── ── Startups
Ansoff Matrix
Every growth option a firm has falls into one of four quadrants defined by two axes: existing vs. new product, and existing vs. new market. Risk rises as unknowns multiply: selling your existing product to your existing market adds zero unknowns; diversifying (new product + new market) adds two unknowns simultaneously, compounding risk roughly fourfold. The matrix's job is prioritization…
Run Ansoff Matrix on a real problem
Bring something you're actually deciding — free, in the browser.
How it works
Produce a Growth Direction Analysis — a completed matrix with mapped options, feasibility scores, and a prioritized growth agenda.
Step 1: Define Current Product-Market Baseline. State what your "existing products" are and who your "existing customers" are. If the team disagrees on what counts as the existing market, resolve that before assigning quadrants.
Step 2: Enumerate Growth Options by Quadrant. At least 3 specific options per quadrant. "Enter Asia" is not an option; "launch English-language SaaS in Japan targeting mid-market manufacturing firms" is.
When to use it
- user says 'where should we grow next', 'should we enter a new market', 'thinking about diversifying', 'new product vs new market', 'growth strategy', 'adjacent expansion', 'Ansoff', or is spreading resources across too many directions at once
When not to use it
When the decision is routine and reversible, applying a formal method costs more than it returns.
Worked example
An AI Startup's Growth Options (2024–2026)
By 2024–2026, the fastest-growing category of software company was the AI-native startup that had reached early product-market fit with a chat or copilot product and then faced the classic Ansoff question: where to grow next, when capital was abundant but compute costs and AI-native competition were both rising fast. This example uses OpenAI's ChatGPT-era arc as the anchor because its major moves in this window were widely reported and publicly announced — but the same mapping applies to any AI startup deciding between deepening current…
Install this skill (free, MIT)
npx skills add deciqAI/knowledge-skillsUseful? Star the repo — stars help other builders find it.
Related mental models
Most competitive strategy assumes industry boundaries are fixed.
From Traction (Weinberg & Mares, 2014): most startups die from lack of distribution, not product, and they fail because they over-invest in one favored channel instead…
A business creates, delivers, and captures value through nine interlocking blocks (Customer Segments, Value Propositions, Channels, Customer Relationships, Revenue Streams, Key Resources, Key Activities, Key Partners…
The cash conversion cycle (CCC) measures how long cash is trapped between paying suppliers and collecting from customers: CCC = DIO (days inventory) + DSO (days…