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NORTH
Use casesDemoWhat NORTH surfaces
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NORTHRun the diagnostic →
Use casesDemoWhat NORTH surfaces
PricingAbout
The pre-mortem platform for enterprise AI

Your AI programme will fail for a reason the room already knows.

NORTH runs a structured pre-mortem with the people who will decide whether your programme lives or dies. They answer independently. You see every failure path — named, prioritised, and mapped to who already sees it — while the budget can still move.

Run the diagnostic →See a sample outputHow the method works
Strategic
The team pre-mortem that surfaces what will break first
Signal
The individual pre-mortem that reveals the shadow each leader brings
Build
The execution pre-mortem that finds the constraint that stops the pilot
9:41
Signal Credential
NORTH
Signal Credential
Archetype
Strategic Navigator
When others see a binary, you find the third path.
Bearer
Alex Mercer
CTO · Vertex Systems
Issued
09/06/2026
12:00 UTC
Leadership
75
Governance
65
Risk
50
Risk
50
Velocity
30
Leadership
75
Accountability
50
Governance
65
SIG-2026-8842-01

Verified by NORTH · SIG-2026-8842-01

Specimen · Credential · iPhone Wallet
The instruments

Three instruments. One decision system.

SIGNAL is the mirror: one leader, decisions under consequence, one archetype with one honest sentence. Free. NORTH Strategic is the picture: the leadership team answers independently, and the Coalition Map shows where the room actually stands. R3,999.99 (about US$245) per cycle. NORTH Build is the weight: the technical constraint fingerprint, mapped to NIST AI RMF, ISO 42001, and the EU AI Act.

Payments are processed in South African rand (ZAR). Your bank may apply its own conversion rate and fees.

Every reading is deterministic and explainable — the same answers always produce the same reading. The platform does not replace judgement. It makes the conversation your experts need to have precise enough to act on.

How the model works →
Signal

the person you become under pressure.

Twelve considered scenarios. No prescribed answers. One archetype that reveals the instinct you suspected and the shadow it quietly casts.

Individual · free
Strategic

the lens through which the room reads.

Twelve organisational decisions, each exposing the frame that makes agreement on the goal coexist with disagreement on the first move.

Team · per cycle
Build

the weight your cloud can bear.

Architecture scenarios on AWS, Azure, or GCP, mapped to ISO 42001, NIST AI RMF, and the EU AI Act — a mapping, not a certification.

Technical lead · per cycle
The problem

The room always knows. The room never says.

Surveys return performed confidence. Workshops defer to the senior voice. Discovery interviews take six weeks and confirm what the sponsor already believed. Meanwhile the constraint that will kill the programme — the sponsor who has not committed, the data that is not ready, the team that does not trust it — sits in the room, unnamed. NORTH assumes the programme has already failed, then asks why. Independently. Before the discussion starts.

01
Assume failure first

Every scenario opens with the same premise: the programme has failed. Why? This bypasses optimism bias and makes risk the path of least resistance.

02
Decide under consequence

Leaders answer independently, under time pressure, with no correct answer. The pattern that emerges is behavioural — not what people say they would do.

03
Name the killers

Strategic ranks six to eight programme-killing risks by likelihood and damage. Build identifies the execution constraint that stops the pilot first.

04
Fix before budget

The output is a named-owner sprint plan built from the team's own choices. Cheap to address now. Expensive to admit at month six.

Run the diagnostic →How the method works
How it works

Diagnose. Decide. Route. Rescore.

NORTH owns the decision layer before and after implementation. The build itself belongs to your team, your advisers, or an approved partner — never to us.

01

Diagnose

Each leader completes the pre-mortem independently. No groupthink, no performed alignment. The platform captures the signal before the discussion starts.

02

Decide

Synthesis produces the Coalition Map, prioritised failure paths, and an executive decision brief. One artefact per decision — named, ranked, and owned.

03

Route

Each failure path is routed to whoever can clear it: your internal team, your existing advisers, or an approved partner. NORTH does not implement.

04

Rescore

Ninety days later, the same instrument measures what moved. The delta is the proof — and the cycle repeats: diagnose, decide, route, rescore.

