Product+Opportunity+Gaps

**Product Opportunity Gaps (POGs)**
Thursday, January 20, 2011 <>

Topic overview:
The focus of today's class will be identifying and understanding Product Opportunity Gaps (POGs). A POG is defined by Cagan and Vogel as //the gap between what is currently on the market and the possibility for new or significantly improved products that result from emerging trends// [CV02]. We will extend this definition a bit to include gaps that arise not just from emerging trends, but any gaps that arise from customers' needs, wants, and desires not being properly met by product and service offerings available on the market.

By the end of class today, you should:
 * Be able to use the SET factor model to identify and understand opportunities created by Product Opportunity Gaps (POGs)
 * Understand the concept of 'hiring' a product to do a job, and use the technique of identifying and understanding the Job To Be Done as a way to uncover new Product Opportunity Gaps
 * Understand the concept of Outcome Expectations, and analyze these expectations to identify Product Opportunity Gaps.

Preparation for class:
Today's class will build on the material covered in chapters 1 and 5 of [CV02] from the previous two classes. We will focus on the parts of these chapters that discuss using SET factor analysis to generate Product Opportunity Gaps.

In addition to identifying POGs, we will also introduce three additional opportunity identification techniques covered in the first three chapters of The Innovator's Toolkit [SSD09]:
 * Jobs To Be Done (JTBD)
 * Outcome Expectations
 * Value Quotient

Please review these techniques on pages 1-20 of [SS09] prior to class.

**Reference materials:**
Slides: