Starting Something New in 2021? Get the Sequence Right.

If you’re starting something new in 2021, you need to get the sequence right. You may ask, without the benefit of reading our previous posts, the sequence of what?

What we mean is the use of blue ocean tools and frameworks to confirm the validity of your idea or offering in blue ocean terms. Of course, if capturing uncontested market space and new customers is not a priority, blue ocean thinking will not be a fit.
In this post, we’ll cover the first step. Buyer Utility.
If you are content to compete head-on with others in your industry on the basis of price, these frameworks won’t be very valuable to you.

Let’s start with the graphic below.

The high points of the Buyer Utility step.
Buyer Utility. In blue ocean disciplines, buyer utility is an absolute essential. Buyer utility may be defined as a consumer’s ability to purchase, take delivery, use, obtain necessary or not need accessories, maintain, and dispose of the product or offering with limited barriers to any of those factors.

The tool used by blue ocean strategists for this process is the Buyer Utility Map. See below.

The map uncovers all the levers a company, or you, may pull to make sure you’re delivering excellent buyer utility to your consumers. As you go through the process, you place an X in the boxes where there are blocks to exceptional utility.

An example would be as follows. Amazon identified significant blocks to exceptional utility with delays in the delivery of products.

As a result, they establishe