Free resources

Prompts to paste, frameworks to think with, books worth your time and lessons from companies that failed. Free, no sign-up.

Framework library

100 founder frameworks, explained simply.

Short, practical ways of thinking that founders use to choose, plan, sell and decide. Each one is explained in plain words with three steps and a clear moment to use it. Credit goes to the people who created them.

1. Pick a topic.
2. Tap a framework to open it.
3. Try the three steps on your own business.
Validate
Jobs to Be Done
Clayton Christensen, Tony Ulwick
People do not buy products. They hire them to make progress in their life.
  1. Describe the situation the customer is in.
  2. Name the progress they want to make.
  3. List what they use today to get it.
Use it when. Use it when you are unsure what to build or why customers leave.
Validate
The Mom Test
Rob Fitzpatrick
Ask about their life and past behaviour, not whether they like your idea.
  1. Ask what they did the last time the problem came up.
  2. Ask what it cost them and what they tried.
  3. Leave with a next step, not a compliment.
Use it when. Use it in every customer interview, so polite answers do not fool you.
Validate
Get Out of the Building
Steve Blank
Facts about customers live outside your office, so go and test your guesses there.
  1. Write your guesses about customer, problem and price.
  2. Talk to 20 real prospects to test them.
  3. Change the guesses that do not survive.
Use it when. Use it before you commit months to a plan.
Validate
Smoke Test Landing Page
Lean startup practice
Measure real interest in an offer before it exists.
  1. Write a clear one-page offer with a sign-up or deposit.
  2. Send 100 targeted people to it.
  3. Compare the sign-up rate with the rate you set in advance.
Use it when. Use it when an idea is cheap to describe but expensive to build.
Validate
Concierge MVP
Eric Ries, Lean Startup
Deliver the service by hand to a few customers before building software.
  1. Pick three customers with the problem.
  2. Do the work manually, step by step.
  3. Note which steps repeat. Those become the product.
Use it when. Use it when you are not sure what the product should actually do.
Validate
Wizard of Oz Test
Design research practice
Show a working-looking product while a person does the work behind the curtain.
  1. Build only the front the customer sees.
  2. Do the hidden steps by hand.
  3. Watch what customers use and ignore.
Use it when. Use it to test a complex idea without building the complex part.
Validate
Pre-Sell Before You Build
Founder practice
A promise to pay tells you more than a promise to try.
  1. Describe the result and the price clearly.
  2. Ask five buyers for a paid commitment.
  3. Build only once enough say yes.
Use it when. Use it when you need proof of demand more than feedback.
Validate
Problem Scorecard
Founder practice
Score how painful the problem really is before choosing it.
  1. List who has it, how often, and what it costs them.
  2. Score each from 1 to 5 using interview evidence.
  3. Pick the problem with the highest total.
Use it when. Use it when you have several possible problems and no clear winner.
Validate
Painkiller or Vitamin
Startup folklore
A painkiller solves an urgent problem. A vitamin is nice to have.
  1. Ask what happens if the customer does nothing.
  2. Ask what they already pay or do to fix it.
  3. Rate it: urgent, useful, or optional.
Use it when. Use it to decide whether the problem is strong enough to build a business on.
Validate
Riskiest Assumption Test
Eric Ries, Lean Startup
Find the guess that would kill the idea if wrong, and test that first.
  1. List every assumption behind the idea.
  2. Circle the one that, if false, ends everything.
  3. Design the cheapest test for that one only.
Use it when. Use it to avoid spending weeks on the safe parts first.
Validate
Fake Door Test
Product experiment practice
Add a button for a feature that does not exist and count the clicks.
  1. Add the button or link where users would expect it.
  2. Show a short message when they click.
  3. Count clicks against how many saw it.
Use it when. Use it to choose between features before building any of them.
Validate
The 40 Percent Test
Sean Ellis
Ask users how they would feel without your product. If 40 percent say very disappointed, you may have a fit.
  1. Survey users who tried the product more than once.
  2. Ask: How would you feel if you could no longer use it?
  3. Count the share who answer very disappointed.
Use it when. Use it to measure product-market fit with a single question.
