Article:
Gaining Access

How do we Gain Access?
The critical gap in business acumen for most founders

Most companies -- especially startups -- overestimate how much traction they’ll get just by having a “good product.” There’s an assumption that if the need is real and the solution is strong, the market will respond. But in my experience, that’s rarely the case. Markets don’t open themselves — you have to break into them.

Traditional research will tell you who the major players are, how large the opportunity is, and which benchmarks to use as targets. But none of that addresses the most important question for a challenger brand or new entrant: How do we gain access?

Access Architecture begins by identifying the places where people are already making compromises. Every product category has them — features users tolerate, workflows they endure, price points they quietly resent, even purchase processes that make them go out of their way to procure the goods. People don’t switch because a product is better. They switch when the cost is less. Cost is most often associated with price, but if you reduce price you reduce margin. So the million-dollar question is how can you reduce cost without reducing price? Or, better yet, while raising price? Cost is not limited to money. It can be energy cost, prestige cost, time cost, hassle cost, burden cost. People switch when someone offers relief from the compromise they never thought they could avoid. It is these negatives, not the absence of a better positive, that people label as "pain points." 

Let me be clear. If a needed solution does not exist, it is pain point. And the creation of a solution solves that pain. This is the concept most founders and entrepreneurs are already aware of. But if a solution does exist, or if multiple solutions exist that solve the same problem, the win doesn't come from the creation of a solution anymore. It comes from the reduction of hassle in the process of obtaining that solution. And that kind of insight doesn’t come from dashboards. It comes from observing behavior, listening for frustration, and studying the actual process behind decision-making.

In that sense, value isn’t just in the product — it’s in how the product is delivered, explained, adopted, and supported. And until those pieces are aligned, even the best solution can underperform.

The most exciting part of my work is finding those pressure points — the places where expectations and reality don’t quite match — and designing a better fit. Not just for the business, but for the customer who’s been waiting for someone to finally “get it.” If more teams approached growth through the lens of access, not just optimization, I think we'd see less product waste and more momentum where it counts.