3 Critical Lenses to Achieve Sustainable Growth
3 Simple Lenses to Prioritise Growth Strategy: The Desirability, Feasibility, Viability Framework
Read time: 3 minutes
Business leaders consistently struggle with growth prioritisation, often investing resources in initiatives that seem logical individually but fail when implemented together. The solution lies in a deceptively simple customer experience strategy framework that's been hiding in plain sight for over a decade.
The Desirability, Feasibility, Viability (DVF) framework from design thinking methodology offers three critical lenses for evaluating any growth initiative. This strategic planning tool helps organisations avoid costly mistakes by ensuring customer demand, operational capability, and commercial viability align before committing resources.
Understanding the DVF Framework in Customer Strategy
Design thinking is a problem-solving methodology that combines creativity, customer empathy, and analytical thinking to develop innovative business solutions. The framework addresses three fundamental business questions that, when considered in isolation, often lead to failed initiatives.
The three core components include:
Understanding and defining customer problems
Generating ideas that deliver measurable customer value
Implementation and execution of customer-centric solutions
A successful business strategy requires balancing customer desirability, organisational feasibility, and commercial viability. Each element must complement the others to achieve sustainable growth outcomes.
The Three Strategic Lenses Explained
Desirability: Customer-Centric Validation
Core question: "Will customers actually want to buy this product or service?"
Desirability focuses on genuine customer demand rather than assumptions about market needs. This customer experience assessment examines whether your target market has genuine interest in your proposed solution.
Feasibility: Operational Reality Check
Core question: "Can our organisation actually deliver this solution effectively?"
Feasibility evaluates your organisation's operational capacity, technological capabilities, and resource availability to execute the proposed initiative successfully.
Viability: Commercial Sustainability
Core question: "Does this initiative make sound business sense financially?"
Viability examines the commercial sustainability of your growth strategy, including profitability potential, resource allocation efficiency, and long-term financial impact.
Real-World DVF Framework Applications
Scenario 1: High Desirability + Feasibility, Low Viability (D+, F+, V-)
The challenge: A customer experience consulting project with an online financial services company revealed that customers wanted more personalised human support during digital applications. While customer demand existed and technology enabled the solution, providing individual support for 50-100 daily applications wasn't commercially sustainable.
The customer insight: Customers excel at identifying problems but often propose expensive solutions rather than optimal ones.
The strategic solution: Instead of expensive human support, we redesigned the digital process with better UX design, simplified workflows, and strategic timing adjustments. The result was a digital concierge service that addressed customer needs without unsustainable costs.
Key takeaway: Customer feedback reveals pain points, but strategic customer experience design delivers cost-effective solutions.
Scenario 2: High Desirability + Viability, Low Feasibility (D+, F-, V+)
The case study: Transport for NSW's Sydney Metro launch faced a customer experience challenge—convincing drivers to switch to public transport despite limited parking (500 spaces per station), while needing thousands of daily commuters.
Initial concept: Utilise unused sporting grounds and stadiums for additional parking with bus connections to Metro stations. While customers wanted convenient parking and a budget existed, large buses couldn't navigate residential areas effectively.
Strategic pivot: Mini-buses for 25 passengers could pick up commuters from neighbourhoods and transport them directly to Metro stations.
The result:
Desirable: Door-to-door service appealed to customers
Viable: Budget supported the initiative
Feasible: Smaller vehicles could navigate residential streets
Scenario 3: High Feasibility + Viability, Low Desirability (D-, F+, V+)
The situation: A client wanted to simplify equipment ordering through a mobile app development project. The solution was technically feasible and financially reasonable, but customer research revealed low market demand.
Customer reality check: Customers didn't want another mobile app consuming phone storage and cluttering interfaces, especially when existing ordering systems worked effectively.
Strategic decision: The project was discontinued despite technical and financial viability because customer desirability was absent.
Steve Jobs’ principle: Just because you can build something doesn't mean you should.
The Sweet Spot: Achieving DVF Alignment
The optimal growth strategy emerges where all three elements overlap—the centre of the DVF Venn diagram. This intersection represents initiatives that are:
Customer-desired: Wanted by your target market
Operationally feasible: Within your organisational capabilities
Commercially viable: Financially sustainable and profitable
Implementing DVF Framework in Your Growth Strategy
The design thinking process, using the DVF methodology, is cyclical rather than linear. Successful implementation requires:
1. Iterative evaluation: Continuously test assumptions against all three criteria 2. Customer validation: Verify genuine market demand before development 3. Operational Assessment: Honestly Evaluate Delivery Capabilities 4. Financial modelling: Ensure a sustainable business case exists 5. Strategic prioritisation: Focus resources on initiatives meeting all three criteria
Customer Experience Strategy Best Practices
When generating growth solutions, apply the three DVF lenses systematically:
Customer experience assessment: Validate real customer demand through research and feedback. Operational capability audit: Evaluate organisational capacity for delivery. Commercial viability analysis: Model financial sustainability and ROI potential
This customer-centric approach to strategic planning helps organisations avoid common pitfalls: building products nobody wants, promising services they can't deliver, or pursuing initiatives that drain resources without generating returns.
Moving Forward with DVF-Driven Growth
The DVF framework transforms strategic decision-making from intuition-based to evidence-based planning. By balancing customer desirability, organisational feasibility, and commercial viability, businesses can prioritise growth initiatives with confidence.
Next time you evaluate growth opportunities, apply these three strategic lenses. You'll be amazed at how quickly the framework clarifies resource allocation decisions and identifies initiatives with genuine potential for sustainable success.
Ready to apply the DVF framework to your growth strategy? Begin by evaluating your current initiatives against these three criteria to determine which projects warrant continued investment.
