The 7-Sprints Go-to-Market Framework
"You can't build a product unless you know how to talk about the product. You can't be an expert in making the product unless you're also an expert in the market of it."
— Brian Chesky (Co-founder & CEO, Airbnb)
Why this framework exists
This framework exists because most startups skip the hard work of positioning. They jump straight to tactics like building features, running ads, and hiring salespeople without answering fundamental strategic questions:
- Who is our customer? (Specific segments, not everyone)
- What specific problem do we solve? (A verifiable pain, not a general improvement)
- What market category do we compete in? (An existing mental bucket, not a made-up one)
- Why are we the best choice for our ideal customer? (A clear differentiator, not just more features)
- What are we deliberately NOT doing? (The hardest question)
These questions are uncomfortable. Answering them requires you to narrow your focus. Most founders resist this. They worry that narrowing the market means fewer customers.
The truth is the opposite. Narrow positioning leads to faster growth. Trying to be everything to everyone makes you nothing to anyone. Positioning tightly around a specific customer with a specific problem makes you the obvious choice for that segment.
How this framework is different
This framework acts as a strategic operating system built on four proven pillars:
1. Customer Discovery You cannot find truth inside your building. Every sprint relies on direct customer validation to ground your strategy in reality. We don't guess what customers want. We ask, listen, and verify.
2. Strategic Positioning Positioning defines the business strategy. It sets the context for your product. We force you to choose who you are, who you serve, and exactly what you are not before you waste capital scaling the wrong message.
3. Jobs-to-be-Done People hire products to make progress in their lives. We focus on the "job" your customer needs to get done (like "avoid eviction") and the specific moment that triggers their search for a solution.
4. The Sprint Mindset Startups die from slow decision-making. We compress months of strategy work into focused, time-boxed sprints. This forces you to stop overthinking and start shipping tangible, testable artifacts.
We have also added AI-Powered Acceleration. Each sprint leverages AI tools to compress research, generate variations, and validate ideas at incredible speeds. AI accelerates the work, but you provide the strategy and customer empathy.
The framework: 7 sprints from discovery to market
Each sprint follows this structure:
- 3 hours: Focused workshop with key stakeholders
- 5 hours: Solo or small team execution and customer validation
- Deliverable: A complete, actionable artifact ready for the next sprint
The sprints build on each other:
- Customer Discovery Sprint - Validate the problem and the customer
- Positioning Sprint - Choose your market, customer, and value
- Brand Sprint - Anchor positioning in a memorable identity
- Messaging & Content Sprint - Translate positioning into clear messages
- Design Sprint - Visualize the brand and messaging
- Content Creation Sprint - Build the content engine and distribution plan
- Go-to-Market Sprint - Launch, measure, and iterate
By the end, you move from high-risk uncertainty to validated positioning and a systematic go-to-market approach. You cannot eliminate all risk, but you dramatically improve your odds by building on facts rather than assumptions.
Who this is for
This framework serves early-stage B2B and B2B2C startups that have:
- Built an initial product or MVP
- Talked to some customers but lack systematic validation
- Struggled to gain traction despite a good product
- Changed messaging repeatedly without results
- Heard "interesting, but not now" too many times
- Found that people understand the product but don't see why they should choose it over the competition
If this describes you, you likely have a positioning problem. Let's fix it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Why "Sprints"? Can't we just do this as we go?
A: Speed is your only sustainable advantage. Startups often bleed out because they spend months debating strategy. A sprint forces a decision. As General Patton said, "A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week." hillock. provides just enough structure to make a high-confidence decision so you can get back to building your company.
Q: Is 3 hours really enough time for positioning?
A: Yes. Constraints force clarity. Most 3-day strategy offsites consist of talking in circles. We cut the noise. Time-boxing exercises forces you to focus on the 2-3 variables that actually move the needle and ignore the trivial details. The 3-hour workshop handles the strategy. The 5-hour execution block handles the deep work.
Q: We already know our customer. Can we skip Sprint 1?
A: We advise against it. Most founders know their early adopters, who are biased. Sprint 1 uncovers the trigger events and struggling moments that cause customers to buy. Unless you can quote your customer's pain back to them verbatim, you don't know them well enough yet.
Q: Is this just for software companies?
A: The examples focus on SaaS and Fintech, but the principles of Positioning and Jobs-to-be-Done are universal. Medical devices, consulting services, and consumer apps all need to define who they serve, why they matter, and why they beat the alternative.
Q: What if we find out our idea is bad?
A: Then we saved you two years and $500k. The framework validates the business, not your ego. Finding a positioning problem early allows you to pivot now rather than failing slowly over three years.
Q: Do I need a full team for this?
A: No. A co-founder or lead helps, but a solo founder can run this process. The structure creates immense value for solo founders by preventing them from getting stuck in their own heads.
Q: How much does AI do?
A: AI acts as the engine, not the driver. We use AI to accelerate the grunt work like summarizing transcripts, generating variations, and analyzing competitors. You make the high-level judgment calls. AI does the heavy lifting.