4U framework

We're building a comprehensive knowledge library about product development as part of our mission. The library is for anyone looking to make better decisions — primarily decisions about how to further develop a product. Whether you're an inventor, a product manager, or a Chief Product Officer, using a structured decision-making method increases your chances of building the right things for the right audience (build the right thing for the right audience). Today we'll introduce the 4U framework.

Framework name: 4U.

Inventor: Michael Skok.

Year first used: 2013.

Link to original research: the Harvard i-lab presentation Startup Secrets: Value Proposition and the presentation associated with the framework.

Key figures in developing the framework:

• Underscore VC (co-founder Michael Skok)

• The Harvard Innovation Lab (The Platform)

Key milestones in developing the framework:

• Unknown.

History and First Use

The framework aims to surface problems with enough impact and market potential to win sufficient attention and be turned into a profitable product. Michael Skok showed that only certain problems are worth solving — the kind where users are willing to try even a thoroughly imperfect solution, just to get the problem solved. Skok stated outright that solving these problems is a matter of life and death: "without the solution it is a life or death."

The Basic Principle of Prioritization

The core idea of the framework is to determine whether the problem you're solving belongs to one of four categories. Based on that, you can choose the right product strategy. If a problem doesn't fall into any category, it has only a small chance of being solved successfully.

According to 4U, there are four kinds of problems worth finding solutions for:

• Unworkable = the "unworkable" category covers problems focused on fixing a broken business process whose inefficiency can lead to serious penalties (fines, getting fired, bankruptcy).

• Unavoidable = the "unavoidable" category covers problems focused on situations we can't avoid in life (taxes, a doctor's visit, regulation, the forces of nature, education).

• Urgent = the "urgent" category covers problems focused on pressing situations where being in the TOP 3 is a matter of survival (e.g. shifting from desktop to mobile development). Urgency is always relevant and determines how resources are allocated.

• Underserved = the "underserved" category covers problems focused on needs for which there's only a limited amount of tools, funding, attention, people, or other resources. These are often problems overlooked by the big players in the market (e.g. high banking fees in Africa). From a product-strategy standpoint, this type of problem is always a zero-sum game.

If the problem you're solving falls into one of these categories, your chances of building a successful product or company go up, because these problems have clear impact and market potential.

A Prioritization Example

An example of prioritizing selected problems using the 4U framework.

Unworkable

• High interest rates drive lending away from banks toward non-bank entities, which face looser regulation and prey on clients who can't borrow from a bank.

Unavoidable

• Booking a doctor and getting a prescription when an in-person visit to the surgery isn't possible.

Urgent

• Using artificial intelligence for a customer-service department. The need itself may not be urgent, but if other companies are switching to it en masse, it becomes urgent — because shareholders will demand it.

Underserved

• High banking fees in Africa are a problem that doesn't financially attract companies, yet it's significant given the large potential of clients to have their fees reduced.

A Problem That Doesn't Fall Into Any Category

• Adjusting the fonts in an email signature.