One hundred and fifteen tools, free and public.

115 Tools

• 1-2-4-All A Liberating Structure that rapidly engages everyone in generating ideas simultaneously.
• 15% Solutions A Liberating Structure that identifies actions individuals can take immediately without requiring permission.
• A/B Testing A controlled experiment comparing two versions by randomly showing each to different users.
• Agile Team Onion Allan Kelly's model visualises stakeholder relationships as concentric circles around the core team.
• Alignment Techniques Alignment is widely invoked and frequently confused with its lesser substitute, compliance.
• Analytics and Data Analysis The systematic examination of quantitative data to understand user behaviour, product performance, and business outcomes.
• Assumption Mapping A technique from Strategyzer that plots assumptions on axes of importance versus certainty.
• Blue Ocean Strategy W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne's framework for creating uncontested market space rather than competing in crowded 'red oceans'.
• Brainstorming A group creativity technique designed to generate large quantities of ideas by deferring judgment.
• Business Model Canvas Alexander Osterwalder's strategic template covers nine building blocks: customer segments, value propositions, channels, customer relationships, revenue streams, key resources, key activities, key partnerships, and cost structure.
• Change Management Systematic approaches to transitioning individuals, teams, and organisations from current states to desired future states.
• Checklists Atul Gawande's technique of using concise, sequential steps for complex processes.
• Choice Architecture The design of environments in which people make decisions.
• COM-B Model Susan Michie's behaviour change framework identifies three essential conditions: Capability, Opportunity, and Motivation.
• Command & Control The deliberate practice of choosing perspective and methods rather than defaulting to familiar habits.
• Communication Planning Effective communication planning recognises that different stakeholders require different messages through different channels at different frequencies.
• Concept Testing The evaluation of product or feature concepts with target users before significant investment.
• Conflict Resolution Methods for addressing disagreements constructively to reach acceptable outcomes whilst preserving relationships.
• Consensus Building Techniques for reaching agreements that all participants can accept and support.
• Cost of Delay A framework quantifying the economic impact of time on feature value, developed by Donald Reinertsen and popularised by Joshua Arnold.
• Crazy Eights A rapid ideation exercise from Google Ventures' Design Sprint.
• Creative Problem Solving The insight behind CPS: creative thinking and critical thinking are different cognitive activities, and running them simultaneously kills the first.
• Creative Remixing The practice of combining existing ideas from different domains to create something new.
• Cross-Functional Coordination Methods for enabling effective collaboration across different specialisms.
• Customer Interviews Direct conversations with customers to understand their needs, behaviours, and contexts.
• Customer Journey Mapping A visualisation technique documenting the complete customer experience across all touchpoints.
• Cynefin Framework Dave Snowden's sense-making model distinguishes five domains: Clear, Complicated, Complex, Chaotic, and Confusion.
• Decision Making Frameworks Structured approaches for making better decisions consistently, including RAPID (Recommend, Agree, Perform, Input, Decide), RACI for decisions, and various consensus and voting methods.
• Delegation Frameworks Structured approaches for transferring responsibility and authority appropriately.
• Design Sprints Google Ventures' five-day process for answering critical business questions through design, prototyping, and testing.
• Design Thinking A human-centred approach to innovation moving through five phases: Empathise, Define, Ideate, Prototype, and Test.
• Digging Deeper A discipline of asking probing questions to move beyond surface understanding.
• Disruptive Innovation Framework Clayton Christensen's theory explains how simpler, more affordable products can displace established competitors by serving overlooked segments before moving upmarket.
• Do Nothing The deliberate choice to pause and wait rather than act.
• Dual-Track Agile An approach that runs discovery and delivery work in parallel rather than sequentially.
• Eisenhower Matrix A four-quadrant prioritisation tool plotting tasks on urgent versus important axes.
• Empathy Maps A visualisation capturing what users say, think, do, and feel.
• Event Storming Alberto Brandolini's workshop format uses coloured sticky notes to map domain events.
• Facilitation Techniques Methods for guiding groups through productive discussions and decisions.
• Fail Fast Methodology The Lean Startup principle of designing experiments to fail quickly and cheaply when assumptions are wrong.
• Fail-Fast Prototyping IDEO's approach of creating multiple rough prototypes simultaneously.
• Feedback Loops Systematic mechanisms for capturing signals about system performance and feeding them back to inform adjustments.
• Five Whys Toyota's root cause analysis technique of asking 'why' iteratively until reaching an addressable fundamental cause.
• Hypothesis-Driven Development Structuring work as explicit hypotheses: 'We believe X will result in Y. We know we've succeeded when Z.'
• Ideation Techniques A collection of methods for generating creative ideas.
• Impact Mapping Gojko Adzic's technique connects deliverables to business goals through a four-level hierarchy: Why (goal), Who (actors), How (impacts on actor behaviour), and What (deliverables).
• Innovation Culture Building Organisations say they want an innovation culture.
• Innovation Funnel A stage-gate model for managing innovation portfolios.
• Innovation Metrics Measures for tracking innovation inputs, activities, and outcomes.
• Innovation Workshops Structured sessions to generate, develop, and evaluate innovative ideas.
• INVEST Model Bill Wake's mnemonic for well-formed user stories: Independent, Negotiable, Valuable, Estimable, Small, and Testable.
• Jobs To Be Done Clayton Christensen's framework examines why people 'hire' products to accomplish specific jobs in their lives.
• Kano Model Noriaki Kano's framework classifies features by their effect on customer satisfaction.
• KPI Tracking The systematic monitoring of Key Performance Indicators.
• Lateral Thinking Edward de Bono's term for solving problems through indirect and creative approaches.
