Map Target Channels and Select Core Routes
Audit candidate channels—direct, indirect, digital, or partner-led—and narrow your focus to the primary routes to market. Evaluate each channel against target customer accessibility, unit economics, control, and implementation complexity.
Isolating and selecting specific focus channels prevents resource dilution across unproven distribution routes. It forces the venture to prioritise channels where competitive advantage and scalable distribution overlap most strongly.
Produce a channel selection matrix ranking potential routes against acquisition cost, margin impact, implementation effort, and reach. The output must clearly state which channels are selected for immediate execution and which are explicitly deprioritised.
Five questions an expert would ask when reviewing your output
Use these to challenge assumptions, pressure-test your logic, and check the quality of this action's output in the context of the parent task and wider venture development.
- 1
Why did you select this specific channel over lower-cost or higher-reach alternatives?
- 2
What real-world evidence proves your target customers actually discover and purchase solutions through this channel?
- 3
How does your unit economic model hold up once channel partner margins or commission fees are deducted?
- 4
What level of operational control are you sacrificing by relying on this distribution channel?
- 5
What specific friction points in this channel could delay customer onboarding or conversion?