CALIBRATION · Crash-tested against 300 synthetic organisations and 2,700 simulated responses. Completed customer rescore cycles will be published when they exist.

See the validation →See the rescoring →
The delivery OS

Watch the OS work.

One initiative walks the full agent pipeline — intake, classify, MCP risk-rating, ratify, render, skillify. No LLM, no API keys: a deterministic replay of the real kernel, running at request time in the server. The one agent-trace demo competitors can't safely put on a public page.

Pipeline
IntakeElicits the signals
ClassifierTier · scope · agency
MCP CRR9 cases risk-rated
RatifierHuman-in-the-loop
RendererVerified vs foreign
SkillifierSigned hash-pinned pack
Act 3 · Ratify · paused

Ratification gate — human-in-the-loop

The classification is committed. Ratification flips provenance KERNEL → MANUAL. The run pauses here until a human approves; nothing downstream proceeds without it.

Needs your input

Ratify this classification

▶ Run it live on /platformdeterministic · no keys · 393 tests green
The partner edge

Your client has already diagnosed themselves.

Advisors, coaches, and hyperscaler account teams use NORTH to arrive with client-specific evidence no competitor could produce. The room has named its own risks. The Coalition Map shows its own fractures. The brief is built from their decisions, not your framework.

See the partner programme →See a demo reading
Try it

One scenario. One reading.

Signal is the first move. A single scenario reveals how you read pressure. Three leaders complete it and the conversation becomes Strategic. Choose the option that matches your actual instinct — not the one that reads well in a brief.

Signal · SCN-04Consequence under pressure

Your CRO discovers an AI model has been producing biased risk scores for six weeks. The board meets in 48 hours.

Three options surface from your team — disclose, audit, or remediate. Compliance is asking for time. The Chair is asking for clarity. You have one decision to make in the next two hours.

Pick an option. Your archetype reading appears here.

Sample output · 1 of 12
9:41
Signal Credential
NORTH
Signal Credential
Archetype
Strategic Navigator
When others see a binary, you find the third path.
Bearer
Alex Mercer
CTO · Vertex Systems
Issued
09/06/2026
12:00 UTC
Leadership
75
Governance
65
Risk
50
Risk
50
Velocity
30
Leadership
75
Accountability
50
Governance
65
SIG-2026-8842-01

Verified by NORTH · SIG-2026-8842-01

Specimen · Signal · scenario completion
01 · Signal

The person you become.

Signal is the first move toward the team pre-mortem. Twelve dilemmas, each one deliberately unresolved. The board demands a roadmap. A business unit ships too soon. The CEO speaks before the organisation is ready. There are no correct answers. Only the person you become when consequence is present and time is short.

“Your gift is analysis that moves the room. Your shadow is analysis that informs everyone, and commits no one.”

One leader sees their shadow. Three leaders see the fault line.

Your archetype
Strategic Navigator
reads first
Archetype 02
Bold Visionary
moves first
Archetype 03
Governance Steward
protects first
Archetype 04
Systems Integrator
listens first
Archetype 05
Ethical Anchor
checks first
Archetype 06
Catalyst Commander
forces first
Archetype 07
Reluctant Realist
measures first
Archetype 08
Pragmatic Architect
builds first

8 archetypes · 5 dimensions · one honest sentence

Start Signal — free →Run the team pre-mortem
02 · Strategic

The lens you cannot see.

Experience leaves. A pilot reaches a customer with an error. The CIO and COO disagree on who owns the outcome. Strategic does not measure knowledge. It reveals the lens through which the room reads — the one it does not know it is wearing.

“You agree on the goal and argue about the first move. The lens, quietly, is the argument.”

Your dominant lens
People & Culture
human-first
Lens 02
Process & Workflow
system-first
Lens 03
Data & Systems
evidence-first
Lens 04
Governance & Risk
protection-first

4 lenses · 4 readiness bands · NIST AI RMF · ISO 42001

9:41
Strategic Credential
NORTH
Strategic Credential
Dominant Lens
People & Culture
Dominant Lens
Bearer
Alex Mercer
CTO · Vertex Systems
Issued
09/06/2026
12:00 UTC
People
82
Governance
71
Data
64
People
82
Process
58
Data
64
Governance
71
STR-2026-8842-01

Verified by NORTH · STR-2026-8842-01

Specimen · Strategic · readiness map
9:41
Build Credential
NORTH
Build Credential
Execution Archetype
Speed Architect
Execution Archetype
Bearer
Marcus Chen
Chief Risk Officer · InsureCo
Issued
09/06/2026
12:00 UTC
Cloud
81
Data
72
Integration
68
Data
72
Cloud
81
Integration
68
Security
58
Governance
45
BLD-2026-8842-01

Verified by NORTH · BLD-2026-8842-01

Specimen · Build · Governance Stack
03 · Build

The weight it can bear.

