market-map

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

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. Segment. Break the space into the segments that behave differently — by buyer, use case, or channel. Note which segment the company actually plays in.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. Read the forces. Capture the structural drivers — adoption trend, regulation, distribution economics, platform shifts — and mark each as tailwind, headwind, or uncertain.
7. 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.