# Outside-in and inside-out

> The two directions Barking Cat walks a business, each starting at a granular entry point rather than with the answer it expects to find.

Source: https://barkingcat.ai/terms-of-trade/outside-in-and-inside-out/

## Terms of Trade · Edition 4: The AI pitch, and Barking Cat’s own terms

Definition

The two directions Barking Cat walks a business, each starting at a granular entry point rather than with the answer it expects to find. Outside-in starts with the customer: the brand, the product, the service and the website, experienced in the order a real customer meets them and recorded as what that customer can reasonably infer about the business. Inside-out starts with one function or process and follows it through every stage until the operating reality is visible from the detail up. Both replace the top-down “holistic” view a leadership team believes it holds with what is actually true. The Review walks outside-in; the AI Diagnostic walks inside-out.

Field note

Outside-in is the harsh reality from your customer: they are just not that into you. Inside-out is the walk after which you do not blame them.

Board question

When did anyone on this board last buy something from the business as a customer, and when did anyone last sit in the service team for a day?

Applied through

[The Review](https://barkingcat.ai/review/), outside-in, eleven commercial lenses resolving to one binding constraint; [the AI Diagnostic](https://barkingcat.ai/the-barking-cat-ai-diagnostic/), inside-out, five foundations resolving to the same.

Related terms
- [The recognition point](https://barkingcat.ai/terms-of-trade/the-recognition-point/)
- [Binding constraint](https://barkingcat.ai/terms-of-trade/binding-constraint/)
- [Commercial experience](https://barkingcat.ai/terms-of-trade/commercial-experience/)
- [Single customer view](https://barkingcat.ai/terms-of-trade/single-customer-view/)

## Contact

steve@barkingcat.ai

Barking Cat Advisory Limited. Registered in England and Wales, company number 17338003.