MARKET ACCELERATION TOOLSTACK
We believe products fail not because of lousy engineering or marketing but because of:
- Flawed problem-solution fit,
- Flawed product-market fit, or
- Inadequate business model validation.
Our Market Acceleration ToolStack corrects mismatches early, while course correction is cheap and quick.
We then apply our data-informed Market Acceleration Models to predict and validate market size, share and growth.
Deliver a portfolio of profitable, defensible, well-timed hit products and services!
Your Three Moves to Accelerate Market Growth
Move 1: Solve HIGH-VALUE, UNDERSERVED Problems
Understand your customers deeply by uncovering their Jobs-to-be-Done, pains, and gains.
Through customer motivation interviews and analysis, we help you identify underserved needs that signal high-value opportunities.
Example Tools:
- Jobs-to-be-Done Framework
- 5 Rings of Buying Insight
- Where to Play
Key Questions: What's your new product 'hit rate'? When was your last hit?
Move 2: Validate Your Business Model
De-risk your investments by testing critical assumptions early.
We guide you through iterative prototyping and evidence-based validation to ensure your product intercepts market demand.
Example Tools:
- Business Model Validation
- Minimum Viable Product (MVP) Testing
- Techno-economic Assessment
Key Questions: What is your proof the market gives a damn about your development plans? When will you recover development and launch costs - at how many units? How will the organization survive a flop?
Move 3: Build Winning Go-to-Market Strategies
Position your product for success with strategies rooted in real-world customer insights.
Through data-informed predictive modeling, we help you create compelling, defensible offerings that dominate in competitive markets.
Example Tools:
- StoryBuilding Product Narratives
- Investment Readiness Level (IRL)
- Portfolio-Based Market Modeling
“They assume that if they build 'It' right, people will want 'It'.
In most cases, that assumption turns out to be both wrong and costly.”
— Alberto Savoia
former Google CTO
Explore Our Market Acceleration Toolstack
Master your Customer's Perspective
Gain clarity on customer struggles and motivations by adopting an outside-in view. This tool suite helps uncover demand-side insights that guide product definition.
- Jobs-To-Be-Done - Bob Moesta and Chris Spieck: The gold standard for mapping the progress your customer is trying to make, highlighting their struggling moments and how you can help them.
- Outcome-Driven Innovation - Tony Ulwick: Identify the Important, Underserved Needs that set your product in a class of its own. Take a data-driven approach to Jobs-to-Be-Done that lets you fine-tune your product's winning feature set.
- Buyer Personas and the 5 Rings of Buying Influence - Adele Revella and Jim Kraus: The Buyer's Journey differs from the Customer's Journey - whether B2B or B2C, uncover the triggers and inputs to the buying process that are your keys to changing buying behavior.
Book a 30-Minute Appointment
Benefits of Mastering your Customer's Perspective
- Better Product-Market Fit: Knowing your customers’ jobs, pains, and gains helps you design products that solve real problems. This leads to higher adoption and satisfaction.
- Stronger Customer Relationships: When customers feel understood, they trust your brand more. This builds loyalty and encourages repeat business.
- Competitive Edge: By solving customer pain points better than competitors, your products become the go-to solution, attracting new customers and keeping existing ones loyal.
Validate your Business Model
Desirability. Feasibility. Viability. Adaptability. The backbone of validating your business model.
For every "It" or product, we must satisfy the following questions:
- Desirability - does anybody want "It"?
- Does it target a high-value, underserved need?
- What are the assumptions that will create customer value?
- Risk: solving an irrelevant customer job.
- Feasibility - can we build "It"?
- What are the assumptions about infrastructure and capability that enable you to execute your business model well?
- Risk: poor execution.
- Viability - should we offer "It"?
- What financial assumptions will earn you more money than you spend?
- Risk: flawed business model.
- Adaptability - can we defend "It"?
- Choosing the right business model within the context of external factors, like competition, technology change, or regulation.
- Can we defend our differentiated position in the marketplace?
- Risk: external threats.
Ralston Consulting's coaching and process ensure due diligence in vetting any initiative.
Benefits of Business Model Validation
- Increase credibility with the executive suite and investors by supporting or discounting theories with real-world data.
- Pivot or kill initiatives while it's cheap and easy to do so, resulting in a lean innovation portfolio.
- Increase the overall ROI of your innovation portfolio by achieving a hit rate well above the single digits experienced by many companies.
Maximize your Product Portfolio
Organizations often face significant hurdles in managing their product development portfolios effectively, resulting in delayed or failed development initiatives. Not only does it drain the company's resources, but it is also career-limiting for the P&L Owner...
Prioritize projects above/below the funding line with confidence!- Portfolio-Based ROI and Market Modeling - Developed and tempered in the fires of multiple private equity acquisitions, our data-driven graphical portfolio optimization model lets you decide what is above and below the funding line and see how the decision will play out across the portfolio.
- Investment Readiness Level (see image below) - Sometimes, the problem is: too much funding too soon. Use a gated funding model akin to TRL for technology to ensure your development teams build on solid foundations rather than stacking up a house of cards.
- Where to Play Framework - Developed for VCs, Technology Transfer Offices and companies with significant product portfolios. This framework helps you open new markets and uncover synergies between offerings.
Benefits of a Maximized Product Portfolio
- Optimized Resource Utilization
- A well-managed product portfolio ensures resources—money, people, and technology—are focused on the most valuable projects. This reduces waste, speeds up product delivery, and improves returns on investment.
- Enhanced Risk Management
- Good portfolio management helps identify and reduce risks early, lowering the chance of costly failures.
- Strategic Alignment and Competitive Advantage
- A strategic approach allows your organization to adapt quickly to market changes and seize new opportunities ahead of competitors.
The biggest advantage? Credibility with the people who control your resources. Repeatedly deliver as promised, and watch your impact soar!
Do More for Your Business, Your Team, & Your Customers
Don’t let an uncertain economy or complexities within your business keep your organization from reaching new heights.
Schedule a 30-minute appointment with one of our certified coaches, and we’ll work together to identify the challenges standing in your way and determine the best next steps to help you overcome them.
Contact Us
+1 614-761-1841
2158 N Jacobson Rd
Suttons Bay, MI 49682
United States