- The key question to assess technology impact is: what fundamental constraint does it remove?
- The framework classifies technology impact into five categories: No Material Impact, Existing Model Leverage, Economic Enablement, Technological Enablement, and Model Destruction.
- No Material Impact: The technology removes no constraint that materially affects the business model; it only improves peripheral activities.
- Existing Model Leverage: The technology removes a constraint that limits an already viable model, amplifying its scale, margins, or differentiation.
- Economic Enablement: The technology removes a cost constraint, making a previously technically possible but economically unviable model scalable.
- Technological Enablement: The technology removes a capability constraint, enabling a fundamentally new business model that was previously infeasible.
- Model Destruction: The technology removes a constraint that an existing model depends on, undermining its viability and forcing adaptation.
- The classification depends on the unit of analysis and can change over time as the technology matures.
- The framework is designed to clarify strategic significance, not to predict winners.