Familiarity Matrix
The Familiarity Matrix plots a new move by how well you know the market and how well you know the technology, so you can see how far outside your base you're actually stepping and choose an entry method that matches the real distance.
A nine-cell grid spreads market familiarity along one axis and technology familiarity along the other.
Reach for this when…
- You're launching something adjacent and calling it 'core business' because it feels familiar.
- A move failed and in hindsight it was further from your base than anyone admitted.
- You're weighing whether to build a new venture in-house or acquire it.
How to run it
- Rate the new market: is it your base market, a new but related one, or genuinely unfamiliar?
- Rate the new technology or product the same way: base, related, or unfamiliar.
- Plot the move on the grid; the further from the base corner, the higher the real risk.
- Match entry method to distance: build in-house close to base, partner or acquire further out.
- Revisit the plot before committing more resource, not after the launch has slipped.
A worked example
Situation. Carlos Marin runs Marin Electronica, a mid-sized industrial electronics manufacturer in Valencia, Spain, planning to move into battery-storage systems with an in-house team because 'it's still electronics'.
Applied. Plotted on the matrix, the market was new to them and the core battery-cell technology was unfamiliar too, placing the move in the highest-risk corner rather than the safe one his team assumed.
Result. He shelved the in-house build and instead acquired a small battery-storage startup with the missing technology, cutting eighteen months off the original timeline.
The catch
Familiarity is a judgement call, and teams close to a decision tend to rate their own familiarity higher than it is. The matrix also says nothing about market attractiveness, a move can be low-risk and still not worth doing.
'It's basically the same as what we do' is usually the sound of someone about to misjudge the matrix.
Origin: Edward B. Roberts and Charles A. Berry