Agile focus

Worksheet 3 — Agile Focus Strategy

Help the team set strategic focus without losing agility: choose one Primary market opportunity to pursue with full force, and hold Backup ("Plan B") and Growth options as real options — the right, but not the obligation, to invest later. Output is the Agile Focus Dartboard.

The non-negotiable: the focus choice is the team's

Choosing the Primary is a hard value judgement built on the Worksheet 2 map plus judgement the map can't show. This skill structures the decision and surfaces trade-offs; it does not pick the Primary for the team. "Focusing is about saying no" — that "no" belongs to the humans.

Step A — Choose the Primary

Base the choice on the Attractiveness Map and the underlying Worksheet 2 evidence. Recognise the map pattern:

1. One clearly superior (a Gold Mine) → straightforward.
2. Diagonal trade-off (Quick Wins ↔ Moon Shots) → depends on risk appetite; a quick win can be a stepping stone to a moon shot.
3. All closely located → go back to Worksheet 2; decide on individual factors (e.g. time to revenues) or reshapeability.
4. No attractive options (all Questionable) → go back to Worksheet 1.

Rule: the Primary must not sit in the Questionable zone. Then apply the layers the map doesn't show, in order: Personal fit (product/market/founder fit — ask it plainly: is this aligned with your passion and values? You have to love it; you have to wake up every morning with energy for it) → Fit with stakeholders' interests → Resource constraints. Deciding what not to do is the hardest part and can come with some stomach ache — that's normal. Take the time; there is no perfect opportunity.

Because choosing the Primary is the highest-stakes convergent call, the team can optionally convene the advisory-board skill on the map and the candidate Primary for a multi-perspective gut-check, and/or spawn the persona-skeptic agent to stress the chosen Primary's risks before committing. These provoke and surface assumptions — the choice stays the team's.

Step B — Find Backup and Growth candidates

Hold a minimum portfolio: at least one Backup and one Growth. Candidates come from the existing set, or new related ones — and any new candidate must be added to the set and scored in Worksheet 2, colour-flagged as not-yet-assessed. The number of candidate columns is meaningless; assess as few or many as make sense.

Step C — Assess relatedness (two axes)

Relatedness = how far you can leverage resources, capabilities and relationships from one opportunity to another. More related → cheaper to keep open and easier to switch into. Founders routinely check product relatedness and neglect market relatedness — a critical mistake. Scale per axis: circles don't overlap = not related; overlap somewhat = somewhat related; overlap strongly = tightly related.

• Product relatedness — to what extent do the products share: technological competences? · required resources? · necessary networks?
• Market relatedness — to what extent do the customers share: values and benefits (brand/reputation)? · sales channels? · word of mouth?

Step D — Balance risk (Backup-specific)

A good Backup is related but must not share the same major risks / showstoppers / core assumptions as the Primary — you want it to survive even if the Primary fails. A good Growth is as attractive and as tightly related as possible. One option can serve as both. Surface the two trade-offs: attractiveness vs. relatedness, and relatedness vs. risk-balancing.

Step E — Set the investment level

For each held option choose one of three levels:

1. Keep open (default, ~5–10% of resources): stay informed, build flexible/modular resources, broad IP, a non-excluding identity/brand.
2. Pursue now in parallel (dangerous for early startups): only if the Primary is highly uncertain and the option is tightly related on both product and market.
3. Place in storage: do nothing for now, keep it in mind ("you don't pay rent").

Flexibility is not an excuse to never choose: slice resources across too many bets and you cannot really progress.

Step F — Fill the dartboard

Write where-to-play/03_agile-focus.md: centre = Primary (plus any parallel-pursued option); middle ring = chosen Backup/Growth (kept open); outer ring = the rest (storage). Colour-flag options not yet assessed in Worksheet 2.

Mindset

The Agile Focus Strategy shapes the venture from day one (resources, identity/culture, branding — pick a non-excluding name, fundraising). It is a dynamic tool, continuously updated — "more than a strategy, it's a mindset." Finalise only once you trust the Worksheet 2 map; otherwise use Worksheet 3 to prioritise what to learn next. The revisit skill re-opens this as evidence accumulates.

Additional resources

• references/worksheet-3-spec.md — read it for the source detail behind the steps above: verbatim author quotes, the three decision-timing triggers for finalising the Primary (learning saturation / running low on money / branding pressure), the four map patterns, relatedness sub-questions, pitfalls, and worked examples.
• A complete filled dartboard appears in ../where-to-play/references/examples/inergio-full-navigator.md.