The FGG principle

In one paragraph

Three overlapping steps: find out what customers actually want, arrange to be able to supply it, then actually deliver it. Doing two out of three achieves nothing.

Find out what they want. Ask, properly — client meetings, surveys, feedback forms. Not guessing, and not assuming that what you enjoy providing is what they came for.

Go get it. Whatever it takes to be able to offer it: outsource, buy, innovate, develop, or recruit. This is the step businesses skip when the answer is inconvenient.

Give it to them. Delivery — the processes, the trained team, the marketing that says you do it, and the plan actually executed.

The overlap is the whole point

Drawn as three circles, the value sits only where all three overlap. Find out and go get, without giving — you built something and never told anyone. Go get and give, without finding out — you are excellent at supplying something nobody asked for. Find out and give, without going get — you promised what you cannot deliver.

How to actually use it

• Take your last three service additions and mark which of the three steps you actually completed. The missing one is usually 'find out'.
• The cheapest version of step one is a complimentary meeting with ten existing customers and one question: what else do you wish we did?

Where it breaks down

• Customers cannot always tell you what they want, particularly for things that do not exist yet. It works well for services and poorly for genuine innovation.

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