---
title: "Ansoff Matrix"
description: "A 2x2 framework mapping four growth strategies across products and markets."
category: "Frameworks & Strategy"
canonical: https://featureos.com/glossary/ansoff-matrix
markdown: https://featureos.com/glossary/ansoff-matrix.md
source: FeatureOS (https://featureos.com)
---

The **Ansoff Matrix** is a strategy framework that maps four ways a company can grow, organized along two axes: products (existing vs. new) and markets (existing vs. new). Igor Ansoff introduced it in 1957, and it's still useful for forcing clarity about what kind of growth you're actually chasing.

**Market Penetration** is selling more of what you already have to existing customers. More marketing, better retention, competitive pricing. It's the lowest-risk quadrant, and where most teams spend most of their time without realizing it.

**Market Development** means taking your existing product into new markets, a new geography, a different customer segment, or a new use case. You're not changing the product much, just finding new buyers for it.

**Product Development** is building something new for your existing customers. You know them and their problems. This is where a lot of SaaS expansion revenue comes from.

**Diversification** is the high-risk quadrant: new product, new market. Both variables change at once. It's why acquisition-driven growth stories often end up messier than the press release suggested.

For product teams, the matrix forces a useful question: which quadrant does each initiative actually live in? Building a feature for current users is fundamentally different from adding a vertical to reach a new buyer. They require different resources and different [roadmap](/roadmaps) sequencing.

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Source: FeatureOS — https://featureos.com/glossary/ansoff-matrix
FeatureOS: product feedback, roadmaps & changelogs — https://featureos.com