Porter, Blue Ocean, VRIO, Jobs-to-be-Done, plus the financial and operational classics — the canonical toolkit for shaping strategy.
SWOT analysis maps internal Strengths and Weaknesses against external Opportunities and Threats to inform strategy. This template runs a disciplined, evidence-based SWOT and — crucially — converts it into action via TOWS pairing, so it drives decisions rather than listing platitudes.
The TOWS matrix turns a SWOT into strategy by systematically pairing factors — SO (use strengths on opportunities), WO (fix weaknesses to seize opportunities), ST (use strengths against threats), WT (minimise weaknesses and avoid threats).
Porter's value chain decomposes the firm into primary and support activities to find where value is added and where cost or differentiation advantage can be built. This template maps the chain, analyses each activity's cost/value, and identifies margin and differentiation opportunities.
Porter's generic strategies frame the fundamental choice of competitive advantage: cost leadership, differentiation, or focus (cost or differentiation in a niche) — warning against being 'stuck in the middle'. This template clarifies the chosen advantage and the activities that must align to it.
Porter's Diamond explains why nations/regions are competitive in particular industries, via four determinants. This template assesses location-based competitive advantage for market entry, sourcing, or footprint decisions.
Blue Ocean Strategy seeks uncontested market space ('blue oceans') instead of competing in crowded 'red oceans', using the Strategy Canvas and the Eliminate-Reduce-Raise-Create (ERRC) grid to reconstruct value and break the value-cost trade-off.
VRIO tests whether a resource or capability is a source of sustained competitive advantage by asking if it is Valuable, Rare, costly to Imitate, and Organised to capture value. This template evaluates the firm's key resources to find durable advantages.
Core competencies are the collective skills and technologies that provide disproportionate customer value and are hard to imitate — the roots of competitiveness. This template identifies core competencies (vs.
The GE-McKinsey nine-box matrix prioritises investment across business units by industry attractiveness and competitive strength — a richer alternative to the BCG matrix. This template scores units on both axes and sets invest/grow, selectivity, or harvest/divest strategies.
Greiner's model describes how organisations grow through phases, each ending in a crisis that must be resolved to advance (creativity→leadership, direction→autonomy, delegation→control, coordination→red tape, collaboration→growth). This template diagnoses the current phase/crisis and the management shift required.
The value-disciplines model holds that market leaders excel at one of three disciplines — operational excellence, product leadership, or customer intimacy — while meeting thresholds on the others. This template chooses the lead discipline and aligns the operating model to it.
The Strategy Diamond forces a complete, coherent strategy statement across five elements: Arenas, Vehicles, Differentiators, Staging, and Economic logic. This template ensures a strategy answers where, how, and why it makes money — not just a vision slogan.
The Resource-Based View (RBV) holds that sustained advantage comes from internal resources that are valuable, rare, inimitable, and non-substitutable, rather than industry positioning alone. This template inventories and evaluates resources to build strategy from the inside out.
The experience (learning) curve observes that unit costs fall by a predictable percentage each time cumulative production doubles — a basis for cost-leadership and pricing strategy. This template estimates the curve and its strategic implications for scale and pricing.
Wardley Mapping visualises a value chain against the evolution of its components (genesis → custom → product → commodity), exposing where to build, buy, or outsource and how the landscape will move. This template maps the chain and evolution to inform strategic plays.
Seven Powers identifies the seven sources of durable competitive advantage — scale economies, network economies, counter-positioning, switching costs, branding, cornered resource, process power — each requiring a benefit and a barrier. This template tests which powers a business holds or can build.
Disruptive innovation explains how simpler, cheaper offerings take root in low-end or new-market footholds and move upmarket to displace incumbents who are over-serving. This template assesses disruption threats and opportunities and the right response.
A strategic group map plots competitors by two strategic dimensions to reveal clusters of firms with similar strategies, mobility barriers between groups, and white space. This template maps the industry's strategic groups to inform positioning.
The Value Net reframes the competitive environment to include customers, suppliers, competitors, and complementors — recognising that firms both compete and cooperate ('co-opetition'). This template maps the value net and identifies cooperative and competitive plays.
Rumelt's 'good strategy' kernel insists that real strategy has three parts — a diagnosis of the challenge, a guiding policy, and coherent actions — and warns against 'bad strategy' (fluff, goals masquerading as strategy). This template builds and stress-tests a strategy kernel.
McCarthy's 4Ps — Product, Price, Place, Promotion — are the controllable levers a firm sets to serve a target market. This template audits each P for fit and coherence and turns gaps into a marketing action plan.
