Design a Go-to-Market Plan for a New Segment
Marketing · 2–3 weeks · Intermediate
The job
Plan entry into a new customer segment with a structured approach from research to launch.
What the sponsor gets
Each canvas and map from this playbook — Persona Canvas, Jobs-To-Be-Done Canvas, Value Proposition Canvas, Experiment Canvas, Journey map — exports as a PDF, or as PowerPoint on Pro, straight from the session, and the whole run exports as one PowerPoint for the sponsor. Nothing is redrawn.
The method
Research the target segment
Conduct desk research and 6–10 interviews with people in the segment. Understand their current solutions, buying triggers, decision process, and where they go for information.
Tip: Talk to people who recently switched to a competitor — they'll tell you exactly what triggers a buying decision.
Build segment personas
Create 1–2 Persona canvases for the key buyer profiles in the new segment. Ground them in your research — demographics are less important than behaviours and motivations.
Tip: If the new segment persona looks identical to your existing one, you're either not in a new segment or you haven't done enough research.
Define the jobs to be done
Create a JTBD canvas for the segment. What functional, emotional, and social jobs are they hiring a solution to do? How does this differ from your existing segments?
Tip: The same product can be hired for completely different jobs by different segments — your messaging must reflect theirs, not yours.
Design the value proposition
Create a Value Proposition Canvas mapping your offer against the segment's jobs, pains, and gains. Identify where you have strong fit and where you have gaps.
Tip: If you have gaps, decide whether to close them before launch or position around your strengths — trying to do both usually delivers neither.
Map the segment buying journey
Create a Purchase Journey map for how this segment discovers, evaluates, and buys. The journey is almost certainly different from your existing segments — don't assume your current funnel works.
Tip: Pay special attention to the evaluation phase — who else do they talk to, what alternatives do they consider, and what evidence do they need?
Design market entry experiments
Create Experiment Canvases for your top 2–3 go-to-market hypotheses. Test messaging, channel, and positioning before committing budget.
Tip: Run a landing page test with segment-specific messaging before building anything — if you can't get clicks, you can't get customers.
Build the launch plan
Compile research, personas, value proposition, and experiment results into a go-to-market plan with specific channels, messaging, timeline, and success metrics.
Tip: Set a 90-day review point — if your leading indicators aren't moving by then, pivot the approach rather than doubling down.
The canvases and maps
- Persona Canvas
- Goals, frustrations, behaviours, motivations and needs side by side, so the person you are designing for is specific enough to disagree about.
- Jobs-To-Be-Done Canvas
- Functional, emotional and social jobs sit apart from pain points and desired outcomes, so the team describes the progress people want rather than the features it plans.
- Value Proposition Canvas
- Customer jobs, pains and gains face the products, pain relievers and gain creators meant to answer them, so fit is something you can check line by line.
- Experiment Canvas
- Hypothesis, design, metrics and success criteria come before results and the decision, so the goalposts are written down before anyone sees the data.
- Journey map
- Stages run across and lanes run beneath them, so the experience reads in the order people live it and each low point lines up with what causes it.
What it doesn't do
It doesn't run the room for you or decide for the client. The steps, canvases and duration are a starting point you adapt; the judgement stays yours.