When to use it
- You have several products or activities and limited resources.
- You need to decide where to invest, what to milk and what to stop.
- You want a simple view of your portfolio.
How to do it, step by step
- List your products or activities.
- For each one, estimate the yearly growth of its market (usual threshold: 10%).
- Estimate your relative share: your share divided by the leader’s (1 = on par).
- Place each product in one of the four cells.
- Decide: back it, pick, milk it or stop.
The four cells
- Stars: growing market, strong position. Keep backing them.
- Question marks: growing market, weak position. Pick a winner or drop.
- Cash cows: mature market, strong position. Milk the profits.
- Dogs: slow market, weak position. Stop or rethink.
Example
An SME has three offers: a recent software in a fast-growing market where it is small (question mark), a historic service leading a stable market (cash cow), and an offer customers are abandoning (dog).
A limit to know
The matrix sorts products that already have a market and a share. A product that has just launched is almost always a “question mark”: that is normal, not a verdict. Read it as a way to choose where to put effort, not as a judgment.
In FluidOps
In FluidOps’ “Other tools” tab, fill in the board with your team, save it and export it as PNG or PDF.
Going further
- 5 criteria so you don't pick the wrong project management tool
- Project performance indicators: the ones that actually matter