The Pivot Catalog

A pivot is a structured course correction designed to test a new fundamental hypothesis about the product, business model, or engine of growth. There are several different types of pivots that a startup can make.

Here are some of the most common types of pivots:

• Zoom-in Pivot: What was previously considered a single feature in a product becomes the whole product.
• Zoom-out Pivot: What was considered the whole product becomes a single feature of a much larger product.
• Customer Segment Pivot: The product solves a real problem for real customers, but they are not the customers that were originally targeted.
• Customer Need Pivot: The problem that is being solved is not very important to customers. However, through customer intimacy, other related problems are discovered that are important and can be solved by the team.
• Platform Pivot: A change from an application to a platform, or vice versa.
• Business Architecture Pivot: A switch between a high-margin, low-volume model (often B2B) and a low-margin, high-volume model (often B2C).
• Value Capture Pivot: A change in the way the company captures value (i.e., monetization or revenue model).
• Engine of Growth Pivot: A change in the growth strategy to seek faster or more profitable growth (e.g., from viral to paid growth).
• Channel Pivot: A change in the sales or distribution channel.
• Technology Pivot: A change to a completely different technology to achieve the same solution, usually to provide better performance or lower cost.