22 OB/HR problem areas scored on a Mom-Test / JTBD fundability rubric, against how much the field studies them (metaBUS) · 2026-07-28
Plot each problem on what the field studies (metaBUS attention) versus what actually has buying power. They barely correlate.
Job the market actually hires for: compliancemeasured-KPI/ROIair-cover/legitimacyinspiration
Market signal: $3-5B EHS software market (Intelex, Cority, VelocityEHS); OSHA, ISO 45001; TRIR KPI; workers'-comp insurance premiums.
Verdict: Extremely strong buying power — but a pure EHS/safety market owned by safety officers, fully outside the OB/HR vendor space.
Market signal: CX software market ($10B+; Qualtrics, Medallia, Salesforce Service Cloud); NPS/CSAT standard; Chief Customer Officer owns it.
Verdict: Massive buying power but a customer/revenue market owned by CX/sales, not HR — the service-profit-chain link is a weak resale angle.
Market signal: Performance-management software (Lattice, Betterworks, 15Five, Workday Performance, ~$3B market); every line manager is measured on output KPIs.
Verdict: Real buying power — it is the core HR category — but brutally competitive and increasingly absorbed into HRIS suites.
Market signal: Retail loss-prevention market ($2-3B); background-check industry ($4B); ACFE fraud examiners; Sarbanes-Oxley, insurance, audit mandate.
Verdict: Strong buying power but it is a SECURITY/compliance market owned by Asset Protection/Internal Audit, outside the OB/HR vendor space.
Market signal: UKG/Kronos, ADP time-and-attendance market ($3B+); FMLA + state/EU sick-leave mandates; nurse-staffing KPI in healthcare.
Verdict: Strong buying power but an OPS/payroll-compliance market (attendance tracking), not OD — the engagement-cause angle is only a soft add-on.
Market signal: $60B+ corporate wellness market; EAP, Lyra Health (~$2.6B), Modern Health, Headspace/Calm for Work, Fitbit Health — a mature Benefits/Wellbeing budget line.
Verdict: Strong established spend, but the category is crowded and commoditized; buying power is real yet differentiation and clean ROI are the trap.
Market signal: SHRM cost-of-turnover (~50-200% of salary); retention-analytics vendors (Visier, ChartHop); board-level metric owned by CHRO + business heads.
Verdict: Strong buying power — a clean, board-visible number with a dollar cost, the single best ROI wedge for a diagnostic.
Market signal: Gallup, Qualtrics EX, Culture Amp (~$1B), Glint, Workday Peakon, Microsoft Viva; eNPS is the standard KPI; VP People owns it.
Verdict: The strongest established spend in the people space — but saturated, consolidated, and largely a legitimacy ritual; a new entrant hits a check-the-box market.
Market signal: $370B global L&D market; Cornerstone, Docebo, LinkedIn Learning, Coursera for Business, Degreed; dedicated CLO/L&D Director role.
Verdict: Huge spend and a dedicated owner, but measurement is notoriously weak (Kirkpatrick L3/L4 gap), so it is a credibility-driven line cut first in a downturn.
Market signal: EU Pay Transparency Directive 2023; US state pay-equity laws + EEOC; pay-equity audit vendors (Syndio ~$1B); NAVEX ethics hotlines.
Verdict: Strong and rising buying power — the durable 'fairness' wedge is pay-transparency compliance, a legally mandated market.
Market signal: Mental-health benefits boom (Lyra, Spring Health both ~$2.6B); EU psychosocial directives; ISO 45003; US Surgeon General workplace framework.
Verdict: Hot and rising, but buying power is currently bundled into 'mental-health benefits,' not a standalone burnout budget — selling it standalone is hard.
Market signal: $50B+ leadership-development market (DDI, CCL, Korn Ferry); ~$3-4B executive coaching; McKinsey finds only ~10% of L&D spend delivers.
Verdict: Big top-of-market spend, but low measurability and high nonconsumption (executives self-rate as already good) make it reputation-driven and hard for a new entrant.
Market signal: DEI software (~$1-2B; Syndio pay equity, Textio, Seekout); EU Pay Transparency Directive; but US retrenchment post-SFFA 2023.
Verdict: Real but volatile buying power — strong in pay-equity compliance (and rising in EU), actively retrenching in the US; the durable wedge is compliance, not training.
Market signal: EU Whistleblowing Directive 2019 mandates internal reporting channels; NAVEX/EthicsPoint hotlines; SOX/Dodd-Frank.
Verdict: Fundable only as a compliance whistleblowing channel; the 'speak-up culture' angle has weak standalone buying power.
Market signal: Innovation-management software (Brightidea, Hype, IdeaScale, ~$1B); owned by Chief Innovation Officer/R&D, not HR.
Verdict: Moderate spend but owned by R&D/strategy; the people-side creativity angle has weak standalone buying power versus pipeline tooling.
Market signal: Fragmented tools (FridayPulse, Range, Microsoft Viva, Atlassian) and a team-coaching cottage industry; no dominant category or dedicated owner.
Verdict: Weak-to-moderate — fragmented, no dominant category and rarely a dedicated owner; sells as a feature inside collaboration suites, hard standalone.
Market signal: EU right-to-disconnect laws; no dedicated vendor; handled by remote-work policy, bundled into wellness.
Verdict: Weak buying power — handled by policy not purchase; sells only as a bundled wellness item.
Market signal: No dedicated vendor; Edelman Trust Barometer is research/PR, not a buyable product; bundled into engagement items.
Verdict: No standalone buying power — a leadership-aspiration construct, not a budget line.
Market signal: No dedicated vendor category; Meyer-Allen items live only inside Gallup-style engagement surveys.
Verdict: No buying power — academic construct with no standalone market; only sells bundled into engagement.
Market signal: No dedicated market; fully commoditized into Gallup Q12 / engagement-survey items.
Verdict: No standalone buying power — a legacy construct absorbed into engagement, invisible as a budget line.
Market signal: No dedicated market; closest proxy is recognition software (Bonusly, Workstars, ~$1-2B), gamified and commoditized.
Verdict: Weak — academic construct; the only funded proxy (recognition software) is commoditized and discretionary.
Market signal: No vendor category; Organ/Podsakoff construct measured only in academic studies.
Verdict: No buying power — academic and invisible to buyers; nobody is hired to 'increase OCB.'
Fundability = existing-spend×2 + budget-owner + regulation + acuteness + measurability − do-nothing-risk. Tap any row for the concrete market signal and the blunt verdict.
1. The fundable problems are someone else's turf. Safety belongs to EHS officers, service to CX, theft to internal audit, absence to payroll/ops. Chasing raw fundability means leaving OD and fighting mature software incumbents on their ground.
2. Lead+D's real expertise sits in the fundability-dead zone. Satisfaction, commitment, culture, leadership development — genuine skill, no standalone budget. This is why OD consultancies struggle to monetize: the prestige constructs have no buyer.
3. The only two jobs reachable from where Lead+D stands are air-cover/legitimacy (engagement + wellbeing diagnostics — a survey they already sell) and measured-KPI (performance/turnover, but crowded by HRIS). The winning move is to wrap the dead-zone expertise inside a fundable wrapper — sell the air-cover artifact, deliver the OD depth underneath.
4. Or ride a forcing function. The compliance-job rows (safety, CWB, absence, justice/harassment, D&I) have guaranteed budget because law or insurance mandates them. A defensible wedge is to attach OD depth to one of those mandates rather than sell OD naked.