Booms and Bitner extended the 4Ps to 7Ps for services — adding People, Process, and Physical evidence — because services are intangible, variable, and co-produced. This template audits all seven levers for a service offer.
AIDA describes the stages a buyer passes through — Attention, Interest, Desire, Action — and is used to design communications that move prospects toward purchase. This template maps content and offers to each stage and finds the weakest link.
CLV estimates the total profit a customer generates over the relationship, discounting future cash flows. It anchors acquisition spend, retention investment, and segment prioritisation.
RFM scores customers on Recency, Frequency, and Monetary value to target the most responsive segments. It is a simple, data-light way to prioritise marketing and retention.
The Kano model classifies product attributes by how they drive satisfaction — must-be, one-dimensional, attractive, indifferent, reverse — revealing where investment delights versus merely prevents complaints. This template surveys and plots features.
JTBD reframes demand around the progress a customer is trying to make — the 'job' for which they 'hire' a product — rather than demographics or features. This template captures jobs, outcomes, and current solutions to find underserved needs.
The Value Proposition Canvas pairs a customer profile (jobs, pains, gains) with a value map (products, pain relievers, gain creators) to test fit. This template builds both sides and checks fit before build.
AARRR — Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Referral, Revenue — is a funnel of metrics for growing a product business. This template instruments each stage, finds the biggest leak, and prioritises growth experiments.
The purchase (or marketing) funnel models the narrowing path from awareness to purchase and loyalty, used to size and diagnose conversion at each stage. This template quantifies the funnel and targets the weakest conversion.
Positioning is the act of occupying a distinct, valued place in the customer's mind relative to alternatives. This template defines target, frame of reference, point of difference, and reason to believe into a positioning statement.
Product-market fit is the state of being in a good market with a product that satisfies it — the point before which scaling is premature. This template assesses fit signals and gaps before pouring in growth spend.
Rogers' diffusion theory explains how new products spread through a population in adopter groups — innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, laggards — shaped by five product attributes. This template plans adoption stage by stage.
Needs-based segmentation groups customers by what they want and value rather than by demographics or firmographics alone, producing segments that behave differently and respond to different offers. This template builds and validates segments.
Good-Better-Best offers tiered versions of a product to capture more of the demand curve, anchor value, and let customers self-select. This template designs the tiers, fences, and price ladder.
Keller's customer-based brand equity pyramid builds a brand in four levels — identity (salience), meaning (performance/imagery), response (judgements/feelings), and relationships (resonance). This template diagnoses the brand level by level and finds the gap to resonance.
DuPont analysis decomposes return on equity into net margin, asset turnover, and financial leverage, revealing what actually drives returns. This template builds the decomposition and benchmarks each driver.
EVA measures the profit a business earns above the cost of all the capital it uses, so positive EVA means true value creation. This template computes EVA and identifies its drivers.
Zero-based budgeting builds the budget from zero each cycle, justifying every cost rather than incrementing last year's. This template runs a ZBB review by activity and decision package.
Activity-based costing assigns overhead to products and customers by the activities they actually consume, exposing hidden cross-subsidies that volume-based costing hides. This template builds an ABC model.
The cash conversion cycle measures the days between paying suppliers and collecting from customers — how long cash is tied up in operations. This template computes the cycle and targets each component.
Cost-volume-profit analysis finds the volume at which revenue covers costs and models how profit responds to price, cost, and volume changes. This template builds the break-even and a contribution model.
DCF values an asset as the present value of its expected future cash flows, discounted at a rate reflecting risk and time. This template builds a DCF with explicit and terminal value.
A three-statement model links the income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement so that one set of assumptions drives an integrated, internally consistent forecast. This template builds and checks the links.
Unit economics expresses profitability at the level of a single unit — a customer, order, or product — typically as contribution per unit and CLV:CAC, to test whether growth is profitable. This template builds the unit model.
Capital allocation is the disciplined deployment of a firm's cash across reinvestment, M&A, debt paydown, dividends, and buybacks to maximise long-run value per share. This template ranks uses of capital by risk-adjusted return.
Cost-to-serve allocates the full downstream cost of serving each customer or channel — logistics, service, returns — to reveal which relationships actually make money. This template builds the CTS model.
Driver-based planning forecasts financials from operational drivers — volumes, rates, headcount — rather than extrapolating last year, so plans flex with the business and tie to operating decisions. This template builds the driver model.
