C̶o̶n̶t̶e̶n̶t̶ Context is King. When I was a first-time founder, I'd hit a wall when trying to articulate my go-to-market strategy to investors and advisors. Despite having all the pieces, something was missing in my standard slide decks and one-pagers. The story wasn't translating. I got questions like: → "𝘞𝘩𝘺 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘩𝘪𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 *𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘦* 𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘧𝘪𝘤 𝘳𝘰𝘭𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘵 *𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴* 𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘧𝘪𝘤 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦?" → "𝘠𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘤𝘲𝘶𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘥𝘰𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘘1 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘘2. 𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘧𝘪𝘤 𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘴 𝘥𝘳𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘤𝘤𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘶𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘨𝘳𝘰𝘸𝘵𝘩?" → "𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘥𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘣𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘬 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯? 𝘐𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘴 𝘣𝘺 3 𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘩𝘴, 𝘥𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘦𝘯𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘳𝘶𝘯𝘸𝘢𝘺? 𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘪𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘴 𝘣𝘺 6 𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘩𝘴?" Then I realized: I'm a systems thinker trying to express a dozen interdependent plans and assumptions through a purely *linear* framework. Slide by slide. Line by line. It was no wonder I struggled to communicate it. What my materials lacked wasn't content—I had plenty of that. It was 𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙭𝙩. In other words, how does it all fit together? That insight years ago led me to create the very first of what I now call 𝗚𝗼-𝗧𝗼-𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁 𝗠𝗮𝗽—a visual tool that turns all that great GTM data strewn across a dozen slides into a clear, compelling, and, most importantly, contextual, narrative. The impact was immediate. Formatting it like this made it 100x faster, easier, and more effective for stakeholders (including myself, by the way) to grasp the 𝘩𝘰𝘸, 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯, 𝘸𝘩𝘰, and 𝘸𝘩𝘺, not just the 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵. Everyone I showed it to instantly "got it." What I learned: ↳ Context is king in strategy presentation ↳ Visual storytelling can bridge complex ideas ↳ Aligning your communication method with your thinking style can unlock powerful ideas and innovation I've since created Go-To-Market Maps for nearly every company I've worked with, refining and improving it with each iteration. 𝗔𝗻𝗱 𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗹𝘆, 𝗜 𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝘁 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝗮 𝘁𝗲𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗼𝗻 𝗚𝗼𝗼𝗴𝗹𝗲 𝗦𝗵𝗲𝗲𝘁𝘀 𝘀𝗼 𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝗶𝘁 𝘁𝗼𝗼. If you're struggling to convey the full scope and sequence of your Go-To-Market initiatives, a holistic, contextual view of your strategy can really do wonders. 𝗖𝗟𝗢𝗡𝗘 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗧𝗘𝗠𝗣𝗟𝗔𝗧𝗘 The Google Sheets template is a plug-and-play workbook that automatically formats your growth data and projections into an immediately sharable Go-To-Market Map, visualizing, communicating, and contextualizing your company's growth assumptions over time. 🔽 Comment "𝗚𝗧𝗠 𝗠𝗮𝗽", 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 this post, and 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗰𝘁 with me if this sounds like something that would be helpful for what you're building and I'll happily send you the template for free 🔽
Also special shouts to Benjamin Lachman Alex Edelson Jonathon Triest Dhani Jones Laura Plato Brad Bickerton Romy Kochan Natalie Ann Hazen Mae Watson Grote Sean Kerr Elisabeth Berry Dani Gillman and of course Joe Minock for all helping push this little project forward in one way shape or form (or many!). Much, much gratitude 🙏
Rick Kraniak this is what I mentioned to you today
Looks great. GTM Map please
GTM map please
GTM Map
GTM MAP
GTM Map
GTM Map
GTM Map
Growth and Go-To-Market for mission-driven SaaS.
1moBy the way Josh Barker Bryce Kaiser⚡ this is what I wanted to show you earlier. Take a peek.