Strategy
Lean Canvas
Ash Maurya
A one-page plan for a new business built around problems and key numbers.
  1. Fill in problem, customer, and unique value.
  2. Add solution, channels, revenue and costs.
  3. Mark the riskiest boxes and test those.
Use it when. Use it to replace a long business plan in the early days.
Strategy
Business Model Canvas
Alexander Osterwalder
A single page that shows how your business creates, delivers and earns value.
  1. Fill in customers, value, channels and relationships.
  2. Add revenue, key activities, resources and partners.
  3. Check that every box links to the others.
Use it when. Use it to explain or compare business models quickly.
Strategy
SWOT
Strategy classic
A plain list of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
  1. List what you do well and badly, inside the company.
  2. List chances and dangers outside it.
  3. Turn the top item from each box into an action.
Use it when. Use it for a quick yearly check, not a deep plan.
Strategy
Porter’s Five Forces
Michael Porter
Five pressures that decide how profitable an industry can be.
  1. Rate rivals, new entrants and substitutes.
  2. Rate the power of suppliers and of buyers.
  3. Decide where you can find shelter.
Use it when. Use it to judge whether a market is worth entering.
Strategy
Blue Ocean Strategy
W. Chan Kim, Renee Mauborgne
Stop fighting rivals and create space where nobody competes.
  1. List what your industry competes on.
  2. Eliminate, reduce, raise or create factors.
  3. Test the new mix with a small group.
Use it when. Use it when your market is crowded and prices are falling.
Strategy
Seven Powers
Hamilton Helmer
Seven kinds of lasting advantage, such as scale, switching costs and brand.
  1. Name which power you have or could build.
  2. Check it gives both a benefit and a barrier.
  3. Invest in the one that fits your business.
Use it when. Use it to test whether your advantage will last.
Strategy
Crossing the Chasm
Geoffrey Moore
There is a gap between early adopters and the mainstream, and you cross it one niche at a time.
  1. Pick one narrow group in the mainstream.
  2. Build the complete solution for that group.
  3. Win them, then move to the next group.
Use it when. Use it when early buyers love you but growth has stalled.
Strategy
Disruptive Innovation
Clayton Christensen
Simple, cheaper products can start at the low end and slowly take over.
  1. Find customers the leaders overserve or ignore.
  2. Offer a simpler, cheaper option that is good enough.
  3. Improve steadily and move up.
Use it when. Use it to find an opening against bigger competitors.
Strategy
Ansoff Matrix
Igor Ansoff
Four growth paths: sell more of the same, new markets, new products, or both.
  1. Place your ideas on a grid of product and market.
  2. Mark risk from low to high.
  3. Start with the lowest risk path that still moves you.
Use it when. Use it when you have many growth ideas and need an order.
Strategy
Playing to Win
A.G. Lafley, Roger Martin
Five linked choices: win aspiration, where to play, how to win, capabilities, systems.
  1. Write each answer in one sentence.
  2. Check each answer supports the one above it.
  3. Say no to what does not fit.
Use it when. Use it to write a strategy that fits on one page.
Strategy
Three Horizons
McKinsey
Run today’s business, build the next one, and plant seeds for later, all at once.
  1. List projects as now, next or later.
  2. Check that each horizon has an owner.
  3. Protect the later ones from short-term pressure.
Use it when. Use it when you worry that you only work on today.
Strategy
Positioning Canvas
April Dunford
Describe your product through its competitors, strengths and best-fit customers.
  1. List the alternatives customers use today.
  2. Name what you do better that they care about.
  3. Say who cares most and the market you are in.
Use it when. Use it when people do not understand what you sell.
Strategy
Beachhead Market
Bill Aulet
Win one small market completely before reaching for the next.
  1. List possible niches and score each.
  2. Pick the one with urgent need and easy access.
  3. Dominate it before widening.
Use it when. Use it when your first customers are too different from each other.
Strategy
TAM, SAM and SOM
Investor practice
Three sizes of market: total, serviceable, and what you can win soon.
  1. Count everyone who could buy.
  2. Narrow to those you can reach with your model.
  3. Estimate the share you can win in two years.
Use it when. Use it to size a market without hype.
