Tools

Domain: Leadership (7) · Product (20) · Systems (4)

Leadership

Capability Mapping — A way to visualise what your team (or organisation) can actually do.
Disagree and Commit — Voice your disagreement, then fully commit to the decision.
Gene Pool Engineering — Deliberately shaping the team's composition to get the mix you need.
Keeper Test — "If this person told me they were leaving, would I fight hard to keep them?"
STARS Model — A framework for understanding what situation your organisation (or team) is in.
Transparency Test — A simple test for whether you're being transparent enough.
Using Wrong Answers Instead of Questions — People are more willing to correct a wrong answer than to answer a question.

Product

5 Whys — Ask "why" five times to find the root cause.
Decomposition — Break a big problem into smaller, independent ones.
Event Storming — A workshop technique for mapping a business domain using sticky notes.
First Principles Thinking — Reason from what you know is true, not from analogies.
Form Context and Fit — Christopher Alexander: good design is when the form fits its context.
Impact Mapping — A mind map that connects goals to features through actors and behaviours.
Improvement Kata — A four-step pattern for continuous, bounded improvement.
Interrelational Diagram — Map how problems cause each other to find the root driver.
Kano Model — Classify features by how they affect customer satisfaction.
Naming Things Last — Don't name the thing until you understand it.
Obvious Easy Possible — Three tiers for what users can do in your product. Coined by Jason Fried in The Obvious, the Easy, and the Possible.
Pattern Languages — Reusable design patterns with names, forms, and contexts where they fit.
Post-It Notes — Small, cheap, movable. The unreasonable effectiveness of sticky notes.
Prototyping to Learn — Prototypes are for learning, not for shipping.
Right-to-Left Thinking — Start with the outcome. Work backwards to the steps.
Sequencing and Step by Step Unfolding — Complex things grow in the right order, one step at a time.
Slippery Slopes — Small decisions that commit you to directions you'll regret.
Theory of Centers — Christopher Alexander: wholes are made of centers that strengthen each other.
User Experience Iceberg — UX is not what the user sees. It's everything underneath.
Visualisations and Models — Making the invisible visible changes how teams think.

Systems

Behaviour Over Time Graph — Sketch how a variable moves over time. The shape reveals the system.
Feedback Loops — Loops where output feeds back into input. The fundamental unit of system dynamics.
Iceberg Model — Look beneath events to find patterns, structures, and the beliefs underneath.
Stocks Flows and Dynamic Equilibrium — Model systems as things that accumulate, rates that change them, and balance points.

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