Most startups conceptually start with a big, overarching idea (also known as BHAG: a big, hairy, audacious goal) about how to solve a problem that exists for a large group of people. The things that keep you up at night, or take up unnecessary time or resources during the day: the planet and the environment, boring administrative tasks, things that cost more money than they should.
And then there's a concrete idea for a solution: an app that would help with X, a physical product that can be used for Y, a service that offers Z.
Writing out a purpose pyramid helps you consolidate the two and find the 'connecting tissue' between the abstract vision and the solution you're offering. It will get you to explore the right wording and phrases to use to clarify your vision and ideas as a company.
It will also help later on to make sure your team has an easy tool to measure if a new initiative, feature, service or decision helps the company move in the right direction towards that overarching goal.
How it works
Start with a simple bullet list with 4 bullets, put your abstract goal at the top, and your idea for a concrete solution at the bottom. The idea is to find a link between your abstract goal, through a more practical goal, to the product or service you want to offer.
Here's some rough examples of applying the purpose pyramid for two of my companies:
Purpose pyramid for Street Art Cities
- Making art more accessible (abstract)
- Making street art more accessible
- Exploring cities through street art (practical)
- Providing a social platform for sharing street art (product)
Purpose pyramid for NearSt
- Building healthy local communities (abstract)
- Building healthy local economies
- Getting people back into their local shops (practical)
- Helping people find and buy products nearby
- Making shops' inventory searchable online (product)
Creating your own pyramid
Note that most of your purpose pyramid might change as you develop the thinking around your company. In most cases, only the very top piece of the pyramid will remain more or less the same.
And if you start offering multiple services or products, you might start to have pyramids that diverge in the lower sections, to cover the multiple practical areas you focus on.
Having the pyramid on hand will help you decide on a name and tagline for your product and company, as well as writing sensible text for your website.