Assessing your Results

Once you have your results, you can use the framework as a diagnostic tool, either to assess the markets you're entering or looking back at an existing product and identifying areas for improvement. The model is designed to help you validate your ideas, and give you evidence before putting in the resources necessary to enter a tough new market. Before you assess your results, consider running it by others. It's easy to become too close to our product and become biased, seeing only green lights no matter what. For the model to be useful, you have to be honest with yourself.

If every component on the framework is green, congratulations! You have a viable product. 

If everything is red, you seriously need to assess your product and ask how you think you're going to succeed. 

Realistically, you'll likely have a mixture of red and green (with the occasional yellow). No startup will ever have all greens, as at the very least they won't have the brand name and power in place yet. That doesn't mean they can't succeed though.

The red sections show you where you need to focus your efforts. Focus on changing the reds to yellows, and the yellows to green.

Bear in mind that not all Pillars of the framework are equally weighted. The Pillar that is most important is the Customer Pillar, followed by the Product Pillar.

Remember, you can build almost anything today, and you can figure out sales motions. However, if there isn't a strong need that you're solving, or you don't have a strong unfair advantage to help you fill that need, then it's time to focus on what you could perhaps do differently.