Opinion structure

Opinion structure is the metric I run before drafting anything in the first ninety minutes of a crisis. The reason is simple. Average sentiment hides the shape of the conversation, and the shape is what determines whether a response helps, does nothing, or makes things worse.

Think of it like a restaurant rating. A place with all 3-star reviews and a place where half are 5 stars and half are 1 star both average 3 stars. But you would handle a complaint about each one very differently.

Two scenarios. Coverage is uniformly negative — wires, trade press, social, all converging on the same critical frame. The question is how to change the frame, and a statement that introduces new information may help. Coverage is split — half the outlets are critical, half sympathetic, the social conversation is polarized 35/30, with a lawsuit driving the negative and a loyal customer base driving the positive. The question is not how to change the frame. It is whether to get involved at all. Both scenarios produce a similar sentiment chart. The right move in each is the opposite of the other. The full version of this reasoning lives in the first 90 minutes of a crisis response.

The clarification I would put on a sticky note above the dashboard: a single sentiment number tells you the temperature; opinion structure tells you whether the room is unified or divided. Issuing a centrist statement into a polarized room is one of the few moves that reliably makes things worse — and it is the move the standard playbook will tell you to make.