---
id: "action-reframe-workarounds"
type: "action-item"
source_timestamps: ["¶2", "¶19"]
tags: ["mindset-shift", "market-research"]
related: ["concept-customer-workaround", "contrarian-workarounds-are-prototypes"]
action: "Treat customer workarounds as early market data and prototypes for new business models, not compliance violations."
outcome: "Identification of proven willingness to pay and uncaptured market demand."
speakers: ["Donna Henrike Bohrer", "Karolin Frankenberger", "Joakim Wincent"]
sources: ["commercial"]
sourceVaultSlug: "hbr-seg-commercial"
originDay: 5
articleStem: "hbr-tier2-09-customer-workarounds"
sourceUrl: "https://hbr.org/2026/05/what-customer-workarounds-can-reveal-about-your-business-model"
sourceTitle: "What Customer Workarounds Can Reveal About Your Business Model"
---
# Reframe Workarounds as Market Data

**Action:** Stop treating [[concept-customer-workaround|customer workarounds]] (account sharing, third-party tool stitching) as annoyances, compliance violations, or UX bugs. Actively treat them as early market data and prototypes for your next business model.

**Expected outcome:** Identification of proven willingness to pay and uncaptured market demand.

This is the mindset shift underlying the whole playbook (see [[contrarian-workarounds-are-prototypes]]). Caveat: apply judgment — not every workaround is a monetizable signal (see [[counter-workarounds-may-be-ux]] and [[counter-compliance-not-signal]]).

**Related:** [[concept-customer-workaround]] · [[action-map-workaround-signals]] · [[framework-strategic-steps-void]]