Eight architecture decisions on the cloud platform you actually use. AWS, Azure, GCP — each speaks its own language of velocity and restraint. The platform is not arbitrary. It is the shape your organisation has learned to move in.

“At scale, the first incident is not a degradation. It is the moment the speed you built arrives somewhere you never intended to go.”

Chosen platform
AWS
SEC03 · OPS11 · PERF01
Well-Architected
Azure
SE:05 · OE:09 · PE:05
Well-Architected
GCP
Data residency · Governance · Cost
The Governance Stack
Every scenario derived from the cloud's Well-Architected framework. Every constraint mapped to ISO/IEC 42001, NIST AI RMF, and the EU AI Act.
Residency
Integration
Gov-velocity
Security
Scaling
See the full mapping →5 × 3 × 3 · 45 traced controls
The patterns

Eight archetypes. One shadow each.

SIGNAL does not label you. It reveals the pattern your choices form under pressure — and the shadow most likely to break the programme.

SN-04
Strategic Navigator

When others see a binary, you find the third path.

BV-04
Bold Visionary

The organisation moves because you moved first.

GS-04
Governance Steward

You build the rails before the train moves.

RR-04
Reluctant Realist

You ask the questions no one else will ask.

EA-04
Ethical Anchor

You name the thing the room is trying not to say.

CC-04
Catalyst Commander

You don't wait for permission. You create momentum.

SI-04
Systems Integrator

You see the whole board while others are focused on their piece.

PA-04
Pragmatic Architect

You build what works, not what's theoretically perfect.

Explore the archetypes →Take SIGNAL — free
04 · Proof, honestly

No testimonials yet. Here is our method instead.

NORTH is new. No customer logos, no quoted CTOs — we will not print words nobody said. What we can show you: the published method, the sample artefacts, the honest limits of our own validation, and a rescore loop that will publish its misses once real programmes complete. Judge the machinery, then judge the results.

Read the methodology →
05 · For whom

Six rooms. One question each.

Business Leaders

“Before I commit the next million, do I truly know what is blocking us?”

Understand the people who must carry the programme before you choose the partner. Coalition Map before budget. Brief before build.

People lens
AI Consultants

“How do I stop discovering the real constraint in week eight of a twelve-week engagement?”

Arrive with the client's fault lines already mapped, and a 30-day sprint drafted from the signal they themselves produced.

Process lens
AI Strategists

“How do I build a roadmap that accounts for political reality, not just architecture?”

Roadmap from the lens, not the framework. Rescore at 90 days to learn whether you moved the pattern, or only the slide.

Data lens
Masterclass Coaches

“How do I design a workshop that meets participants where they actually are?”

Send the diagnostic before the session. Know the lens distribution and dominant archetypes before the first agenda item is written.

People lens
Advisory Offices

“How do I productise readiness without building a diagnostic from scratch?”

White-label the session and the brief. Access the raw signal through the API. Let rescore become a recurring relationship.

Process lens
AI Centres of Excellence

“How do I stop building infrastructure the business cannot adopt?”

Run Strategic with the business units. Run Build with the engineers. Read the gap before the next sprint is allocated.

Governance lens
What you get

Not a report. Decision artefacts.

Each artefact exists to force one decision. See annotated samples — labelled specimen, drawn from our synthetic crash-test corpus, not from client engagements.

01
Coalition Map

Where the leadership team aligns, where it fractures, and which conversation has not happened yet.

02
Prioritised failure paths

The programme-killing risks, ranked by likelihood and damage — named by the team itself.

03
Executive decision brief

One document per decision. What breaks first, what clears it, who owns the next thirty days.

