If you want to create a service as a product to grow your business, then you first have to decide what type of SAAP you want to create. As I have outlined in my writing on the Types of SAAPs any Business can Create, there are two primary types of Service As Products
- One that solves a problem created by your core offer (downstream)
- A service lower down your value ladder (upstream)
After understanding what the types are, you then have to focus on the 2 techniques or approaches to creating these SAAPs.
2 Ways To Approach Creating Service As Products
- Fragmentation Path To SAAP
- New Build Path To SAAP
Before we dive into the individual ways to create SAAPs, it is crucial that you have a solid foundational knowledge of what a service as a product truly is, what it is not, and the necessary conditions a productised service has to meet to be considered a SAAP; read this article to learn all that – Service As A Product Model for Businesses.
Fragmentation Path To SAAP (FPTSAAP)
As the name implies, this is the process of breaking your existing framework, services, or unique methodology into stand-alone components that are in themselves valuable enough to solve specific problems for your clients in exchange for a fee.
There are two types of FPTSAAP
Service Fragmentation
This involves segmenting your existing services into separate components and identifying the most desirable, easily repeatable component that can stand alone as an independent deliverable.
It might sound difficult initially, but you must understand that most service based businesses solve complex problems for their clients that usually involve solving several smaller problems. One of those smaller problems can be the focus of a SAAP offer.
The core concept here is about slicing your delivery pipeline into its component steps and lifting one out. The fragment is a task your business already performs, not something unique to how you think.
Consider the following examples
- Digital marketing agency: full-service retainer covers strategy, content, paid ads, SEO, and reporting. They can fragment out Paid Ads Management as a standalone productised service for businesses that already have content and SEO handled in-house or elsewhere.
- Architecture firm: full service runs from concept design through permitting, construction drawings, and site administration. They can fragment out Permit Drawings & Approval as a fixed-fee standalone offer for owner-builders who already have a concept design and just need it made permit-ready.
Note: all of these fragments need to be within the strict confines of the SAAP framework.
Methodology Fragmentation
If you have been in business for a while (and are good at what you do), there is a good chance you have developed some unique methodology, framework, or intellectual property that helps clients in a unique way. Whether the framework is documented or not, if it exists, it can be fragmented if it can exist as an independent deliverable.
This is about slicing out a piece of your proprietary framework or way of thinking—the fragment is a piece of IP, not a generic task in the pipeline.
Some examples include
- Management consulting firm: has a proprietary 3-Pillar Growth Framework used inside larger strategy engagements. They can productise just the diagnostic layer of that framework as a standalone Growth Audit which allows them to apply their unique lens without doing the full engagement.
- UX design agency: has developed a proprietary journey-mapping method as part of their discovery phase on full redesign projects. They productise just that method as a facilitated Journey Mapping Workshop, sold on its own to internal product teams.
Note: again, all of the resulting frameworks must be within the strict confines of the SAAP framework. Read that here if you haven’t Service As A Product Model for Businesses.
Service Fragmentation vs Methodology Fragmentation
| Service Fragmentation | Methodology Fragmentation |
The offer — is usually something other businesses in your industry also provide | The offer — is exclusive to you and and whoever licenses your framework |
Competitive strategy — Cost Leadership (price and speed) | Competitive strategy — Differentiation (Holds pricing power through uniqueness) |
The Focus — efficiency and turnaround | The Focus — outcome and exclusivity |
It’s crucial to point out that these two aren’t always cleanly distinguishable as the service you currently offer your clients might already be an expression of your proprietary methodology which was your unique selling point to begin with. In that case, you might adopt a hybrid fragment.
New Build Path To SAAP (NBPTSAAP)
In this case, you create a completely new service and package it as a product. For a SAAP to be created using this path, it must not already exist within your business as a sold, discrete offer. It can be a new service line you have been considering but wish to offer under the SAAP framework as opposed to selling it bespoke.
It is crucial to note that this is a riskier approach to creating a service as a product within your business. Under fragmentation, the parent service or methodology already works and has a track record, but a new build involves creating something without a sales history.
Hence it is worth listening to your already existing clients and recognising the pain points that usually come up in conversations. You want to try to pitch the idea to them to generate client requests, a potential waitlist, and a pilot group before committing fully.
There are two primary types of NBPTSAAP based on the amount of risk involved
Adapted New Build
A new-to-you service modeled on something already proven elsewhere (a competitor, an adjacent industry, a trend you’re importing into your niche). Lower risk, because demand is validated somewhere, just not by you yet.
- A bookkeeping firm launches a Fractional CFO Dashboard SAAP, modeled on what boutique CFO advisory firms already sell.
- A wedding photography studio launches an Elopement Micro-Package, copying a format that’s already taken off with photographers in other markets.
Original New Build
A genuinely novel service with no established external model; you’re the first to package it this way. Higher risk, first-mover.
- An SEO agency builds an AI Search Visibility Audit before this is a standard offering anywhere in the industry.
- A physical therapy clinic builds a Return-to-Marathon Readiness Program, a novel assessment-plus-training protocol nobody else locally offers.