Product
Kano Model
Noriaki Kano
Features are either must-haves, more-is-better, or delighters.
  1. Ask users how they feel with and without a feature.
  2. Sort features into the three groups.
  3. Cover must-haves first, then add one delighter.
Use it when. Use it to choose which features deserve attention.
Product
RICE Scoring
Intercom
Score ideas by reach, impact, confidence and effort.
  1. Estimate reach, impact and confidence for each idea.
  2. Estimate effort in person-weeks.
  3. Multiply the first three and divide by effort.
Use it when. Use it to rank a long backlog with numbers rather than opinions.
Product
ICE Scoring
Sean Ellis
A faster scoring method: impact, confidence and ease, each from 1 to 10.
  1. Score each idea on the three measures.
  2. Average or multiply the scores.
  3. Run the top three experiments.
Use it when. Use it when you need to choose in ten minutes.
Product
MoSCoW
Dai Clegg
Sort requirements into must, should, could and will not have.
  1. List everything you want in this release.
  2. Mark each as must, should, could or won’t.
  3. Cut until the musts fit your time.
Use it when. Use it to agree scope with a team or a client.
Product
Story Mapping
Jeff Patton
Lay out the user’s journey left to right, then slice it into releases.
  1. Write the steps a user takes, in order.
  2. Add detail under each step.
  3. Draw a line for the first release.
Use it when. Use it to find the smallest version that still works end to end.
Product
Opportunity Solution Tree
Teresa Torres
Link a goal to customer needs, then to solutions and tests.
  1. Write the goal at the top.
  2. Map the customer needs below it.
  3. Under each need, list ideas and small tests.
Use it when. Use it to stop jumping straight to features.
Product
Double Diamond
British Design Council
Open up to explore the problem, narrow to define it, open up again for ideas, then narrow to deliver.
  1. Discover: learn widely about the problem.
  2. Define: choose the problem to solve.
  3. Develop and deliver: try options, ship one.
Use it when. Use it to keep design work in the right order.
Product
Hook Model
Nir Eyal
A habit forms through trigger, action, reward and investment.
  1. Identify what prompts the user to start.
  2. Make the action easy and the reward varied.
  3. Ask for a small investment that improves next time.
Use it when. Use it to understand why users come back, or do not.
Product
Design Sprint
Jake Knapp, Google Ventures
Solve a big question in five days with a prototype and five customer tests.
  1. Monday to Tuesday: map the problem and sketch.
  2. Wednesday to Thursday: decide and build a prototype.
  3. Friday: test with five customers.
Use it when. Use it to settle a big, risky question fast.
Product
North Star Metric
Growth practice
One number that shows customers are getting value.
  1. Choose a measure of value delivered, not of money.
  2. Check it moves when customers succeed.
  3. Break it into inputs each team can change.
Use it when. Use it to keep everyone pulling in the same direction.
Product
Shape Up
Ryan Singer, Basecamp
Work in six-week cycles with a fixed time and a flexible scope.
  1. Shape the problem and the appetite before starting.
  2. Give a small team the full cycle.
  3. If it is not done, decide before extending.
Use it when. Use it when projects keep growing and never finish.
Product
Value versus Effort Matrix
Product practice
A two-by-two grid that shows quick wins and money pits.
  1. Rate each idea for value and for effort.
  2. Plot them on the grid.
  3. Do high value, low effort first.
Use it when. Use it for a quick team conversation about what to do next.
Growth
Pirate Metrics (AARRR)
Dave McClure
Track acquisition, activation, retention, referral and revenue.
  1. Define each stage for your product.
  2. Measure the drop-off between stages.
  3. Fix the biggest leak first.
Use it when. Use it to see where customers are lost.
Growth
Growth Loops
Brian Balfour, Reforge
A loop where output from one customer becomes input for the next.
  1. Map how a new user is created.
  2. Find the step that creates content, data or referrals.
  3. Make that step easier and faster.
Use it when. Use it to build growth that compounds instead of a funnel that leaks.
Growth
Bullseye Framework
Gabriel Weinberg
Test many marketing channels, then focus on the one that works.
  1. List all 19 possible channels.
  2. Run cheap tests on the top three.
  3. Put your effort into the winner.
Use it when. Use it when you do not know which channel to use.
