organic-growth-advisor

What this skill does

## Purpose

Help product managers identify which organic growth path to pursue by diagnosing where the constraint actually lives. This is not a comprehensive strategy tool. It is a fast triage that puts you in the right lane before you start building hypotheses or running experiments.

The four growth paths covered here are drawn from the McKinsey Growth Pyramid (Levels 2 through 5). Levels 1, 6, and 7 are out of scope: Level 1 (existing products to existing customers) is a retention and optimization problem, not a growth motion. Levels 6 and 7 (new industry structure, new arenas) require capital and executive mandate beyond typical product team scope.

This skill does three things and nothing more:
1. Diagnoses where your growth constraint lives using two questions
2. Places your situation on the Growth Path Matrix (customer/market context vs. degree of product change)
3. Recommends one growth path with rationale, a diagnostic question, and a first experiment

### Anti-Patterns (What This Is NOT)

- **Not a rigorous diagnostic instrument:** A fast triage tool, not a scoring model
- **Not a maturity model or rubric:** No stages, no grades, no weighted criteria
- **Not a substitute for customer discovery:** It points you in a direction; discovery validates it
- **Not a guarantee:** If the recommendation does not feel right, that tension is worth exploring

### When to Use This Skill

- Growth is stalling and you are unsure which lever to pull next
- Multiple growth paths seem viable and you need to choose one to test first
- You want to set up an AI-assisted experiment with a clear hypothesis
- A team or stakeholder debate about growth direction needs a fast resolution

### When NOT to Use This Skill

- You have not yet achieved core product-market fit (fix L1 first)
- You already have a validated growth path in motion (do not switch lanes mid-experiment)
- You need a rigorous strategic planning tool (this is triage, not strategy)
- You lack basic context about your current customers and their problems (gather that first)

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## Key Concepts

### The Growth Path Matrix

Two questions place your situation on the matrix:

**X axis: Customer/Market Context**
How familiar is the next customer or market you want to reach?
- **Known:** Same market, same type of buyer, familiar problem context
- **Less Known:** Different geography, unfamiliar cultural or regulatory context, buyer type you have not served before

**Y axis: Degree of Product Change**
How much does the product itself need to change to unlock the next wave of growth?
- **Low:** The product mostly works. What needs to change is how customers find or access it, or which customer you go after next.
- **High:** The product needs to evolve. New capabilities or an entirely new product line is required to solve the next job.

### The Four Growth Paths

**L2: New Customer Segments** (Known context + Low product change)
You already solve a real problem. A nearby buyer may need it too.

**L4: New Distribution Channels** (Known context + High product change)
Product offers same value. People need a better way to find or access it.

**L3: New Geographies** (Less Known context + Low product change)
The product may travel. The market context does not come with it automatically.

**L5: New Products or Services** (Less Known context + High product change)
Customers are pulling you toward adjacent jobs your offer does not fully solve.

### Why This Order Matters

Risk scales with distance from your core. L2 is closest: same market, same product. L5 is furthest: new product, less familiar context. Most teams overinvest in L5 before they have exhausted L2 and L4. If your core product-market fit is strong and your current market is not saturated, L2 or L4 is almost always the right move first.

### The Knowledge Principle

Innovation at any level is downstream of accumulated contextual knowledge. The teams that succeed at L3 are not the ones who moved fastest. They are the ones who studied how value actually travels in the new market before they tried to scale it. The teams that succeed at L5 are not the most creative. They built the adjacent product their existing customers were already asking for, in language they already understood.

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### Facilitation Source of Truth

Use [`workshop-facilitation`](../workshop-facilitation/SKILL.md) as the default interaction protocol for this skill.

It defines:
- session heads-up + entry mode (Guided, Context dump, Best guess)
- one-question turns with plain-language prompts
- progress labels (for example, Context Q1/3 and Recommendation)
- interruption handling and pause/resume behavior
- numbered recommendations at decision points
- quick-select numbered response options for regular questions (include `Other (specify)` when useful)

This file defines the domain-specific assessment content. If there is a conflict, follow this file's domain logic.

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## Application

This interactive skill asks **3 adaptive questions**, offering **3 enumerated options** at each diagnostic step.

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### Question 1: Current Situation

**Agent asks:**

"Let's identify your best organic growth path. To start:

- What does your product do, and who is your current core customer?
- Where is growth stalling right now?
- What have you already tried?"

Accept a brief answer. Two to four sentences is enough. The goal is to establish baseline context before asking the diagnostic questions.

---

### Question 2: Customer/Market Context

**Agent asks:**

"Think about the next customer or market you want to reach: the one who would unlock your next wave of growth.

How familiar is that context to you?"

**Offer 3 enumerated options:**

1. **Well known** — Same market, same type of buyer, familiar problem and context. You have served customers like this before.
2. **Somewhat known** — Adjacent buyer or market. You have a hypothesis about who they are, but limited direct experience with them.
3. **Less known** — New geography, new industry, new buyer profile. Their context, norms, and decision-making process are meaningfully different from what you know.

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### Question 3: Degree of Product Change

**Agent asks:**

"To reach that customer and grow, how much does your product need to change?

What does the constraint actually require?"

**Offer 3 enumerated options:**

1. **Low change** — The product mostly works for this next customer. What needs to change is how they find it, access it, or how you reach them.
2. **High change** — The product does not fully solve what this customer needs. New capabilities or a new product line is required.
3. **Somewhere in between** — Describe what feels more pressing. That will determine the path.

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### Output: Growth Path Recommendation

After three questions, the agent delivers a recommendation using the pattern below.

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#### Recommendation Pattern

```markdown
## Your Growth Path: [L2 / L3 / L4 / L5] — [Name]

**Where you sit on the matrix:**
- Customer/market context: [Known / Less Known]
- Degree of product change: [Low / High]

**Why this path fits your situation:**
[2 to 3 sentences connecting their specific context to the growth path. Be direct. Reference what they told you.]

**The diagnostic question to keep asking:**
[One sharp question: the one that will tell them if they are right about this path]

**What innovation looks like here:**
[Concrete description of what real innovation looks like at this level. Not a feature list, but a pattern.]

**A first experiment to run this week:**
[One specific, low-cost action they can take in the next 5 to 7 days to test whether this path is real]

**Watch out for:**
[One trap that kills teams pursuing this path: the most common mistake at this level]
```

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#### Path-Specific Guidance

**L2: New Customer Segments**

Diagnostic question: Who else has the problem we already solve?

What innovation looks like: Finding adjacent buyers inside your existing market whose context is similar enough that you