# Frameworks prescribe, systems enable ## Current Form Thinking a bit about the difference between "frameworks" and "systems." I'm hearing more and more people adopt the language of systems design, (e.g., build adaptable systems) but offering frameworks. There's a distinction in here that's important to tease out, and also hints at the general fatigue of thought leadership and something in the Greenhaus position. Frameworks tend to prescribe an outcome and are reductive. Do X, get Y. The problem is that marketing is a complex system—frameworks need to be contextualized in a business, market, and team to have any hope of working. This is more often more work than it's worth, creating a lot of of noise and work about work. Systems by contrast start with context and build adaptively toward outcomes. This allows teams to focus on flexible patterns of work over rigid playbooks. ### Spark Have been thinking about this a lot in the context of developing the [[Greenhaus]] position and differentiation with a budding POV on [[the future of saas]]. As execution and creation continues to commoditize, the frameworks we use are similarly subject to discounted [[skill premium]]. My lived experience (e.g., LinkedIn) and spending 10+ years trying to figure out how to build GTM systems have taught me frameworks are just another artifact of [[semiotic capitalism]] regressing toward the mean, progressing along the [[enshitification]] arc. - Inbound flywheels -> HubSpot + content agencies - Demand generation & ABM -> Data embassies and black box signal merchants - Prompt libraries/templates/claybooks -> Next wave GTM engineering agencies ### Tensions or Unknowns - Prescription vs. Adaptation - _Frameworks_ prescribe actions. _Systems_ adapt around goals. - Counterpoint: Aren't many "frameworks" just simplified systems in disguise? What makes a "system" not just a more complex or recursive framework? - Thought leadership fatigue - There's disillusionment with branded thinking. But how do we separate that from actual operational utility? - Can a well-designed system escape the [[enshitification]] curve? - Semiotic decay of frameworks - Frameworks becoming symbolic artifacts more than functional ones. - What would it look like to design frameworks with expiration dates, or ones that evolve with context? - Systems as luxury - Building a system takes time, knowledge, context. Frameworks offer shortcuts. - Does this create an inequality in strategic execution? Who gets to work in systems, and who has to follow frameworks? - GTM as adaptive choreography or orchestration - If GTM is becoming an engineering challenge, what are the primitives and feedback loops that define a good system? ### Next Evolution Some output ideas: - Frame as comparative model? | Feature | Frameworks | Systems | | ------------- | ------------------------ | ---------------------------- | | Orientation | Prescriptive | Contextual & emergent | | Flexibility | Low | High | | Learning | Baked-in (past learning) | Ongoing (real-time learning) | | Artifact type | Static, teachable | Dynamic, configurable | - Thought leadership: What _are_ the primitives of a marketing system? (Signals, feedback loops, surfaces, incentive structures...) - Operational doctrine: What would you tell a team choosing between applying a framework vs building a system? Could be an one-pager or checklist for [[Greenhaus]]. ### Wayfinding %% DATAVIEW_PUBLISHER: start ```dataview TABLE WITHOUT ID questions AS "Responds to", origins AS "Informed by", ideas AS "Developed alongside", concepts AS "Builds on" WHERE file.name = this.file.name ``` %% | Responds to | Informed by | Developed alongside | Builds on | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | <ul><li>[[thinking/questions/the future of saas.md\|the future of saas]]</li></ul> | \- | <ul><li>[[thinking/seeds/building layered gtm systems.md\|building layered gtm systems]]</li></ul> | <ul><li>[[thinking/concepts/layered gtm systems.md\|layered gtm systems]]</li></ul> | %% DATAVIEW_PUBLISHER: end %% > [!info]- Changelog > - [[2025-04-19-Saturday]] - Long run thoughts, planted the seed > - [[2025-04-22-Tuesday]] - Added depth, shaping