Growth
The Flywheel
Jim Collins
Small wins push a wheel that gets easier to turn.
  1. Name the few steps that feed each other.
  2. Remove friction between the steps.
  3. Keep pushing without changing direction.
Use it when. Use it to design a business where success feeds itself.
Growth
1,000 True Fans
Kevin Kelly
A small group of devoted customers can support a good living.
  1. Estimate what a true fan spends in a year.
  2. Divide your income goal by that amount.
  3. Plan how to reach and serve that many people.
Use it when. Use it if you sell to a niche or to creators.
Growth
Funnel: Top, Middle, Bottom
Marketing classic
Match your message to whether people are curious, comparing or ready.
  1. Top: teach and attract.
  2. Middle: compare and prove.
  3. Bottom: remove doubt and ask for the sale.
Use it when. Use it to plan content so every stage has something.
Growth
StoryBrand SB7
Donald Miller
Tell a story where the customer is the hero and you are the guide.
  1. State what the customer wants and what stands in the way.
  2. Show your plan and call them to act.
  3. Describe the success and the failure ahead.
Use it when. Use it to fix confusing website and sales messages.
Growth
AIDA
Elias St. Elmo Lewis
Attention, interest, desire, action: the order of a good message.
  1. Catch attention with the problem.
  2. Build interest and desire with proof.
  3. End with one clear action.
Use it when. Use it to write emails, ads and landing pages.
Growth
Customer Journey Map
Service design practice
See every step a customer takes, and how they feel at each one.
  1. List the stages from first hearing of you to repeat purchase.
  2. Note what they do, think and feel at each.
  3. Mark the worst moment and fix it first.
Use it when. Use it to find where customers get stuck or give up.
Growth
Retention Curve Check
Product analytics practice
Look at whether customers keep using you over time.
  1. Plot the share of each sign-up group still active over weeks.
  2. Look for a line that flattens instead of falling to zero.
  3. If it falls to zero, fix retention before growth.
Use it when. Use it before spending money to bring in more users.
Growth
The Cold Start Problem
Andrew Chen
Networks are hard to start. Win a small group first and grow from there.
  1. Pick a tiny group that gains value together.
  2. Make the product work for them alone.
  3. Expand outward once the core is solid.
Use it when. Use it for marketplaces and community products.
Growth
Viral Coefficient
Growth practice
How many new users each user brings in.
  1. Count invites sent per user.
  2. Multiply by the share who sign up.
  3. Aim for a number you can improve over time.
Use it when. Use it to test whether referrals can drive your growth.
Growth
High-Tempo Testing
Sean Ellis
Run many small growth experiments each week and keep what works.
  1. Keep a list of ideas scored by ICE.
  2. Run three experiments a week.
  3. Share results and double down on winners.
Use it when. Use it to learn faster than competitors.
Growth
Content Pillars
Content marketing practice
Three to five topics you will become known for.
  1. List topics your best customers care about.
  2. Pick the few you can speak on with authority.
  3. Plan posts under each pillar.
Use it when. Use it to stop posting randomly.
Sales
SPIN Selling
Neil Rackham
Ask four kinds of question: situation, problem, implication and need-payoff.
  1. Learn the situation with few questions.
  2. Uncover problems and what they cost.
  3. Let the buyer say what solving it is worth.
Use it when. Use it for complex or high-value sales conversations.
Sales
BANT
IBM
Check budget, authority, need and timing before investing time.
  1. Is there money for this?
  2. Are you talking to the decision maker?
  3. Is the need real and is there a deadline?
Use it when. Use it to qualify leads fast.
Sales
MEDDIC
Jack Napoli, PTC
A checklist for larger deals: metrics, buyer, criteria, process, pain, champion.
  1. Find the number the buyer wants to move.
  2. Learn who decides and how they decide.
  3. Build an internal champion.
Use it when. Use it when deals involve several people.
Sales
The Challenger Sale
Matthew Dixon, Brent Adamson
Teach the buyer something new, tailor it to them, and take control of the process.
  1. Open with an insight they had not seen.
  2. Link it to their situation.
  3. Guide them firmly to a decision.
Use it when. Use it when buyers know what they want and are too comfortable.