A ROIC driver tree decomposes return on invested capital into operating margin and capital turnover, then into the operational levers beneath, so value creation is traced to actions. This template builds the tree and ranks levers.
The Theory of Constraints holds that every system is limited by a small number of constraints, and throughput is maximised by managing the bottleneck. This template runs the five focusing steps.
Value stream mapping draws the full material and information flow for a product family to expose waste and design a leaner future state. This template maps current state, finds waste, and designs future state.
5S organises the workplace through Sort, Set in order, Shine, Standardise, and Sustain to reduce waste and make problems visible. This template runs a 5S programme with audit.
Kaizen is continuous, incremental improvement driven by everyone, every day, often via short focused events. This template runs a kaizen cycle from problem to standardised gain.
Kanban is a pull system that signals replenishment and limits work-in-process, so production follows actual demand rather than forecasts. This template designs a kanban system with WIP limits.
Just-in-Time produces only what is needed, when needed, in the amount needed, eliminating inventory waste — a pillar of the Toyota Production System. This template assesses JIT readiness and designs flow.
Poka-yoke designs processes so errors are prevented or immediately caught, removing reliance on vigilance. This template finds error modes and designs mistake-proofing.
Hoshin Kanri (policy deployment) aligns a few breakthrough objectives top to bottom through catchball dialogue, so daily work connects to strategy. This template builds the X-matrix and review cadence.
The 5 Whys finds the root cause of a problem by asking 'why' repeatedly until the underlying cause is reached, rather than treating symptoms. This template runs a disciplined 5 Whys with verification.
The fishbone diagram organises the possible causes of a problem into categories (often the 6Ms) so a team can explore causes systematically before fixing. This template builds and tests the diagram.
A3 captures a whole problem-solving story — background, current state, goal, analysis, countermeasures, plan, follow-up — on one page, forcing clarity and PDCA discipline. This template runs an A3.
Pareto analysis applies the 80/20 principle to focus effort on the vital few causes that drive most of the effect. This template ranks causes by impact and finds the vital few.
EOQ finds the order quantity that minimises total inventory cost by balancing ordering cost against holding cost. This template computes EOQ and reorder points.
Demand forecasting estimates future demand using history, drivers, and judgement to plan supply, inventory, and capacity. This template selects a method, generates a forecast, and tracks accuracy.
Network design decides the number, location, and role of facilities and the flows between them to balance cost, service, and risk. This template models the network and tests scenarios.
Capacity planning matches productive capacity to forecast demand over time, choosing lead, lag, or match strategies to balance utilisation, service, and cost. This template sizes capacity and a strategy.
Lewin's model frames change in three phases — unfreeze the status quo, change to the new way, then refreeze to make it stick. This template plans each phase with the behaviours and reinforcement needed.
Bridges distinguishes external change from the internal psychological transition people go through — Ending, Neutral Zone, New Beginning — and argues transitions must be managed, not just the change. This template plans support for each phase.
Adapted from the grief stages, the change curve maps the emotional journey through change — shock, denial, frustration, depression, experiment, decision, integration — so leaders can support each stage. This template plans stage-appropriate support.
The influence model says behaviour change at scale needs four conditions — role modelling, understanding and conviction, reinforcement mechanisms, and capability building. This template designs all four levers together.
The congruence model diagnoses organisational performance by the fit among four components — work, people, structure, and culture — given inputs and strategy. This template assesses each fit.
The Burke-Litwin model links twelve organisational factors and distinguishes transformational drivers (leadership, mission, culture) from transactional ones (structure, systems, climate), showing how change cascades. This template traces change pathways.
Weisbord's six-box model diagnoses an organisation across purpose, structure, relationships, rewards, helpful mechanisms, and leadership, asking whether each fits the environment. This template runs the diagnosis.
Tuckman describes how teams mature through forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning, with different leadership needs at each stage. This template diagnoses the stage and plans the right support.
Belbin identifies nine team roles across action, thinking, and people orientations, arguing balanced teams outperform. This template maps roles to find gaps and overlaps.
Hofstede's dimensions compare national cultures across power distance, individualism, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance, long-term orientation, and indulgence, informing cross-cultural management. This template compares cultures for a decision.
Maslow's hierarchy orders human needs from physiological and safety through belonging and esteem to self-actualisation, used to understand motivation. This template maps needs to engagement levers.
Herzberg separates hygiene factors (which prevent dissatisfaction) from motivators (which create satisfaction), showing pay fixes complaints but growth drives engagement. This template audits both sets.
