tool 8 of 12 · class 10 · design for structure

brand archetype and architecture

The archetype your brand plays (one, with a reason), and how the brand family fits together: master brand, products, sub-brands, and what carries the name.

instrument · product roadmapdue before class 11 · Nov 3venture book chapter · the brand

what you make

Brand archetype and architecture

The archetype your brand plays (one, with a reason), and how the brand family fits together: master brand, products, sub-brands, and what carries the name.

Archetype gives the brand a personality it can hold for years. Architecture keeps you from naming everything twice.

Product roadmap

A 90-day plan with bets: what you will build next, how much time each bet gets, and what you are deliberately not building.

This class teaches shaping and appetites. The roadmap is that discipline applied to your own venture, on one page.

what good looks like

  • 01
    One archetype, not three. If you cannot choose, you have not decided who the brand is.
  • 02
    The architecture shows what happens when you add a second product.
  • 03
    The roadmap has three to five bets, each with a time budget, and a 'not now' list.
  • 04
    Every bet traces back to a metric on your tree or a broken step on your journey map.

how to do it

  1. 01
    Find the desire your customer brings (explore, legacy, connection, structure). Shortlist two archetypes from that quadrant, using your interview evidence.
  2. 02
    Show the same brand moment through those archetypes with an image generator. Pick the one a competitor could not ship. That is your primary; a second can influence it.
  3. 03
    Fill the archetype template: primary, influencer, eight attributes, the friend circle, the motto. Run the swap test on the motto.
  4. 04
    Draw the architecture: master brand on top, every current and planned offer beneath, what carries the name, what gets its own, what stays generic. Build the product-to-segment grid and pick your model.
  5. 05
    List everything you could build in the next 90 days. Shape each into a bet with an appetite. Choose three to five. Put the rest on the 'not now' list, in writing.

the templates

brand archetype

One primary archetype, one influencer, and the evidence for both. The Google Slides version is linked below if you would rather work there.

FieldYour answer
Customer desire (explore, legacy, connection, structure) and the interview evidence for it
Primary archetype (about 70%) and why
Influencer archetype (up to 30%) and why
Eight brand attributes you would defend in a design review
Friend circle: three to five brands yours would sit with, none from your category
Motto, one line. Could a rival say it? If yes, rewrite.
The brand moment you rendered three ways, and which one was unmistakably yours

brand architecture

The family as it is today and where it is going. Draw the map, fill the grid, pick the model.

Family map: master brand on top, every current and planned offer beneath, mark 'we are here' and 'we are going here'
SegmentOffer AOffer BOffer COffer D
Model (branded house, sub-brands, endorsed, house of brands) and one sentence of why
What carries the master brand, what gets its own name, what stays generic

90-day product roadmap

Print this page, or copy the structure into your Venture Book. Every line is meant to be filled in.

BetWhat it isWhy now (which metric or broken step)Appetite (time budget)Done means
Not now (and why)
back to class 10

where it comes from