Sales
Sandler Pain Funnel
David Sandler
Dig from the surface problem to the real cost and personal impact.
  1. Ask about the problem and how long it has lasted.
  2. Ask what they tried and what it cost.
  3. Ask how it affects them and what happens next.
Use it when. Use it when a buyer says the problem is small.
Sales
Mutual Action Plan
Enterprise sales practice
A shared timeline of steps you and the buyer agree to complete.
  1. List steps from today to go-live.
  2. Agree dates and owners with the buyer.
  3. Review it at each meeting.
Use it when. Use it to keep deals from drifting.
Sales
LAER
Carew International
A four-step way to handle objections: listen, acknowledge, explore, respond.
  1. Listen without interrupting.
  2. Acknowledge the concern.
  3. Ask questions to find the real worry, then respond.
Use it when. Use it when a prospect pushes back.
Sales
Reverse Funnel Math
Sales operations practice
Start from your revenue goal and work back to calls and emails.
  1. Set the number of deals you need.
  2. Divide by your win rate at each stage.
  3. Turn that into weekly activity.
Use it when. Use it to plan how much outreach is enough.
Sales
Land and Expand
Enterprise software practice
Start small with one team, then grow once they see results.
  1. Pick a small, low-risk first use.
  2. Deliver a clear result and record it.
  3. Use that result to widen the deal.
Use it when. Use it when large buyers move slowly.
Sales
Founder-Led Sales Loop
Early-stage practice
Sell yourself at first, write down what works, then hand it on.
  1. Run every sales call yourself.
  2. Record questions, objections and wins.
  3. Turn the notes into a playbook before hiring.
Use it when. Use it for your first 20 customers.
Pricing & money
Value-Based Pricing
Pricing practice
Price by the value to the customer, not by your costs.
  1. Estimate the result the customer gains.
  2. Ask what they pay today for the same result.
  3. Set the price at a fair share of that value.
Use it when. Use it when you are tempted to charge by hour or cost.
Pricing & money
Good, Better, Best
Pricing practice
Offer three plans so buyers can compare and choose the middle.
  1. Build a basic, a standard and a premium plan.
  2. Make the middle the best fit for most.
  3. Check what customers actually pick.
Use it when. Use it when one price loses some buyers.
Pricing & money
Van Westendorp Price Test
Peter van Westendorp
Four survey questions reveal an acceptable price range.
  1. Ask when it is too cheap, a bargain, getting expensive, too expensive.
  2. Plot the answers.
  3. Choose a price inside the range.
Use it when. Use it when you have no idea what to charge.
Pricing & money
LTV to CAC
SaaS metrics
Compare what a customer is worth with what it costs to win them.
  1. Estimate lifetime gross profit per customer.
  2. Add up sales and marketing cost per new customer.
  3. Look for a ratio of about three or more.
Use it when. Use it to judge whether growth spending pays.
Pricing & money
CAC Payback
SaaS metrics
How many months until a new customer repays the cost of winning them.
  1. Divide acquisition cost by monthly gross profit per customer.
  2. Compare with your cash runway.
  3. Shorten it with price, onboarding or cheaper channels.
Use it when. Use it when cash is tight.
Pricing & money
Rule of 40
SaaS investors
Growth rate plus profit margin should be at least 40 percent.
  1. Add your yearly growth rate and your profit margin.
  2. Compare the sum with 40.
  3. Decide whether to push growth or profit.
Use it when. Use it as a rough health check for software companies.
Pricing & money
Burn Multiple
David Sacks
Net cash burned divided by net new revenue.
  1. Find cash burned in the period.
  2. Find new recurring revenue added.
  3. Divide. Lower is better.
Use it when. Use it to see how efficiently you turn cash into growth.
Pricing & money
Default Alive or Default Dead
Paul Graham
If you keep your current growth and spending, will you reach profit before the money runs out?
  1. Project revenue at your current growth rate.
  2. Project costs at current spending.
  3. See which line crosses first.
Use it when. Use it for an honest monthly check on survival.
Pricing & money
Runway Scenarios
Finance practice
Calculate months of cash in a good, normal and bad case.
