The MOAT Growth Playbook

AI is dramatically reducing the cost of building products, features, content, and software.

That means “we have a better product” is becoming a weaker competitive advantage.

The companies that endure will build advantages around things that compound: proprietary market signals, distribution, customer relationships, ecosystems, brand, data, workflows, and other advantages competitors can’t instantly reproduce.

This playbook gives you a practical framework for finding those advantages in your own business.

• The full MOAT workshop deck — the framework I use to analyze durable growth advantages.

• The MOAT worksheet — work through your own product, identify vulnerabilities, and prioritize where to build.

• The full workshop recording — a guided walkthrough with examples and explanations.

• Practical exercises — move from abstract “moat” thinking to specific growth bets.

Use the framework to pressure-test four questions:

M — Market Signal
What proprietary insight, demand signal, or customer understanding gets stronger as you grow?

O — Owned Distribution
Can you repeatedly reach customers without renting attention from another platform?

A — Accumulating Advantage
What becomes more valuable, differentiated, or difficult to replicate with every customer or interaction?

T — Transformation Cost
What makes switching away from your product meaningfully difficult because of workflow, data, relationships, or accumulated value?

You’re a founder, product leader, growth leader, or operator asking:

• What happens when competitors can reproduce our features in weeks?

• Where should we invest beyond product functionality?

• What advantages can actually compound?

• How do we turn our existing strengths into a growth engine?

By the end, you should have:

1. A map of your existing competitive advantages.

2. A clearer view of what AI is likely to commoditize.

3. 2–3 potential moat-building growth bets.

4. A concrete next experiment to run.