The dependency logic
Transformation follows a dependency structure.
Each layer depends on resolution of the layer below it.
Working on Layer 3 before Layer 1 is resolved isn't ambitious — it's structurally premature.
This claim runs against how most innovation work is organised. Conventional frameworks sort by domain: marketing here, technology there, operations in a third column. Domain-based organisation is tidy, but it hides the only question that matters in early-stage work: what has to be true before this can succeed?
Critical Path Layers reorders the familiar themes — strategy, product, go-to-market, sales, operations — into a dependency sequence.
Each layer gates the next. A startup can't build a repeatable sales process (Layer 3) until it has validated its offering in a real corporate context (Layer 2). A corporate innovation team can't scale a pilot (Layer 3) until the governance pathway from pilot to procurement has been established (Layer 2). These aren't parallel workstreams — they're sequential dependencies, and effort invested above the binding constraint is structurally wasted.
The framework doesn't prescribe what to do at each layer. It diagnoses which layer you're actually on, and whether the layers below it are resolved. The gap between where you think you are and where the dependencies say you are — that gap is where most transformation effort is lost.
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The layers:
Startup & Scaleup Track
Layer 0: Foundations — Must be true before anything else works. The preconditions: a problem stated in buyer language, basic problem-solution fit, a strategic thesis that can be tested, and visibility into founder constraints. Gate criteria: if you can't articulate the problem in one sentence a buyer would recognise, you haven't passed Layer 0.
Layer 1: Market Clarity — The ICP-Value Prop-Price triangle. Three things that resolve together, not sequentially: who specifically you're selling to, what value you deliver in their language, and what they'll pay. Gate criteria: ICP specific enough to name accounts. Value proposition in one buyer sentence. Willingness-to-pay evidence, not assumption.
Layer 2: Validation — Prove it in a real corporate context. Corporate engagement intelligence, technology integration feasibility, and pilot execution — in that order. Gate criteria: pilot completed with success criteria defined by the buyer, not the seller. Results packaged for the champion's internal argument. Governance pathway mapped.
Layer 3: Commercial Engine — Build repeatable demand, only after validation. Sales process, marketing tied to pipeline, brand credibility. Gate criteria: repeatable sales motion, documented and transferable. Revenue growing with plausible unit economics.
Layer 4: Scale Readiness — Systematise what works, not what you hope will work. Operations, team, financial management, and fundraising (conditional — only after commercial engine is proven). No gate criteria listed: this is the layer where the dependency structure gives way to operational execution.
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The layers:
Corporate Innovation Track
Layer -1: Innovation Intent — Is the organisation structurally set up to innovate, or is this theatre? Strategic rationale, executive commitment, organisational absorption capacity, innovation governance. Gate criteria: named business pressure with empirical evidence. Executive sponsor with budget authority and political capital. Prior innovation attempts and failure modes documented.
Layer 0: Problem Legitimacy — Is the innovation brief anchored in operational reality? Problem specificity, solution landscape, mandate clarity, activators. Gate criteria: problem stated in operational language, not innovation jargon. Empirical evidence the problem exists at scale. Named owner with authority and incentive.
Layer 1: Internal Market Clarity — The Adopter-Value Prop-Adoption Cost triangle. The corporate equivalent of the startup's ICP triangle: who inside the organisation will adopt this, what value does it deliver to them, and what does adoption cost them (in effort, risk, and political capital)?
Layer 2: Organisational Feasibility — Prove it works inside your own systems. Stakeholder architecture, technical integration, pilot design, and institutional stickiness. Gate criteria: pilot completed with adopter-defined success criteria. Blockers identified and mitigated.
Layer 3: Scaling Mechanisms — Make adoption repeatable, only after validation. Adoption playbook, internal visibility, cross-functional alignment. Gate criteria: documented playbook tested beyond the pilot team. At least one additional business unit adopted.
Layer 4: Institutional Embedding — Systematise what works. Process integration, governance and continuity, knowledge transfer, measurement.
Founder Track
For founders and scaleup leaders, the most common misallocation is working on Layer 3 (commercial engine) before Layer 1 (market clarity) is resolved. The symptoms are familiar: a sales team that can't close because the ICP is too broad, a marketing spend that generates awareness without pipeline, a pitch deck that excites investors but doesn't match what buyers experience.
Corporate Track
For corporate innovation teams, the critical dependency that most frameworks miss is Layer -1: Innovation Intent. Before any innovation work begins, the organisation's structural capacity to absorb the output must be assessed. An organisation that lacks a governance pathway from pilot to procurement will produce successful pilots that die in the transition. An organisation whose executive sponsorship is positional rather than substantive will generate innovation theatre that signals commitment without producing adoption.
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Cross-cutting dynamics
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Recursive. Different manifestation at each layer: strategic clarity at the foundation, delegation at validation, systems design at scale. The bottleneck doesn't resolve permanently — it transforms as the organisation moves through the dependency structure.
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Pervasive in accelerator contexts and corporate innovation. Peaks at Layer 2 (validation), where the engagement dynamic determines whether technical success converts to commercial or organisational adoption.
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Foundational at the earliest layer, but strategic assumptions made early constrain every subsequent decision. When activators shift, previously resolved layers may need to be revisited. Strategy isn't a layer you pass through — it's a dependency that can be destabilised from outside.