Niche Landscape Sprint
Three-week systematic assessment before diversification—dispersal is cheap, establishment is expensive. Map niches, test feasibility, prioritize before committing resources.
When a finch-like bird colonized the Galápagos Islands 2-3 million years ago, it didn't immediately diversify into 15 species with specialized beaks for seeds, cacti, insects, and blood. First, it had to survive in available niches, then gradually specialize as competition intensified and new opportunities emerged. The Hawaiian honeycreepers followed a similar pattern over 5-7 million years, eventually evolving 50+ species with bill shapes found nowhere else on Earth—but only after their ancestor successfully established in the archipelago. Dispersal is cheap; establishment is expensive. The Ansoff Matrix recognizes diversification as the highest-risk growth strategy because it requires both new products and new markets simultaneously. Amazon radiated successfully from books into retail, then AWS, then devices—each expansion leveraged existing infrastructure (fulfillment, cloud, Alexa). Alphabet's attempts to radiate into social (Google+) and hardware (Pixel) struggled despite attractive markets because the diversification required capabilities Google's search-advertising core couldn't easily provide. The Niche Landscape Sprint provides a structured three-week process to map available niches, assess organizational readiness for radiation, and prioritize opportunities before committing resources. Week 1 identifies 10-20 potential niches through customer segmentation and competitive gap analysis. Week 2 assesses radiation feasibility—can your organization actually colonize these niches with its current architecture? Week 3 forces prioritization and secures leadership commitment to specific expansion targets.
When to Use Niche Landscape Sprint
Use before committing resources to diversification or product expansion. Apply when leadership proposes entering new markets and you need to systematically evaluate options. Deploy when competitors are radiating into adjacent spaces and you need to decide whether to follow. Run this sprint whenever someone says 'we should expand into X' without evidence that X is actually colonizable with current capabilities.
How to Apply
Week 1: Identify Potential Niches
Like surveying an island archipelago before deciding which islands to colonize, Week 1 maps the full landscape of potential niches. Days 1-2 use customer segmentation to identify 10-20 distinct niches (not markets—niches are specific ecological positions). Days 3-4 analyze competitive gaps: which niches are underserved, which are fiercely contested? Day 5 maps your capabilities to each niche—how far would you need to evolve to succeed?
Questions to Ask
- What are the 10-20 distinct customer niches adjacent to your current market?
- Which niches are underserved (low competition, unmet needs)?
- Which niches are overcrowded (intense competition, commoditized)?
- For each promising niche, what capabilities would you need that you lack today?
Outputs
- Potential niche list (10-20 niches)
- Competitive landscape map
- Capability distance scorecard for top 5 niches
Week 2: Assess Radiation Feasibility
Successful adaptive radiation requires two things: available niches AND organizational capacity to diversify. Week 2 tests the second condition. Days 6-7 audit your modular architecture: can you create specialized products/teams without destroying existing business? Days 8-9 assess isolation feasibility: can new niche teams operate independently enough to optimize for their niche? Day 10 quantifies each opportunity: what's the realistic TAM if you successfully colonize?
Questions to Ask
- Is your product/service architecture modular enough to spawn variants?
- Can new niche teams have P&L autonomy?
- What organizational changes would be required for each niche?
- What's the realistic TAM for each niche (be conservative)?
Outputs
- Modularity readiness score (1-10)
- Isolation feasibility assessment by niche
- TAM estimates with assumptions documented
Week 3: Prioritize and Commit
Hawaiian honeycreepers didn't evolve 50 species simultaneously—radiation is sequential. Week 3 forces prioritization. Days 11-12 apply a decision matrix combining niche attractiveness (TAM, competition) with colonization feasibility (capability distance, resource requirements). Days 13-14 build one-page business cases for the top 2-3 niches. Day 15 presents to leadership for resource commitment—no vague 'we should explore this' but specific headcount, budget, and timeline.
Questions to Ask
- Which 2-3 niches have the best combination of attractiveness and feasibility?
- What resources are required to colonize each (headcount, budget, timeline)?
- What must we stop doing to free resources for radiation?
- What's the explicit decision: commit, defer, or decline for each niche?
Outputs
- Prioritized list of 2-3 niches to pursue
- One-page business case for each
- Leadership commitment with specific resources