Most innovation teams get stuck in a familiar trap – they obsess over Total Addressable Market (TAM) and end up fighting over slices of the same old pie. They either try squeezing more juice from existing customers or stealing customers from competitors. It's like trying to get richer by raiding your neighbor's refrigerator!\n\nTotal Addressable Problem (TAP) flips this thinking on its head. Instead of battling for existing customers, it challenges you to spot people who aren't being served at all. It's about discovering untapped oceans of need beyond your current shores.

Benefits

Why keep throwing elbows in an overcrowded marketplace? That's a recipe for exhausting price wars, paper-thin margins, and growth that crawls rather than soars. Instead, imagine creating markets where you're the only player! When you solve problems for people nobody else is serving, you create entirely new demand – which means faster growth, healthier margins, and a long runway before competitors catch up.

Organisations using Total Addressable Problem analysis discover 3x larger market opportunities compared to traditional market sizing approaches, identify 60% more potential customer segments through systematic non-customer analysis, and achieve 40% higher growth rates by creating new market categories rather than competing in existing ones. TAP methodology enables blue ocean strategy development and sustainable competitive advantage creation.

When to Use

Perfect timing is after you've put your Challenge Brief and Lean Canvas through their paces with Problem Interviews. At this point, you've got a solid grasp on existing customers and their pain points – that's your basecamp. Now it's time to look beyond the familiar paths and scan the horizon! This is your moment to widen the lens dramatically and spot all those people hovering around the edges of your industry or completely outside it.

Use this method after validating core customer problems when you need to explore market expansion opportunities, before developing growth strategies to identify untapped market segments, when stakeholders need comprehensive market opportunity assessment beyond current customers, or when seeking blue ocean strategies that create new market categories. This is essential for discovering innovation opportunities beyond existing market boundaries.

Time Required

Initial non-customer identification: 2 - 3 hours, market segment analysis: 3 - 4 hours, opportunity sizing: 2 - 3 hours, strategic evaluation: 2 - 3 hours

Who

Strategic planner, market researcher, business development lead, innovation manager, senior product manager, executive team member

What you will need

Research Materials: Market research data, industry reports, customer demographics, competitive analysis. Analysis Tools: Spreadsheet software for calculations, market sizing templates, segmentation frameworks. Workshop Materials: Large wall space, sticky notes, flip chart paper, markers, calculators, laptops for data analysis

Downloads

Dig Deeper

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Similar Methods

Total Addressable Market