Visualizing your business model

The elements of the business model

If you haven't read my last post about the elements of the business model, do so now.  There's not much sense in reiterating what a prospect is, or how it fits with a product, etc.

Now, check out this picture:

The visual business roadmap

There is a great deal of information in this drawing.

Along the bottom you have the projects associated with your technology (product development) roadmap.  In the drawing I have here, you have two layers--real business can have many more, of course.  The bottom row represents core technology programs.  The layer above that represent product development projects.  Each product development project relies on one or more core technology program.   This is very typical.

Along the left side are market development projects.  These projects are intended to change the appetites and buying behaviors of the markets in general--whether or not you will capture the business produced.  For example, when Apple introduced the ipod the TAM for portable MP3 players exploded.

Along the right side are all sorts of projects.  In a real portfolio this is where most of the decisions really are.  These projects can be things like customer enablement programs, directed marketing programs, and anything else that will impact your expectations around your prospect.  That is to say, anything you think will impact the market share and/or pricing expectations for that product with that market.

Often a project will have impacts at multiple elements of the drawing.  

For example, adding a cool, new feature that has never been seen before may encourage people who would never have bought a product like yours to enter the market (TAM expansion), will help you increase your share of that newly expanded market (MSS expansion) at an increased price (ASP increase) but with the downside of an increased product cost (Cost increase).  In this case, you would be impacting markets, products and prospects all at once!!