An opportunity domain is an area of human activity (individual and/or organizational) that has potentially valuable solutions that satisfy unmet needs and desires. The unmet needs and desires do not have to be either explicit or obvious. An opportunity domain contains at least several, and ideally many, potential solutions. The primary objective in defining an opportunity domain is to provide a framework for exploration activities that will enhance the possibility of discovering new growth opportunities.

An ideal opportunity domain should be in service to an organization's strategy. The opportunities identified through the opportunity discovery process should provide strategic options for the organization. The exploration process itself extends the knowledge of the organization and provides intensive learning opportunities. It is therefore important that the domain in which this knowledge is being developed, and where rapid and intense learning is taking place, is a domain that is of interest and relevance to the organization. In other words, the domain should be strategic.

The learning process that takes place during the process creates future options that may be exploited to create value. The point with creating future options is that they should give you the right (and the ability), but not the obligation, to exercise them at some point in the future.

Defining a Domain

The definition of an opportunity domain is inherently 'soft and fuzzy'. It is impossible to precisely define what is within and what is outside of a particular domain. It is possible, however, to provide a focus and boundary guidelines that help both direct and constrain the exploration process. The focus and its boundaries may be ‘fuzzy’ definitions characterized by attributes such as the following:

• Intentional cohesiveness – the activities are in service to a common intention
• High inherent interest and relevance – the activities are important to the participants and their subjects
• Unmet needs and desires – there are inherent problems or ‘attractors’ that are currently not addressed and are potentially valuable
• Future destination – Potential solutions are compatible with trends and underlying forces and drivers and have ‘upside’ (i.e. not easily obsolesced).
• Activity and energy – There is in-depth work being done that is active and recognized
• Nascent indicators – new discoveries, new businesses, leading media interest

A White Space is an opportunity domain that is not a current focus of organizational activities. For companies, the white spaces are outside the scope of current business division's activities. These new areas must create future options for the company that satisfy the strategic imperative of managing uncertainty.

Size of a Domain

The size of a domain is difficult to determine a-priori. It is also the case that domains contain sub-domains (areas or regions) which themselves contain other areas. This recursive, or some may say fractal, view of domains, with a high level domain consisting of sub, sub-sub, etc. opportunity domains, lends itself to the exploration process and helps direct and organize searching within the domain itself.

The size of a domain relates to the number of good opportunities that can be found within it. In a very real sense, however, a good opportunity domain will never be exhausted. It is in this aspect that a good opportunity domain has a 'fractal' nature - you can always go deeper and see just as many opportunities. At a high level, you can see many good opportunities, but even at more constrained levels, just as many opportunities emerge. An indication that this is so is the fact that any new domain you are considering, or sub-area within that domain, is most likely an area where an existing or future company will find it's core, long-term value and, if it is innovative and successful, will keep finding new opportunities, and developing and commercializing new products, continuously.

As an example, consider the domain of 'Internet TV (IPTV)'. Whatever area within this domain one can think of, say providing personalized ads, one can imagine both a) a company that exists in this area and is constantly creating successful new products and services in the area and b) sub areas (such as localized adds for mobile devices) where other more specialized products (or even companies) can exist. The reason for this fractal nature of opportunities is because of the infinite variety and precision of individual's needs and desires that comes from the infinite possibilities of the human experience. As long as we humans keep behaving as humans, others will keep parsing and partitioning our needs and desires in order to satisfy them, even when we don't know they exist.

Domain Sources

There are two sources that drive good opportunity domain identification.

Choosing a Domain

There are a number of ways to choose a domain for exploration. With the proviso that whatever domain that is chosen will beet the criteria of being strategically relevant, some alternative ways of choosing a domain are:

• Gut Feel/Epiphanies
• Canvasing/Consensus/Voting
• Analytical
• Existing Corporate Initiatives/Previous Efforts
• Expert Panels/Futuring & Scenario Activities
• Direct Strategic Imperatives

In any of these cases, the following questions are useful to ask.

Inside-Out Questions

1. Where are we now? What is our core business?
2. What do we know now? What are our competencies?
3. Where are adjacencies?

Outside-In Questions

1. Where's the current action?
2. Where's the money going?
3. What are the thought leaders saying?