  1. Set best, base and worst revenue guesses.
  2. Subtract planned costs.
  3. Mark the month cash runs out in each case.
Use it when. Use it before hiring or raising.
Pricing & money
Price Anchoring
Behavioural economics
The first number people see shapes how they judge the next one.
  1. Show a higher-priced option first.
  2. Present your main plan next.
  3. Test the order with real buyers.
Use it when. Use it on pricing pages and quotes.
Operations
OKRs
Andy Grove, John Doerr
An objective and a few measurable key results for the quarter.
  1. Write one inspiring objective.
  2. Add three key results that can be measured.
  3. Review progress every week.
Use it when. Use it to align a small team on what matters.
Operations
Weekly Scorecard
Gino Wickman, EOS
A short list of numbers reviewed weekly with an owner for each.
  1. Choose five to ten numbers that show the business is healthy.
  2. Give each an owner and a target.
  3. Review in 15 minutes every week.
Use it when. Use it to run the company by facts, not by feel.
Operations
Theory of Constraints
Eliyahu Goldratt
Every system has one bottleneck. Improving anything else does not help.
  1. Find the step that limits output.
  2. Get the most from it before adding more.
  3. Then look for the next bottleneck.
Use it when. Use it when work piles up somewhere and you do not know why.
Operations
Five Whys
Sakichi Toyoda, Toyota
Ask why five times to move from the symptom to the root cause.
  1. State the problem.
  2. Ask why it happened. Repeat for the answer.
  3. Stop when you reach something you can fix.
Use it when. Use it after any mistake or failure.
Operations
Kanban Board
Taiichi Ohno, Toyota
Show work as cards moving through columns and limit work in progress.
  1. Make columns such as to do, doing and done.
  2. Set a limit on the doing column.
  3. Pull new work only when there is space.
Use it when. Use it when you have too much started and too little finished.
Operations
Checklists
Atul Gawande
Simple checklists prevent the mistakes that skill alone misses.
  1. Write the steps that are easy to forget.
  2. Test the list on a real task.
  3. Cut it until it is short and clear.
Use it when. Use it for tasks that must be done the same way every time.
Operations
Pareto Principle
Vilfredo Pareto
Around 20 percent of causes usually produce 80 percent of results.
  1. List your customers, tasks or problems.
  2. Sort them by their share of the result.
  3. Focus on the top few.
Use it when. Use it to decide what to stop doing.
Operations
Eisenhower Matrix
Dwight Eisenhower
Sort tasks into urgent and important, important, urgent, and neither.
  1. List everything on your plate.
  2. Place each in one of four boxes.
  3. Do, schedule, delegate or delete.
Use it when. Use it at the start of the week.
Operations
Seven Levels of Delegation
Jurgen Appelo, Management 3.0
From tell, to sell, to consult, to agree, to advise, to inquire, to delegate fully.
  1. Pick the task you want to hand off.
  2. Choose the level that fits their experience.
  3. Say the level out loud so you both know.
Use it when. Use it to hand off without losing control.
Operations
The Hand-Off Test
OffloadMe
Three yes or no questions that tell you what to hand off first.
  1. Does it repeat every week?
  2. Does it follow clear rules and carry low risk?
  3. Does it not need you specifically?
Use it when. Use it when you are deciding which task to give to a person or to AI.
Leadership
Radical Candor
Kim Scott
Care personally and challenge directly at the same time.
  1. Show you care about the person.
  2. Say clearly what needs to change.
  3. Do both in the same conversation.
Use it when. Use it when you avoid giving feedback.
Leadership
Situational Leadership
Paul Hersey, Ken Blanchard
Match your style to how ready the person is for the task.
  1. Judge their skill and confidence for this task.
  2. Direct, coach, support or delegate to fit.
  3. Change as they grow.
Use it when. Use it when the same management style does not work for everyone.
Leadership
Five Dysfunctions of a Team
Patrick Lencioni
Trust comes first, then conflict, commitment, accountability and results.
  1. Check trust among the team.
  2. Look for healthy disagreement.
  3. Work up the chain from the first broken layer.
Use it when. Use it when a team is stuck.
