Blue Ocean 4 Actions Framework Template

The Blue Ocean Four Actions Framework was created by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne, who are Professors of Strategy at INSEAD and co-directors of the INSEAD Blue Ocean Strategy Institute in Fontainebleau, France. Together, they wrote a best-selling book Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant.

Why use the Four Actions Framework?

The Blue Ocean Four Actions Framework can help you determine whether you are allocating your resources correctly to maximize user satisfaction and minimize user pain. By identifying which pains and gains matter most to your product, you can ensure that you are getting the most value for your money and maximizing your product's market potential.

When to use the Four Actions Framework Template

The Four Actions Framework Template is most useful for creating value innovation and breaking the value-cost trade-off, as W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne describe in their use of the terms red and blue oceans to describe the market universe. They explain that red oceans are all the industries that exist today, and blue oceans are the unknown market space.

While in red oceans companies are competing for a limited amount of customers, in blue oceans they are creating demand for a product or service that no one has even thought of yet. This allows for greater profits and growth.

The Blue Ocean 4 Actions Framework Template can help you find ways to innovate when you feel like your company or product is stuck in the "red ocean."

Step 1: Eliminate

It's important to ask questions about industry standards in each column. First, ask yourself which factors the industry has long competed on should be eliminated.

What are the things that you have to invest a lot in but don't get much back? These may be things that made sense in the past, but don't make as much sense now. For example, a feature of a digital product that used to be differentiating, but is now obsolete.

Step 2: Reduce

What factors can you simplify while still maintaining a competitive product? Consider features of your product that are designed to outcompete the competition but take too much time and resources. Can you reduce these to something more simple but still relevant to your users?

Step 3: Raise

What can you do to make your company stand out above the rest? Are there any areas that are not being addressed by other companies that you can focus on? Build features that will help your customers solve problems that other companies are not solving.

Step 4: Create

What factors can be created to offer something the industry has never done before? This is a difficult question that necessitates a thorough comprehension of what your customers want and need, as well as where you see the industry going. You need to be able to predict future challenges that customers may not have even considered yet.