Six Paths Framework
The Six Paths Framework is a Blue Ocean Strategy tool developed by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne to help organisations systematically reconstruct the boundaries of their industry and discover uncontested market space. Most organisations define their competitive landscape too narrowly — they look at direct competitors, address known customer segments, and compete on established factors. The Six Paths Framework breaks this habit by systematically looking across six alternative lenses: alternative industries (what problem does the customer solve if they don't use you?), strategic groups within an industry (what do lower-tier or higher-tier players offer that your segment ignores?), the chain of buyers (who actually makes the purchase decision versus who uses the product?), complementary products and services (what does the customer do before, during, and after using your product?), functional or emotional appeal (can you shift from competing on features to competing on experience, or vice versa?), and time (how are external trends reshaping customer needs, and what would the market look like if these trends played out fully?). Each path is a structured provocation that generates new factor candidates — the raw material for the Strategy Canvas and the ERRC Grid. Used in a workshop, the Six Paths Framework prevents teams from recycling existing mental models and creates genuinely new strategic possibilities to evaluate.
How to run it
- 1
Introduce the framework: explain that the goal is to deliberately look outside the current competitive box through six different lenses. Set the expectation that the session will produce new factor candidates — not final answers.
- 2
Path 1 — Alternative Industries (15 min): Ask 'What other industries or products do customers turn to instead of us?' Map the key offerings of those alternatives and identify what factors make them attractive. Capture insights on sticky notes.
- 3
Path 2 — Strategic Groups (10 min): Identify the tier structure in your industry (premium, mid-market, value). Ask 'What do players in the tier above us do that our customers envy?' and 'What do tier-below players offer that our customers actually prefer?'
- 4
Path 3 — Chain of Buyers (10 min): Map the buyer chain (purchaser, user, influencer). Ask 'Which buyer group does the industry focus on, and which is currently being ignored?' Explore what value factors matter to neglected buyers.
- 5
Path 4 — Complementary Offerings (10 min): Map the customer's broader context: what happens before, during, and after they use your product? Ask 'What complementary product or service, if bundled or eliminated, would create or destroy the most friction?'
- 6
Path 5 — Functional/Emotional Appeal (10 min): Assess whether your industry competes primarily on functional or emotional terms. Ask 'What would it look like to strip the emotional elements and offer pure function?' or 'What emotional meaning could we add to a functional category?'
- 7
Path 6 — Time and Trends (10 min): Identify 2–3 macro trends that are reshaping your market. Project them forward: 'If this trend plays out completely, what factors will customers value that they barely notice today?'
- 8
Synthesise: across all six paths, cluster and prioritise the new factor candidates generated. Feed the highest-potential candidates into the Strategy Canvas horizontal axis or the ERRC Grid for further processing.
Tips
Participants often stay too close to their existing industry in Path 1. Push hard: a consumer app should look at books, coaches, communities — not just competitor apps.
Path 3 (chain of buyers) consistently produces the most surprising insights in B2B contexts — the person paying for the product is rarely the person suffering the problem.
Timebox each path strictly. The goal is breadth of provocation, not depth. Depth comes in the Strategy Canvas and ERRC phases.
Prepare external stimulus materials in advance: screenshots of alternative industry offerings, trend reports, customer interview snippets. Cold-start ideation rarely produces the best insights.
Run this framework before — not after — drawing the Strategy Canvas. It ensures the factor list on the horizontal axis is genuinely expansive rather than anchored on existing competitive moves.
Variations
For a focused 60-minute version, select only 3 of the 6 paths that are most relevant to the specific strategic question. For an innovation sprint, use only Path 4 (complementary offerings) and Path 6 (trends) to frame future product directions. Can be run asynchronously as pre-work, with findings synthesised in a subsequent workshop.
Where it fits
Frequently asked questions
When should I use Six Paths Framework?â–¾
Use Six Paths Framework when you want to: Identifying new market spaces beyond current competitive landscape; Pre-work for a Blue Ocean Strategy Canvas workshop; Product strategy sessions where incremental thinking has stalled; Innovation pipeline exploration for new revenue streams; Strategic planning in disrupted or commoditised markets.
How long does Six Paths Framework take?â–¾
Six Paths Framework typically takes 75–150 minutes.
How many participants does Six Paths Framework work for?â–¾
Six Paths Framework works best for groups of 4–20 participants.
What materials do I need for Six Paths Framework?â–¾
To run Six Paths Framework you will need: Six Paths template (6 columns), Large whiteboard or paper, Sticky notes, Markers, Customer journey or persona data, Industry/competitor reference materials.
How difficult is Six Paths Framework to facilitate?â–¾
Six Paths Framework is rated intermediate — some facilitation experience is helpful.
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Try it freeMethod descriptions on Workshop Weaver are original content written by our team, based on established facilitation practices. This method was inspired by work from W. Chan Kim & Renée Mauborgne.