| name | market-map |
| description | Use when mapping a market or category for sourcing or diligence — segments the space, places the players, sizes the opportunity in ranges, and states the forces acting on it, as internal analysis only. |
Market Map
The firm's procedure for understanding a category well enough to judge a company in it. A market map is evidence, not a forecast — it sizes and places, it does not predict a return.
Steps
- Fix the question. Name exactly what the map is for: screening a candidate, or sizing a diligence case. The depth follows the question — do not build a diligence-grade map for a screen.
- Define the boundary. State what is in the market and what is adjacent-but-out. A market with no boundary cannot be sized or compared.
- Segment. Break the space into the segments that behave differently — by buyer, use case, or channel. Note which segment the company actually plays in.
- Place the players. List incumbents and challengers, and for each note position, apparent strength, and what they would do if threatened. Build a simple competitor matrix on the axes that matter for this category.
- Size it twice. Produce a bottom-up estimate (units × price, or accounts × spend) and a top-down cross-check, each with its assumptions written down. Report a range, not a point. If the two methods diverge widely, say so and explain why.
- Read the forces. Capture the structural drivers — adoption trend, regulation, distribution economics, platform shifts — and mark each as tailwind, headwind, or uncertain.
- Separate evidence from inference. Every figure carries its source and method; every landscape claim carries the observation behind it.
Quality bar
- The market boundary is explicit; a reader knows what is counted.
- Sizing is a range with visible assumptions, cross-checked by a second method.
- The competitor matrix uses axes that matter for the decision, not generic ones.
- Contradictions with the company's own claims are flagged, not smoothed over.
- The map informs a decision it does not make; nothing in it advises a transaction.
Output format
A market map with: boundary statement, segment breakdown, competitor matrix, a two-method sizing range with assumptions, and a forces note marking each driver's direction — all sourced and dated, scoped to the stated question.