Leadership
Growth Mindset
Carol Dweck
Believe that abilities can be developed with effort and good strategies.
  1. Replace ‘I cannot’ with ‘I cannot yet’.
  2. Praise effort and strategy.
  3. Treat setbacks as information.
Use it when. Use it when you or your team avoid hard things.
Leadership
Regret Minimisation
Jeff Bezos
Imagine you are eighty. Which choice would you regret not making?
  1. Picture yourself looking back from old age.
  2. Compare the regret of trying with the regret of not trying.
  3. Choose the path with less regret.
Use it when. Use it for big life and career choices.
Leadership
Circle of Control
Stoic practice, Stephen Covey
Spend your energy on what you can influence.
  1. List your worries.
  2. Mark what you control, influence, or cannot affect.
  3. Act on the first two only.
Use it when. Use it when stress is high.
Leadership
Maker and Manager Schedules
Paul Graham
Makers need long blocks of time. Managers work in hourly slots.
  1. Protect half-days for deep work.
  2. Batch meetings together.
  3. Tell others which mode you are in.
Use it when. Use it when meetings eat your best hours.
Leadership
The Stop-Doing List
Jim Collins
Progress comes from what you stop as much as from what you start.
  1. List what you do each week.
  2. Mark what adds little or drains you.
  3. Stop three things this month.
Use it when. Use it when you feel overloaded.
Leadership
Situation, Behaviour, Impact
Center for Creative Leadership
A simple way to give clear feedback.
  1. Describe the situation.
  2. Describe what you saw them do.
  3. Explain the impact it had.
Use it when. Use it to keep feedback specific and calm.
Leadership
The One-on-One Agenda
Management practice
A short, regular meeting that belongs to the other person.
  1. Let them set most of the agenda.
  2. Ask what is blocking them.
  3. End with one clear next step each.
Use it when. Use it with every direct report.
Decisions
Pre-Mortem
Gary Klein
Imagine the project failed a year from now, and ask why.
  1. Say: it is a year later and this failed.
  2. Each person writes the reasons.
  3. Fix the top three before you start.
Use it when. Use it before any big decision or launch.
Decisions
One-Way and Two-Way Doors
Jeff Bezos
Some decisions can be undone. Others cannot. Treat them differently.
  1. Ask: if this is wrong, can we reverse it?
  2. Decide two-way doors quickly.
  3. Slow down for one-way doors.
Use it when. Use it to stop slow decisions on small things.
Decisions
Second-Order Thinking
Howard Marks
Ask what happens after what happens.
  1. Write the first result of the choice.
  2. Ask what that result causes next.
  3. Look three steps ahead.
Use it when. Use it for pricing, hiring and policy choices.
Decisions
Inversion
Charlie Munger
Instead of how to succeed, ask how to fail, and avoid that.
  1. State the goal.
  2. List what would guarantee failure.
  3. Avoid those things.
Use it when. Use it when the path forward is unclear.
Decisions
10-10-10
Suzy Welch
How will you feel in ten minutes, ten months and ten years?
  1. Write the decision.
  2. Imagine your feelings at each time.
  3. Choose what you can live with longest.
Use it when. Use it for emotional decisions.
Decisions
Decision Journal
Farnam Street
Write down why you decided, then check it later.
  1. Record the decision, reasons and what you expect.
  2. Note your confidence level.
  3. Review in 3 to 6 months.
Use it when. Use it to learn from your own judgement.
Decisions
OODA Loop
John Boyd
Observe, orient, decide, act, then repeat faster than others.
  1. Observe what is happening now.
  2. Orient to what it means.
  3. Decide and act, then observe again.
Use it when. Use it in fast-changing situations.
Decisions
Expected Value
Probability practice
Weigh each outcome by how likely it is.
  1. List possible outcomes and their payoffs.
  2. Estimate the chance of each.
  3. Multiply, add and compare options.
Use it when. Use it when choosing between risky options.
A note on credit. These are widely used ideas. The explanations are our own words. Where a framework has a known creator or book, we name it so you can read the original.

One way to get a few hours back, every week

One short email a week from OffloadMe with one practical way to take work off your plate. Nothing else. Unsubscribe any time.