In between developing a detailed Product Definition Brief and actually kicking off development and commercialization work, you will need to craft a well-considered Commercialization Strategy, also known as a Go–To–Market Strategy, or GTM. This is important because, should you decide to move forward with development and commercialization, a significant amount of time, effort, and expense will be invested in the engineering, manufacture, marketing, sales, and service of your new product, or in the design, documentation, training, and promotion of your new service. Thus the importance of this step cannot be overstated.
The Go–To–Market Strategy is a well–defined plan for taking a Design Strategy on paper and turning it into a real offering that you can make and sell at the profit you are looking for. At a bare minimum, it must address the three channels of commercialization in appropriate detail. These are 1) the production channel (how do we make it), 2) the communication channel (how do we market it), and 3) the distribution channel (how do we sell it). It must also dovetail with any Offering, Brand, and Market Strategies it is associated with. And if it is to be successful, it has to take into account the most appropriate adoption model for the new offering, including, if it is a new category or a new brand, how you are going to actuate a completely new market around it.
The Go–To–Market Strategy therefore has to address questions such as the following. How does this product or service fit into our broader Brand and Market Strategies? What market are we taking it to (existing or new markets)? Do we have the target customers clearly identified, either via aggregate persona or via actual customers? What market channels exist to these customers and what yet needs to be developed? How will the product or service be developed? Does it rely on any new, possibly unproven, technologies? Are there any risks there? Where and how will it be produced? What supply chain is needed? Does this provide the needed manufacturing capabilities, or are there new manufacturing capabilities required? What expenses and capital investments are required? Does this yield the right cost structure and the right value capture model (the balance of make/buy trade–offs to maximize net profits)? How will the product or service be marketed... direct, print, web, trade shows, content marketing? How will the product be serviced? Do we have the necessary infrastructure for that already in place, or do we need to develop it? Does this product or service have a long lifecycle with a healthy roadmap of future cadences that will continue perpetuating its return on investment, or will it end up as a sunk cost?
These are all crucial questions that have to be addressed at this stage prior to moving ahead with engineering, manufacturing, sales, and marketing work. Having this plan in place will provide a clear sense of direction for the project, thereby increasing its chances of commercial success.
All of the work associated with developing a GTM Strategy lies squarely in the center of the Mid Zone of Innovation, and is at the heart of what it takes to move something from being just an idea on paper to being a real product or service that people actually buy and use.
In addition to being the plan of record for how you intend to commercialize the new offering, the GTM Strategy also serves as a major piece of the business justification process. This is where decision–makers will look at the project, with its downstream commitments of time, money, and focus, and the projected return on that, and make the appropriate call on whether or not to proceed.
This is important because at the end of this phase (Phase 6), there is expected to be a formal Project Gating Review, in which all of the outcomes of the project up to this point – Phases 1 – 6 – will be reviewed and scrutinized by appropriate decision-makers in the business. From this, a go / no-go decision is expected on whether or not to proceed forward into actual commercialization – Phases 7 & 8. In addition to the obvious question of what the expected payback is for this project, there will also be the question of how that compares to other options the business has before it, and more poignantly... "What other offerings are we not going to develop in order that we might develop this one?"
This being the case, the budget associated with the GTM Strategy must strive to capture all of the commercialization costs in as much detail as possible. This will include the costs for development, production (COGS + capital), marketing and brand development, and sales and service. Each one of these will break down into a whole list of associated tasks and activities, each with a particular price tag attached to it. This is why it is generally advantageous to have a Finance professional be a part of the team developing the GTM Strategy, as a reliable decision cannot be made without a relatively accurate commercialization budget.
Developing solid Go–To–Market Strategies is one of our core strengths. We work closely with your team to understand your core capabilities, established market channels, supply chains, and so forth, so that using our expertise we can craft a sound commercialization strategy for the project at hand. We capture this detailed strategy in a comprehensive GTM Strategy Brief.
As needed, we will also develop a formal business plan around this strategy and document it in a comprehensive Project Business Plan. This is so that we can capture in detail the investments, timing, and anticipated payback for the project. Throughout this exercise, we work hand–in–hand with your team to ensure there is consensus around the soundness of the business plan and the project's expected chances of success.
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