Power Progression Strategy

Sustainable competitive advantage requires Power, defined as the combination of a Benefit (a cost or price advantage) and a Barrier (the inability of competitors to mimic that advantage). This framework helps you identify which types of Power are available to your product based on its current phase: Origination, Takeoff, or Stability.

The "To Be or Not To Be" Test

To determine if a feature or strategy provides true Power, ask:

1. Benefit: Does this create a material improvement in my margins (lower cost) or allow me to charge a higher price?
2. Barrier: If a competitor tried to do exactly what I am doing, would they be prevented by economics, physics, or psychology from succeeding?

If you have a benefit but no barrier, you are on a "treadmill" of operational excellence—you must run as fast as possible just to stay in place, but you have no refuge from competition.

The Power Progression Workflow

1. Origination Phase (Pre-Product Market Fit)

In this stage, your primary goal is substitution—convincing users to switch from an existing solution to yours.

• Primary Power: Counter-Positioning.
  • Action: Develop a new, superior business model that an incumbent cannot mimic because doing so would damage their existing business (e.g., Netflix's mail-order DVDs vs. Blockbuster’s retail stores).
  • Heuristic: If an incumbent's CFO would say "We can't do that because it would cannibalize our revenue," you have Counter-Positioning.