04
Rescore Delta

Ninety days later, the same instrument measures what moved. The delta is the proof.

CALIBRATION · SYNTHETIC COHORT

The engine is crash-tested against 300 synthetic organisations — 2,700 simulated responses — for consistency, coverage, and sensitivity. Synthetic tests prove the machinery works. They prove nothing about your organisation. Only the diagnostic does that.

See the sample outputs →
Standards

Mapped to the frameworks your board already uses.

Outputs align to —
EU AI Act · Risk classificationISO/IEC 42001 · Audit-ready lifecycleNIST AI RMF · Map · Measure · ManageOECD AI PrinciplesGDPR · Data governanceKing IV · Board AI governanceMAS FEAT PrinciplesAzure WAF · AI workloadsGCP Architecture Framework
06 · The Three-Three Rule

A complete picture requires both halves.

Three Strategic completions reveal the Coalition Map. Three Build completions reveal the Tension Map. The Strategist Brief only generates when both halves are present — because an incomplete picture produces advice the build team cannot run.

3 · Strategic
Coalition Map

Where the leadership team agrees, where it diverges, and who reads the organisation differently from the median.

3 · Build
Tension Map

The technical constraint silently blocking every project, and the dimension where the team is most divided.

3 + 3 · Both
The brief & sprint plan

The brief that refuses to generate on half a picture. Executive summary. Political risk. Sequenced actions. Partner-ready.

9:41
Signal Credential
NORTH
Signal Credential
Archetype
Strategic Navigator
When others see a binary, you find the third path.
Bearer
Alex Mercer
CTO · Vertex Systems
Issued
09/06/2026
12:00 UTC
Leadership
75
Governance
65
Risk
50
Risk
50
Velocity
30
Leadership
75
Accountability
50
Governance
65
SIG-2026-8842-01

Verified by NORTH · SIG-2026-8842-01

Specimen · Strategist Brief · generated

“Half a picture can be accurate in the narrow, and wrong in the consequential.”

Leadership without execution recommends interventions the build team cannot run. Execution without leadership recommends infrastructure the organisation cannot adopt. The brief that waits for both halves is the only brief you can truly use.

Create a team session →For consulting partners
07 · Access

Free for individuals.

Free to complete. Pay R3,999.99 (about US$245) per team cycle for the Coalition Map, Tension Map, and Strategist Brief. Partner licences start at $1,299/year for white-label, custom branding, and API access.

Individual
Free

Anyone curious about the gap between who they intend to be and who they are under pressure.

  • —Complete any one diagnostic
  • —Receive your credential
  • —Personalised honest sentence
  • —Burn-after-reading insight
Begin →
Team
R3,999.99
(about US$245) /cycle

Leadership teams ready to see their coalition and tension maps — not just their individual cards.

  • —Share a session code
  • —Coalition Map at 3+ Strategic
  • —Tension Map at 3+ Build
  • —Strategist Brief when both unlock
Begin →
Partner
$1,299/year

Consulting firms, advisory practices, and AI Centres of Excellence productising readiness under their own brand.

  • —White-label sessions
  • —Custom branding & brief format
  • —Raw API access
  • —Rescore as a recurring engagement
Contact us →

Payments are processed in South African rand (ZAR). Your bank may apply its own conversion rate and fees.

Begin

The room already knows. Ask it.

Signal reveals who you are. Strategic reveals how the room reads. Build reveals what your cloud can carry. Together, they reveal the gap — whether it lives in leadership, in infrastructure, or in the silence between them.

Run the diagnostic →Take SIGNAL — free

For consulting partners & AI Centres of Excellence

White-label sessions, custom branding, and API access to the raw diagnostic signal. Explore the partner programme →

Mapped to NIST AI RMF and ISO 42001 · not a certification

9:41
Signal Credential
NORTH
Signal Credential
Archetype
Strategic Navigator
When others see a binary, you find the third path.
Bearer
Alex Mercer
CTO · Vertex Systems
Issued
09/06/2026
12:00 UTC
Leadership
75
Governance
65
Risk
50
Risk
50
Velocity
30
Leadership
75
Accountability
50
Governance
65
SIG-2026-8842-01

Verified by NORTH · SIG-2026-8842-01

Specimen credential
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