Decision Making & Analysis concepts | 3by3Grid
Applying structured thinking and analytical methods to improve judgement under uncertainty. This includes prioritisation, trade-off evaluation, scenario planning, root cause analysis, and data-driven problem solving to support better and faster decisions.
Decision Making & Analysis concepts
- A/B Testing: Make Decisions Based on Evidence, Not Assumptions A/B testing gives managers a reliable, structured method for comparing two options using real data, so decisions about products, processes, and communications are grounded in what actually works rath…
- A3 Problem Solving: Clarify Issues and Drive Sustainable Improvements A3 problem solving gives managers a structured, one-page framework to surface root causes, build team alignment, and implement fixes that hold.
- Affinity Mapping: How Managers Can Structure Team Brainstorms Affinity mapping gives managers a structured method for organising large volumes of unstructured ideas into clear, prioritised themes that a team can act on together.
- Backcasting: Planning Today from Your Future Goals Backcasting is a structured planning technique that helps managers and teams define a desired future state first, then work backward to identify the decisions and milestones needed to reach it.
- Bayesian Analysis: Use Prior Knowledge Effectively In Decision-Making Bayesian analysis helps managers make better decisions under uncertainty by systematically combining existing knowledge with new evidence, producing probability estimates that are more reliable than…
- Benchmarking: How to Compare Performance Against Industry Leaders Benchmarking helps managers identify where their team or organisation is falling behind competitors or peers, and gives them a structured way to close that gap.
- Contingency Planning: Preparing for the Unexpected Contingency planning helps managers prepare for unexpected disruptions so they can protect priorities, reduce downtime, and keep their teams focused when conditions change.
- Cost Benefit Analysis for Managers: Cut Through Complexity Cost benefit analysis gives managers a systematic method for comparing the full cost of a decision against its expected returns, replacing subjective debate with a shared, evidence-based foundation f…
- DACI: Bring Role Clarity to Complex Team Decisions DACI gives managers a structured way to assign decision-making roles within a team, resolving the ambiguity and conflict that arise when ownership is unclear on complex, cross-functional decisions.
- Decision Matrix: Prioritize, Compare, Evaluate, Decide A decision matrix gives managers a structured method for evaluating multiple options against defined, weighted criteria, so that complex choices are made on evidence rather than instinct or politics.
- Decision Trees: Clarify and Simplify Complex Choices A decision tree helps managers structure multi-variable choices into a clear visual map, reducing ambiguity, surfacing hidden trade-offs, and building more defensible decisions under pressure.
- Design Thinking: A Structured Way to Build Better Decisions and Products Design thinking gives managers a structured, human-centred method for understanding the real problem before committing to a solution, reducing the risk of building the wrong thing with confidence.
- DOT Voting: Fast-Track Your Team’s Priorities with Confidence Dot voting gives teams a structured, time-efficient method for surfacing shared priorities and reaching collective alignment without extended debate or undue influence from the most vocal participant…
- Eisenhower Matrix: Focus on What Matters and Make Better Choices The Eisenhower Matrix helps managers and professionals quickly identify which tasks require immediate attention, which can be delegated, and which should be postponed or eliminated, improving focus a…
- Expected Value Analysis: Create Defensible Prioritisation And Resource Allocation Decisions Expected value analysis gives managers a structured way to compare uncertain options by multiplying probability by outcome value, replacing advocacy-driven decisions with a shared, defensible basis f…
- Funnel Analysis: Identify Where Users Drop Out Funnel analysis helps managers identify the exact stages in a user journey, sales process, or customer experience where people are disengaging, so teams can focus improvement efforts where they will…
- Futures Wheel: Anticipate the Consequences of Strategic Decisions The futures wheel helps managers trace the cascading first, second, and third-order consequences of a strategic decision before it is made, surfacing risks, opportunities and blind spots and strength…
- Gap Analysis: Identify What’s Missing and What to Do Next Gap analysis helps managers identify the specific difference between current performance or capability and a defined desired outcome, creating a structured basis for prioritising the actions needed t…
- Heat Maps: Unlock Insights and Spot Patterns Quickly Heat maps help managers and teams quickly identify patterns, prioritize areas of focus, and make data-driven decisions by visualizing complex information at a glance.
- How to Use the Ishikawa Diagram to Solve Complex Problems The Ishikawa fishbone diagram gives teams a structured method for tracing recurring problems back to their true origins, replacing guesswork and blame cycles with evidence-based diagnosis.
- Impact Effort Matrix: Prioritize Work with Confidence The impact effort matrix helps managers cut through competing demands by mapping tasks and initiatives against two variables, likely impact and required effort, so that prioritisation decisions can b…
- Kano Model: Balance Features and Customer Satisfaction The Kano Model helps managers and product teams prioritise features by understanding which elements drive customer satisfaction versus those that only meet basic expectations, making it possible to d…
- Key Performance Indicators: Keep Your Team Focused on What Matters Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) help you translate goals into measurable signals so you can track progress, spot issues early, and guide your team toward the outcomes that matter most.
- KJ Method: Build Consensus Around Qualitative Observations When teams are sitting on a large volume of qualitative data but cannot agree on what it means, the KJ Method provides a structured, consensus-building process for turning fragmented observations int…
- Mind Mapping: Visualize Ideas, Clarify Priorities Mind mapping helps managers organize complex ideas visually, uncover relationships between concepts, and improve problem-solving and decision-making.
- Monte Carlo Simulation: Stress-Test Choices Before You Commit Monte Carlo Simulation helps managers quantify uncertainty in complex decisions by modelling thousands of possible outcomes, so they can understand the realistic range of risk before committing resou…
- MoSCoW Analysis: Prioritise What Really Matters in Projects MoSCoW analysis gives project teams and managers a structured method to separate critical deliverables from desirable ones, preventing scope creep and focusing limited resources on what must succeed.
