FrameworkAvailable2026

The Growth Constraint Map

Most ecommerce businesses do not have an activity problem. They have a prioritisation problem. The constraint map is how we find the one thing worth fixing first.

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The seven lenses

Demand, discovery, acquisition, conversion, retention, measurement and capability. Each is scored and evidenced independently, then read as a system: a weak lens downstream makes investment upstream less valuable, not more.

Symptom versus constraint

Rising CAC is usually a symptom. The constraint sits upstream (not enough qualified demand, weak discovery position) or downstream (conversion confidence, repeat behaviour, margin structure). The map forces that distinction before any plan is written.

How the map is read

Constraints are plotted by commercial leverage against confidence in the evidence. High-leverage, high-confidence items become the near-term plan. High-leverage, low-confidence items become tests. Everything else is explicitly deferred or stopped.

What it produces

A single decision view — stop, fix, scale, test — that a board can read in a few minutes and a team can act on the same week.

Worked structures in this document are illustrative. They are not client results and contain no client data.

Where this applies

The engagements this feeds into

The Growth Diagnostic
The constraint map is the core output of the diagnostic.
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90-Day Growth Sprint
Once the constraint is agreed, the sprint is how the highest-leverage items get executed.
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