You’ll find below 100+ techniques that I’ve shared in training sessions over the last 15+ years. These are grouped in 7 themes: Theories, Frameworks, Thinking Ways, Key Tools, People, Visuals, and Research & Report. The techniques in bold are the key ones I have emphasised in the last few years. Hopefully you’ll recognise a few :)

Theories

  • Kim's Happy Line

  • Ries’ Lean Startup

  • Christensen's Innovators Dilemna

  • Business Theories as Religion

  • Wheel of Fortune 

  • Kim’s Blue Ocean

  • BCG’s Share Growth Matrix

  • McKinsey / GE Matrix

  • Porter's 5 Forces

  • Index's Value Disciplines

  • Hamel's Value Chain

  • BCG’s Time 2 Market

  • Bain's Profit Pool

  • PIMS's ROS - RMS

  • SRI’s Scenario Planning Matrix

Frameworks

  • Hyperspeed CLASH Testing (Canvas, Lean, Agile, Scrum, Hackathon)

  • IDEO’s Design Thinking

  • Google’s Sprint

  • McKinsey's 7Ss

  • Mutation Game

  • Payoff Profiles Matrix

  • Raworth’s Doughnut Economics

  • Kaplan Norton's Balanced Scorecard

  • BCG’sBain's 3Cs

  • Kotler's 4Ps

  • Product Life Cycle

  • Ansoff's Product x Market Grid

  • Strategy as Simple Rules

  • Technology Grapes

  • Anti-Sales Bias

  • Macro Analogies Codex

  • Micro Analogies Codex

  • Life Analogy Triggers

Thinking Ways

  • 4 Routes to Completion

  • Rollercoaster of Strategic Thinking

  • Minto's Pyramid Principle

  • Buzan’s Mind Maps

  • Eatbigfish’s Beautiful Constraint (“Can If”)

  • Gainline Busting (“Either Or If Then”)

  • Magic Tree

  • Musk’s First Principles

  • McKinsey’s Granularity of Growth

  • Systems Thinking

  • Breaking Bulk

  • Inverse Logic / Reverse Logic

  • Brainstorm

  • Root Cause

  • Senge’s Ladder of Inference

  • Dialectic Arc

  • Forces at Work

  • Force Field

  • Research Tree

  • Sanity Checks

  • SWOT

  • Process Maps

  • Pareto Curve ("80:20")

  • Pareto “Hump”

  • Blanks

  • Bullet Page

  • Decision Trees

Key Tools

  • Value Maps ("Mekko")

  • Skyline

  • Ground Gain Line

  • Learning Curves - Scale & Scope

  • Conversion Waterfall

  • KPC Combs

  • XLP

  • Driver Analysis

  • Cost Bars

  • Cost Pools

  • Channel Maps

  • ROS / RONA

  • Clustering

  • Factorial Analysis

  • EVA

  • Top-down Estimation

  • NPV

  • Game Theory

  • Financial Options

  • Real Options

People

  • Myers-Briggs's Personality Types

  • Neuro-Linguistic Programming

  • The 6 Moods of Success

  • 10 Ways to Convince

  • Amazon’s 14 Leadership Principles

  • Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

  • Alderfer's ERG Theory

  • Belbin's Team Roles

  • Minstzberg's 6 Organisational Parts

  • Kruger's Iceberg

  • Theory X vs. Theory Y

  • Leadership Continuum Line

Visuals

  • GPS Venn Diagram

  • Market Circles

  • Harvey Balls

  • Competitor Cube

  • Market Growth Parfait

  • Lollipops

  • Conceptual Maps

  • Crocodile Chart

Research & Report

  • Zeitgeist Inventory

  • Future Tech

  • Bezos’ Memos

  • Evidence Staircase

  • Focus Groups

  • Quotes

  • Usual Sources

  • Desk Sources

  • One-Off Interviews

  • Interview Programmes

  • Reporting Iceberg

  • Executional Validity Test

  • Thinking Validity Test