive team conversation.
Both reports are self-contained HTML files. Participants receive a single file they can open in any browser, save to their desktop, or bookmark. No login required, no platform dependency. The videos are embedded directly (or linked via QR codes in a future print version). The same scoring engine and content library produces both the individual report and the team map.
Timeline & Roadmap
From prototype to autonomous digital product in three stages. Each stage builds on the previous one. Nothing gets rebuilt or thrown away.
What we build: Streamlined question bank (rationalised from 7 blocks), scoring algorithm (modular, accepts responses in chunks), complete narrative content library (all 12 powers × 3 layers), HTML report template with video embedding, PDF report template with QR codes, batch processing script for Margreet to generate reports from exported survey data.
What Margreet can do with it: Run workshops with personalised pre-work reports. Offer standalone assessments via Typeform + manual report delivery. Test pricing with real participants. Gather pilot data for credibility evidence.
Decision needed before starting: Survey platform choice (Typeform, Tally, or similar). Content completion for any of the 12 powers that still have placeholder text.
What we build: The autonomous digital platform where participants pay, take the assessment, receive their report, and access personalised video content, all self-service. The scoring engine and content library from Stage 1 transfer directly. The platform architecture decision (see Section 08) determines scope and cost.
Decision needed before starting: Platform architecture choice (all-in-one course platform vs custom portal). Whether the assessment is delivered all-at-once (workshop prep mode) or embedded across the learning journey (standalone mode), or both.
What happens: Soft launch with the existing Stage Heroes community. Gather user feedback. Optimise journey flow, report content, and video curation. Open to public enrolment. Run credibility evidence programme at 200-300 completions (€1,500). Add community features (participant forums, peer discussion, shared type exploration).
Decision needed before starting: Pricing strategy (per-assessment vs subscription). Community platform choice if adding social/forum features.
What Needs to Happen First
Complete the 12 power descriptions. Several powers have placeholder text. All 12 need complete descriptions, blind spots, superpowers, winning formulas, and exercises before the content library can be built.
Map the 40 videos to powers. Which videos belong to which power? Are they 3-4 per power, or organised differently? This mapping drives the QR code and HTML embedding logic.
Decide on platform architecture. All-in-one course platform (Kajabi/Thinkific) or custom portal? This decision shapes the build scope, cost, and timeline for Stage 2.
Decide on product modes. Workshop prep only? Standalone digital journey only? Both? This affects how the assessment is structured and delivered on the platform.
Platform Architecture
Two realistic approaches to building the autonomous digital product. Both deliver the WealthDynamics-style experience: assessment, personalised report, and curated video learning journey in one place.
All-in-One Course Platform (Kajabi or Thinkific)
A single platform handles everything: the assessment is built as a quiz/survey within the course, the learning journey is structured as modules with embedded video, and the report is delivered as a downloadable HTML/PDF. One login, one experience, one subscription.
- Kajabi (Basic): ~€143/month (annual), includes website, email marketing, course hosting, payment, sales funnels, community. No transaction fees
- Thinkific (Grow): ~€199/month, unlimited courses/students, advanced quiz tools, communities, API access
- Annual platform cost: ~€1,700-2,400/year
- PS build cost: €5,000-8,000 for full setup: assessment embedded as course quizzes, scoring via automation + Zapier, report generation workflow, video content per power, payment and onboarding
Best for: Fastest to launch, familiar platform model, built-in email marketing and community tools. Assessment and report capabilities are more basic than a custom build, but sufficient for launch.
Custom Lightweight Portal
A purpose-built web application on Margreet's own domain (e.g. app.stageheroes.nl). Participants sign up, pay, complete the assessment, receive their interactive HTML report, and access their personalised video learning journey, all within a single branded experience. Videos hosted on Vimeo (private). Payment via Stripe or Mollie.
- Hosting: ~€20-50/month (EU-based, GDPR-compliant by default)
- Video hosting (Vimeo Pro): ~€18/month
- Payment processing: ~1.5-2.9% per transaction
- Annual platform cost: ~€500-850/year
- PS build cost: €8,000-12,000 for full custom build: user auth, payment, assessment flow (modular blocks), scoring engine, interactive HTML report (stored per user), video journey with profile-based content gating, admin dashboard
Best for: Maximum design control, lowest long-term cost (under €1/participant at 1,000/year), purpose-built assessment UX, full brand ownership, community features can be added via open-source tools (BuddyBoss, Discourse). The assessment and report experience is exactly what you see in the mockup.
The prototype comes first regardless. The scoring engine and content library built in Stage 1 transfer to either platform option. You don't need to decide on platform architecture until Stage 2. Build the prototype, prove the product works, then choose your platform with real data and real participant feedback.
Two Product Modes, One Platform
The same assessment, content library, and video content serve two distinct use cases. The prototype's modular scoring engine makes both possible from day one.
Workshop Prep (Assessment + Report)
For participants attending a Stage Heroes workshop. They complete the full assessment in one sitting (15-20 minutes), receive their Speaking Powers report immediately, and arrive at the workshop already knowing their Core, Learned, and Hidden powers. The facilitator has the team data before the session begins.
- Assessment: All blocks completed in sequence, single session
- Report: Delivered immediately on completion (HTML + PDF)
- Videos: Available as post-workshop reinforcement via QR codes in the PDF
- Pricing: Bundled with workshop fee or per-participant to the corporate client
Standalone Digital Journey (Assessment + Videos + Report)
For individuals or teams who purchase the digital product without a live workshop. The assessment is embedded throughout the learning journey. Participants work through modules, watch videos, and complete assessment blocks along the way. The full Speaking Powers report is delivered as the culmination.