- Multivariate Testing: Identify The Variables That Actually Drive Results Multivariate testing helps managers and teams identify which combination of variables drives the best outcome, resolving the guesswork that single-variable testing leaves behind when multiple element…
- Net Promoter Score: Translate Customer Sentiment Into A Clear Loyalty Signal Net Promoter Score gives managers a single, trackable measure of customer loyalty that can be used to identify retention risks, benchmark performance over time, and guide decisions about where to inv…
- Nominal Group Technique: Bring Structure and Fairness to Team Decisions The Nominal Group Technique gives managers a structured way to generate, evaluate, and prioritise ideas from a group, reducing the influence of dominant voices and ensuring every team member contribu…
- Opportunity Trees: Turn Complex Problems into Clear, Actionable Choices Opportunity Trees help you break down a complex goal into smaller choices and actions so you can see viable paths forward, compare trade-offs, and make better decisions with confidence.
- Pareto Analysis: Using an 80 20 Lens to Prioritize Work Pareto analysis gives managers a structured, data-based method for identifying the small number of causes or inputs responsible for the majority of results, enabling sharper prioritisation and better…
- Pareto Principle: Focus on the Few Things That Actually Drive Results The Pareto Principle helps managers identify the small set of actions, decisions, or problems that drive most outcomes, so time and effort are focused where they create the greatest impact.
- Plan, Do, Check, Act: A Practical Approach to Continuous Improvement PDCA gives managers a structured, repeatable four-step method for testing process changes at small scale, evaluating results honestly against expectations, and refining the approach with confidence b…
- Post-mortem Analysis: Learn from What Went Wrong Post-mortem analysis gives managers a structured way to identify what went wrong after a project or initiative, understand the root causes, and convert those lessons into actions that prevent the sam…
- Pre-mortems: Identify Risks When Building Your MVP A pre-mortem is a structured planning technique that helps product and project teams surface the most likely failure points in an MVP before development begins, enabling managers to address risks whi…
- Prioritization Matrix: Turn Competing Demands into Clear Decisions A prioritization matrix helps managers cut through competing demands by providing a structured, visual framework for ranking tasks, projects, or options against defined criteria, replacing gut-feel d…
- Rapid Decision Model: Make Smart Choices Under Pressure Use the Rapid Decision Model to make structured, high-quality decisions quickly, reducing delay and uncertainty in fast-moving business situations.
- RICE Scoring: Turn Competing Ideas into Ranked Choices RICE Scoring helps managers prioritise initiatives when resources are limited by comparing reach, impact, confidence, and effort so they can make clear, defensible decisions based on evidence rather…
- Risk Assessment: Turn Uncertainty into Informed Choices Risk assessment helps managers anticipate potential issues, weigh their impact, and make informed decisions that reduce surprises while protecting team performance, delivery timelines, and credibilit…
- Root Cause Analysis: How to Find the Real Problem Root Cause Analysis helps managers identify the source of recurring problems so they can solve issues at the root instead of reacting to surface-level symptoms.
- SCAMPER: Expand Ideas and Rethink Solutions SCAMPER gives managers and teams a structured set of thinking prompts to challenge familiar assumptions, surface alternatives, and systematically improve existing products, processes, or strategies w…
- Scenario Planning: Anticipate and Navigate Uncertain Futures Scenario Planning helps managers anticipate plausible future conditions so they can make stronger decisions, reduce surprises, and prepare flexible strategies.
- Sensitivity Analysis: Test Assumptions Before They Break Sensitivity analysis helps managers understand how critical assumptions affect results so they can make more informed, resilient decisions.
- Six Thinking Hats: See Every Angle To Improve Team Thinking 6 Thinking Hats helps teams and managers separate thinking modes to analyze problems from multiple perspectives, reducing bias and improving the quality of decisions.
- The 5 Whys: Tracing Problems Back to Their True Source The 5 Whys technique helps managers identify the real cause of recurring problems by digging beneath surface symptoms and asking “why” until the root issue is clear and actionable.
- Thematic Analysis: Extract Meaningful Patterns From Qualitative Data Thematic analysis gives managers a structured method for extracting meaningful patterns from large volumes of qualitative data, such as employee interviews, customer feedback, or open-ended survey re…
- Trade Off Analysis: Choose Between Competing Priorities Trade-off analysis gives managers a structured method to evaluate competing options against weighted criteria, so that difficult priority and resource decisions are grounded in evidence rather than a…
- Trend Analysis: How to Read Patterns in Data to Guide Decisions Trend analysis helps managers move from reacting to individual data points toward recognizing the underlying direction and momentum that should actually shape decisions.
- TRIZ: Turn Patterns of Innovation into Practical Solution TRIZ gives managers and teams a structured method to uncover hidden solutions, resolve conflicting requirements, and break through stubborn problems by applying patterns of innovation drawn from thou…
- Voice of the Customer: Turn Customer Feedback into Action Voice of the Customer gives managers a structured way to systematically capture and convert raw customer feedback into prioritised decisions, reducing guesswork and aligning teams around what custome…
- Weighted Scoring Model: Compare Options Without Bias A Weighted Scoring Model helps managers compare competing options systematically against a consistent set of criteria, so you can make transparent, evidence-based decisions instead of relying on gut…
- What If Analysis: Stress-Test Decisions Before You Commit What If Analysis helps you evaluate how different assumptions or future conditions could change outcomes, so you can make decisions with clearer trade-offs, lower risk, and fewer surprises.