Whole Product Planning Model
Close the gap between your shipping product and the complete solution customers need
The Whole Product Planning Model addresses the single greatest obstacle to mainstream technology adoption: the gap between what ships in the box (the generic product) and what customers actually need to achieve their buying objective (the whole product). Theodore Levitt's original model identifies four concentric rings: generic product, expected product, augmented product, and potential product.
Moore's key insight is that mainstream pragmatist buyers evaluate and buy whole products, not generic products. A technically superior generic product will consistently lose to an inferior one that has a better whole product ecosystem. This explains why pragmatists prefer market leaders: the leader attracts the partners, accessories, training, support, and third-party validation that complete the whole product.
For chasm crossing specifically, the whole product must be reduced to its minimum viable form: the set of products, services, and partnerships that allow the target customer in your beachhead segment to fulfill their compelling reason to buy. Every element beyond the generic product that customers need must either be built, partnered for, or assembled through tactical alliances.
- Pragmatists evaluate and buy whole products; the generic product is necessary but not sufficient
- Anything less than 100% of the whole product means customers either fill the gap themselves or feel cheated
- The minimum whole product for chasm crossing is whatever fulfills the target customer's compelling reason to buy
- Every additional target customer segment puts additional demands on the whole product; this is why focus matters
- While crossing the chasm, there is no hope of external whole product support that is not specifically recruited by you
- Define the whole product using the simplified doughnut modelDraw two concentric circles. The inner circle is what you ship (your generic product). The outer circle is everything else the customer needs to fulfill their compelling reason to buy. Shade in the areas where your company will take primary responsibility. The remaining areas must be filled by partners or allies.Pro tipWalk through a detailed day-in-the-life scenario for your target customer. Every assumption in that scenario (connectivity, integrations, training, consulting support) reveals a whole product requirement.
- Reduce to the minimum viable whole productApply the KISS principle. Strip away everything that is not essential to fulfilling the target customer's specific compelling reason to buy. Every unnecessary element is a coordination burden that could derail the crossing. The minimum whole product for one niche is far more achievable than a partial whole product for many.WarningDo not burden the whole product with features for adjacent segments. Those will come later as you expand from your beachhead.
- Build tactical alliances for non-core elementsIdentify which whole product elements fall outside your core competence and recruit partners to provide them. These are tactical alliances focused on co-developing and jointly marketing the whole product, not grand strategic partnerships. Work from existing instances of cooperation toward formalized programs.Pro tipWith large partners, work from the bottom up at the district office level. With small partners, work from the top down. In either case, get as close as possible to where decisions affecting the customer actually get made.WarningPartnerships ultimately work only when specific individuals choose to trust each other. Do not count on formalized agreements to drive cooperation.
- Validate by reviewing from each participant's perspectiveEnsure every partner in the whole product wins and no vendor gets an unfair share of value. Review the arrangement from the customer's perspective to confirm it fully addresses their compelling reason to buy. Then review from each partner's perspective to confirm adequate incentive for sustained participation.WarningInequities that favor you will instantly defeat the whole product effort. Companies are naturally suspicious of each other and will interpret your scheme as a rip-off given any encouragement.
Moore walks through a detailed scenario of a maintenance technician using an e-book to diagnose an aircraft problem. The seemingly simple scenario reveals extensive whole product requirements: industrial-strength chassis, document management system integration, nightly download infrastructure, hyperlinked knowledge bases, wireless connectivity, and interface software. Each additional target customer (doctors, lawyers, students) adds entirely new whole product demands.
Pragmatists prefer Microsoft Office not because it is technically superior to alternatives from Corel or Lotus, but because its whole product ecosystem is unmatched: books in every bookstore, training seminars, office hotline support, temporary workers already trained on the product. Even when offered a better deal on an alternative, pragmatists resist switching because the rest of the whole product cannot match up.
The whole product concept originates from Theodore Levitt's The Marketing Imagination and was further developed in Bill Davidow's Marketing High Technology. Moore integrated it as the centerpiece of his chasm-crossing strategy after observing that companies consistently shipped 80-90% of the whole product to many possible customers but 100% to none. This chronic shortfall was the wellspring of disillusionment with high-tech's ability to deliver on promises.