- Quick profile on entry: Block 1 (This or That, 2 minutes) gives an indicative profile that personalises the journey from the start
- Embedded assessment: Deeper blocks woven into relevant video modules as interactive challenges
- Final report: Generated once all blocks are complete, the reward for completing the journey
- Pricing: Individual purchase, recommended €97-197 per participant
The 40 videos are the differentiator. Most assessment products deliver a static PDF report and stop there. If each participant gets their report plus a curated set of videos specific to their Core, Learned, and Hidden powers, that is a genuinely differentiated product in the communication training market. The assessment becomes the gateway to a personalised learning experience, not just a personality label.
GDPR & Ethical Essentials
Even positioned as a self-discovery tool, Speaking Powers will process personal data that touches on personality and behavioural tendencies. Under GDPR, this constitutes profiling, and it needs to be handled carefully.
Why This Matters for Speaking Powers
Speaking Powers asks participants to answer questions about how they communicate, how they behave under pressure, and what their natural tendencies are. The output is a profile that categorises them into personality-adjacent types. While this is developmental rather than clinical, GDPR doesn't distinguish between "fun self-discovery" and "formal psychometric" when it comes to profiling obligations. The good news is that the offline report generator architecture significantly reduces your exposure, because no participant data is transmitted to any external service.
Data Protection
- Privacy notice: Clear notice explaining what data is collected, why, how long it's retained, and participants' rights. This must be presented before the survey starts.
- Lawful basis: Consent is the simplest and most appropriate basis for a voluntary self-discovery tool. Make sure consent is freely given, specific, informed, and unambiguous.
- Data Processing Agreement: Required with the survey platform (Typeform, Tally, etc.) since they store response data on your behalf. Not required for the report generator itself, because that runs locally on your machine.
- No external AI processing: The offline report generator means no participant data is sent to AI services like OpenAI or Anthropic. This is a significant privacy advantage and eliminates an entire category of GDPR risk. If you later choose Option B (validated psychometric platform), the platform provider handles this under their own ISO-certified data processing framework.
- Retention policy: Maximum 24 months for raw response data recommended. Set up automatic deletion in your survey platform.
- Right to explanation: Participants have the right to understand how their profile was generated. The scoring model should be explainable in plain language, and the report should include a clear description of how results were calculated.
- Data minimisation: Only collect what you need. Don't ask for demographic information unless it serves a specific developmental purpose.
Ethical Use
- Facilitators delivering feedback should receive administration training so they can guide participants through their results responsibly.
- Interpretation guidance should be built into the report itself, so participants who receive it outside a workshop setting can still make sense of it.
- Speaking Powers should never be used for hiring, selection, or screening. This should be stated explicitly in all materials, on the survey landing page, and in the report footer.
- Be transparent about what Speaking Powers is and isn't. It's a practitioner-derived development tool, not a clinically validated psychometric. Saying this openly builds trust rather than undermining it.
Intellectual Property
What Can Be Protected
- Trademark: "Speaking Powers" and the 12 type names should be trademarked in target markets.
- Copyright: Report content, exercises, question bank text, and visual design are automatically protected.
- Report generator and content library: The scoring logic, narrative content library, and report generator architecture are proprietary trade secrets.
What Cannot Be Protected
- The underlying model: The concept of "12 communication types in 3 layers" cannot be copyrighted or patented. Protection comes from brand, content quality, and market position, not the idea itself.
Recommended Next Steps
1. Complete the 12 Speaking Powers content
Several of the 12 powers have placeholder text. All 12 need complete descriptions, blind spots, superpowers, winning formulas, and exercises. Psychometric Studio will work with Margreet to finalise this content using the existing workshop materials as the foundation. This is the prerequisite for everything else.
2. Map the video content to powers
Margreet's 40+ existing videos need to be mapped to the 12 powers so the report generator knows which videos to embed (HTML) or QR-code (PDF) for each participant's profile. This is a content curation task, not a technical one.
3. Commission the Prototype (€7,000-€10,000)
Psychometric Studio builds the scoring engine, content library, and report generator. Deliverables: working survey on Typeform/Tally, scoring algorithm (Python script or Excel), complete narrative content library (JSON), interactive HTML report template with video embedding, PDF report template with QR codes, batch processing script. Timeline: 3-4 months.
4. Run the pilot (Month 4)
Test with 50-100 workshop participants. Gather feedback on report clarity, perceived value, and video engagement. Refine content and scoring based on real data. This pilot data also feeds the credibility evidence programme.
5. Decide on platform architecture (Month 4-5)
With a working prototype and real participant feedback, choose between an all-in-one course platform (Kajabi/Thinkific) or a custom portal. The prototype's scoring engine and content library transfer to either option. Psychometric Studio will advise based on pilot results and commercial priorities.
6. Build the platform & launch (Months 5-9)
Migrate the prototype assets to the chosen platform. Build the participant portal, payment flow, and video learning journey. Soft launch with the Stage Heroes community, then open to public enrolment. Add community features in a later phase once the core product is proven.
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Psychometric Studio · Specialist Talent Diagnostics · BeNeLux & DACH
psychometricstudio.com · Founded by Karina Olivier, HPCSA-registered IO Psychologist
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