• Lean Canvas Ash Maurya's adaptation of Business Model Canvas is optimised for startups and new ventures.
• Lean Startup Methodology Eric Ries's approach to building businesses and products through validated learning.
• Meeting Facilitation The practice of guiding meetings to achieve their intended outcomes efficiently.
• Mind Mapping Tony Buzan's visual thinking technique represents ideas radiating from a central concept.
• MINDSPACE The UK Behavioural Insights Team's framework summarising nine influences on behaviour.
• MoSCoW Prioritisation A prioritisation technique from DSDM categorising requirements as Must have, Should have, Could have, and Won't have.
• Nine Whys A Liberating Structure for discovering deeper purpose by asking 'why' nine times in sequence.
• North Star Metric A single metric capturing the core value a product delivers to customers.
• OKRs Objectives and Key Results is a goal-setting framework pairing qualitative objectives with quantitative key results.
• Open Innovation Henry Chesbrough's paradigm recognises that useful knowledge is widely distributed.
• Opportunity Solution Tree Teresa Torres's framework connecting outcomes to solutions through opportunity spaces.
• Pattern Breaking Techniques for deliberately disrupting established patterns of thinking.
• Performance Management Systems and practices for ensuring individual and team performance align with organisational objectives.
• Performance Monitoring Technical practices for observing application behaviour, system health, and operational metrics.
• Persona Development Creating research-based archetypal user representations that capture goals, behaviours, pain points, and contexts.
• Pirate Metrics Dave McClure's AARRR framework: Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Revenue, and Referral.
• Planning Poker A consensus-based estimation technique where team members simultaneously reveal cards showing their estimate.
• Planting Limits The deliberate use of constraints as creative stimuli rather than obstacles.
• Pre-mortem Analysis Gary Klein's technique, in which teams imagine a project has failed spectacularly, then work backwards to identify what went wrong.
• Problem Framing The discipline of defining problems clearly before solving them.
• Problem Interviews Lean Startup technique for validating that a problem exists and is worth solving before investing in solutions.
• Product Council A governance forum for making investment decisions visible and accountable.
• Product Metrics Hierarchy A structured framework organising metrics from high-level outcomes through mid-level drivers to operational measures.
• Product Strategy Canvas Roman Pichler's template for connecting product vision to execution.
• Product Vision Board A single-page template constraining product vision to five elements.
• Prototype Testing Evaluating solution representations with real users before committing to full development.
• RACI Matrix A responsibility assignment matrix clarifying roles: Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed.
• Real Options Theory Applying financial options thinking to product and project decisions.
• Resource Allocation Where resources actually go is the clearest signal of what strategy actually is.
• Retrospectives Regular team sessions examining what worked, what didn't, and how to improve.
• RICE Scoring Intercom's prioritisation framework calculates (Reach x Impact x Confidence) divided by Effort.
• Roadmap Planning The process of creating and maintaining product roadmaps that communicate planned development direction.
• SCARF Model David Rock's neuroscience-based framework identifies five social domains: Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness, and Fairness.
• Scenario Planning A strategic planning technique exploring multiple plausible futures rather than predicting a single outcome.
• Shifting Perspectives The deliberate practice of examining scenarios through different lenses.
• Solution Interviews Lean Startup technique for testing solution concepts with potential customers after validating that the problem exists.
• Specification by Example Gojko Adzic's approach, where concrete examples become automated tests.
• Stack Ranking A prioritisation technique using pairwise comparison to create unique ranks without ties.
• Stakeholder Mapping A technique for plotting stakeholders on axes such as influence versus interest.
• Status Reporting Status reports are primarily a trust instrument, not a progress tracker.
• T-shirt Sizing A relative estimation technique using sizes (XS, S, M, L, XL) rather than precise numbers.
• Team Charter A document establishing a team's purpose, membership, ways of working, and success criteria.
• Team Health Checks Regular assessments of team functioning across dimensions like mission clarity, collaboration, learning, support, and enjoyment.
• Technical Debt Quadrant Martin Fowler's categorisation framework distinguishes between deliberate and inadvertent debt, and between reckless and prudent debt.
• TRIZ Built from the analysis of hundreds of thousands of patents to identify the patterns that actually produce inventive solutions.
• Troika Consulting A Liberating Structure for rapid peer consultation in groups of three.
• Usability Testing Observing real users attempting tasks with a product or prototype.
• User Story Mapping Jeff Patton's visual technique represents user journeys with a horizontal backbone of activities and vertical depth of functionality beneath each.
• Value Proposition Canvas Strategyzer's tool for ensuring product-market fit by mapping customer profiles against value maps.
• Value vs Effort Matrix A prioritisation tool plotting features or initiatives on a grid of value versus effort.
• Vision Calibrating The practice of grounding ambitious vision in environmental reality through frameworks such as PESTLE.
• Voice of Customer Systematic capture and action on customer feedback from multiple channels.
• Walking Skeleton A tiny end-to-end implementation exercising the full architecture with minimal functionality.
• Wardley Maps Simon Wardley's strategic mapping technique visualising value chain components by their evolutionary stage.
• What, So What, Now What? A Liberating Structure for sense-making that moves through three questions.
• Wicked Questions A Liberating Structure surfacing paradoxes.
• Workflow Optimisation The systematic improvement of work processes to reduce waste, increase efficiency, and improve outcomes.
• Working Agreements Team-created guidelines establishing norms for collaboration.
• Workshop Design The practice of creating structured sessions that achieve specific outcomes.
• WSJF Weighted Shortest Job First, a SAFe prioritisation method, sequences work for maximum economic benefit.