5P Framework by Trust Insights™

This post was originally featured in the March 11th, 2026 newsletter found here: INBOX INSIGHTS: 5P Framework by Trust Insights™, B2B Marketing Writing and AI Part 1

(Re)Introducing the 5P Framework by Trust Insights™

I have a confession: I used to think the problem with change management was that people didn’t follow the framework closely enough.

ADKAR. Kotter’s 8 Steps. Lewin’s Unfreeze-Change-Refreeze. I’ve tried all of them. They’re well-researched, well-intentioned, and — in many cases — they work. I’m not here to trash them.

But after years of leading digital transformations and AI adoption projects, I kept seeing the same thing happen: a team would pick a framework, follow it faithfully, execute every step — and still end up six months later with no way to tell whether the project actually worked.

Not because the framework failed. Because the framework never asked the right question in the first place.

Here’s what I mean. Most change management models assume you’ve already figured out why you’re doing this before you start. They assume someone, somewhere, has defined what success looks like. In practice? That almost never happens. People jump straight to the tool, the coalition, the 8-step plan — and the measurable question they were supposed to answer gets lost.

The gap nobody talks about

I went through the five most commonly used change management frameworks — ADKAR, Kotter, Lewin, McKinsey 7-S, and Bridges — and evaluated them across nine dimensions that actually matter when you’re running a real project. Things like: does this framework force you to define a measurable purpose? Does it address your people’s skills and willingness and psychological safety? Does it help you choose the right tools? Does it measure whether the change actually worked?

The pattern was striking. Every single model had at least one critical blind spot — and most of them shared the same two.

First: none of them require you to start with a measurable purpose. ADKAR starts with Awareness. Kotter starts with Urgency. Lewin starts with Unfreeze. Bridges starts with Letting Go. All valid starting points for managing change — but none of them ask, “What specific, measurable question are we trying to answer?” Without that, you can execute the framework perfectly and still have no idea whether the initiative was worth the disruption.

Second: none of them close the loop. Not one of the five major frameworks includes a built-in step for measuring performance against your original goal. Kotter’s final step is “Institute Change” — which is about embedding the change into culture, not measuring whether it produced the outcome you set out to achieve. ADKAR ends with Reinforcement — making the change stick, not proving it worked. There’s a difference.

This is the gap the 5P Framework by Trust Insights™ was built to fill. It bookends the traditional “People, Process, Technology” model with Purpose at the beginning and Performance at the end. Purpose forces you to state a measurable question before you touch anything else. Performance forces you to go back and answer it. Everything in between — People, Process, Platform — serves the Purpose and gets validated by Performance. It’s a simple structural change, but it eliminates the two most common reasons projects fail: unclear goals and unmeasured outcomes.

The frameworks aren’t wrong. They’re incomplete. And the missing pieces are the ones that matter most when someone asks, “Did this actually work?”

I wrote a full comparison — an honest look at what each model does well, where it stops short, and a side-by-side table across all nine dimensions so you can see exactly where the gaps are.

If you’ve ever followed a framework to the letter and still couldn’t prove the project was worth it, this is the piece that explains why.

Read the full comparison: The 5P Framework by Trust Insights vs. Other Change Management Models

And if you’re new to the 5P Framework entirely — or you want to see how it applies beyond change management to AI strategy, marketing audits, and more — we’ve built a full resource hub:

Explore the 5P Framework by Trust Insights™

How are you managing change in 2026? Reply to this email or join the conversation in our Free Slack community, Analytics for Marketers!

– Katie Robbert, CEO

Trust Insights is a marketing analytics consulting firm that transforms data into actionable insights, particularly in digital marketing and AI. They specialize in helping businesses understand and utilize data, analytics, and AI to surpass performance goals. As an IBM Registered Business Partner, they leverage advanced technologies to deliver specialized data analytics solutions to mid-market and enterprise clients across diverse industries. Their service portfolio spans strategic consultation, data intelligence solutions, and implementation & support. Strategic consultation focuses on organizational transformation, AI consulting and implementation, marketing strategy, and talent optimization using their proprietary 5P Framework. Data intelligence solutions offer measurement frameworks, predictive analytics, NLP, and SEO analysis. Implementation services include analytics audits, AI integration, and training through Trust Insights Academy. Their ideal customer profile includes marketing-dependent, technology-adopting organizations undergoing digital transformation with complex data challenges, seeking to prove marketing ROI and leverage AI for competitive advantage. Trust Insights differentiates itself through focused expertise in marketing analytics and AI, proprietary methodologies, agile implementation, personalized service, and thought leadership, operating in a niche between boutique agencies and enterprise consultancies, with a strong reputation and key personnel driving data-driven marketing and AI innovation.