Knowledge base · frameworks
The Headless Customer Funnel
A framework for analyzing headless businesses through the machine-consumption funnel: discovery, selection, access, ongoing consumption, and LTV.
The machine-consumption funnel
A useful framework for analyzing headless businesses is the machine-consumption funnel. Each stage describes how agent-driven usage differs from human-driven usage.
Discovery
How an agent becomes aware of a capability.
- Registries
- Search
- Marketplaces
- Embeddings
- Recommendations
- Protocol directories
- Documentation hubs
Selection
How an agent determines whether a capability is fit for purpose.
Decision variables may include:
- Task fit
- Price
- Latency
- Quality
- Trust
- Authorization requirements
- Output format
- Rate limits
- Uptime
- Policy constraints
Access and purchase
How the agent obtains the right to use the capability.
- Open access
- Token-based auth
- Delegated auth
- Enterprise provisioning
- Subscription
- Metered payment
- On-demand settlement
Ongoing consumption
How repeated use happens over time.
- Reliability
- Quality consistency
- Integration depth
- Observability
- Billing clarity
- Memory and state retention
- Ecosystem compatibility
- Workflow dependence
LTV in the age of agents
For headless businesses, long-term value may be shaped by:
- Repeated invocation
- Incorporation into automated workflows
- Low failure rates
- Structured outputs
- Strong documentation
- Predictable billing
- Accumulated context
- Switching friction at the workflow level rather than the interface level