The extended product is everything a customer needs across the journey to get the full value of a solution, beyond what comes with the core product itself: onboarding and setup, integration with the systems the customer already uses, training, service and support, the channel that sells and delivers it, and complementary products and services. Some of it the organization provides directly. Much of it often comes from other actors in the value network, such as channel partners, integrators, service providers and makers of complementary products. The idea descends from Theodore Levitt's 'augmented product' and Geoffrey Moore's whole product. It matters most for new offerings, because in an established business the extended product usually already exists, and a new venture is easily planned as if it did too.
In the BRI Strategy Framework, the Whole Solution dimension divides into the Core Product, delivered with the organization's own production units, and the Extended Product, everything else the customer journey requires. Many strategies fail not because the core product is deficient but because the extended product is incomplete: a part of the solution was assumed to exist and did not. Each element of the extended product is also a delivery choice, whether to build it, buy it or rely on a partner for it, with its own risk to the venture. For the full treatment, see the Strategy Framework pillar at /supporting/strategy-framework. Related Terminology Index entries: Whole Product; Core Product; Build vs. Buy vs. Partner; Customer Journey; Value Network.