Situational leadership holds that the best leadership style depends on followers' competence and commitment, moving from directing through coaching and supporting to delegating. This template matches style to readiness.
Force field analysis weighs the driving forces for a change against the restraining forces, so effort goes to strengthening drivers and reducing restraints. This template scores both sets.
A competency model defines the knowledge, skills, and behaviours that drive superior performance in a role, anchoring hiring, development, and assessment. This template builds and validates a model.
An EVP is the deal between employer and employee — the rewards and experience offered in return for contribution — used to attract, engage, and retain talent. This template builds and tests an EVP.
MoSCoW sorts requirements into Must, Should, Could, and Won't-have-this-time, creating a shared, time-boxed view of priority. This template classifies scope and protects the musts.
The Eisenhower matrix sorts tasks by urgency and importance into do, schedule, delegate, and eliminate, protecting time for what matters over what merely shouts. This template triages a task list.
CPM models a project as a network of dependent activities to find the longest path — the critical path — that sets the minimum duration, and the float on the rest. This template builds the network and critical path.
A WBS decomposes the total scope of a project into a hierarchy of deliverables and work packages, ensuring nothing is missed and work is estimable and assignable. This template builds a WBS to work-package level.
PERT estimates activity duration using optimistic, most-likely, and pessimistic values to produce an expected time and variance, handling uncertainty better than single-point estimates. This template builds PERT estimates.
EVM integrates scope, schedule, and cost to measure project performance objectively, comparing planned value, earned value, and actual cost to forecast outcomes. This template computes EVM metrics.
Critical chain plans around resource constraints and replaces task-level padding with shared buffers, protecting the project end date from variation and multitasking. This template builds a buffered plan.
A risk matrix plots risks by likelihood and impact to prioritise which to mitigate, accept, transfer, or avoid. This template scores and ranks risks with responses.
MECE — mutually exclusive, collectively exhaustive — structures a problem into issue trees with no gaps and no overlaps, so analysis is complete and non-redundant. This template builds a MECE issue tree.
Hypothesis-driven problem solving starts from a best-guess answer and designs the minimum analysis to prove or disprove it, accelerating to insight rather than boiling the ocean. This template runs the cycle.
A weighted decision matrix scores options against weighted criteria to make a multi-factor choice transparent and defensible. This template builds and stress-tests the matrix.
A decision tree maps choices, chance events, and outcomes with probabilities and values to compute the expected value of each path, supporting decisions under uncertainty. This template builds and rolls back a tree.
A pre-mortem imagines a project has already failed and works backward to surface risks before they happen, countering overconfidence and groupthink. This template runs a pre-mortem and converts risks to actions.
Monte Carlo simulation models uncertainty by running many random trials over input distributions to produce a distribution of outcomes, rather than a single estimate. This template sets up and interprets a simulation.
Design thinking solves problems by understanding users deeply then iterating solutions — structured by the Double Diamond's diverge/converge rhythm across Discover, Define, Develop, Deliver. This template runs the four phases.
The Lean Startup builds new ventures through validated learning — the Build-Measure-Learn loop — testing assumptions with minimum products to decide whether to persevere or pivot. This template runs the loop.
Lean Canvas adapts the Business Model Canvas for startups, emphasising problem, solution, key metrics, and unfair advantage to capture a business model on one page. This template builds and tests the canvas.
An MVP is the smallest product that delivers value and generates validated learning with the least effort, so teams test demand before over-building. This template scopes an MVP around a hypothesis.
TRIZ, the theory of inventive problem solving, distils patterns from millions of patents into principles for resolving technical contradictions without compromise. This template applies the contradiction matrix and principles.
Crossing the Chasm explains why high-tech products stall between early adopters and the mainstream, and how to cross by dominating a beachhead niche. This template plans the crossing.
The Hype Cycle maps how expectations for a technology evolve — from trigger through a peak of inflated expectations, a trough of disillusionment, to a slope of enlightenment and plateau of productivity — guiding adoption timing. This template positions technologies.
The Opportunity Solution Tree links a desired outcome to discovered opportunities (customer needs), then to solutions and experiments, keeping product discovery outcome-driven and visible. This template builds the tree.
A North Star Metric is the single measure that best captures the core value a product delivers to customers, aligning teams on sustainable growth rather than vanity numbers. This template selects and decomposes the metric.
Real options analysis values managerial flexibility — to defer, expand, contract, or abandon — under uncertainty, capturing worth that static DCF misses. This template frames and values the options in a decision.
