strategy-frameworks

Strategy Frameworks

A curated collection of strategic frameworks and models for product strategy, business strategy, and service design consulting.

Last updated: January 2026

How to Use This Skill

Invoke this skill when you need to:

• Analyze a strategic situation - "Help me analyze the competitive landscape for [product]"
• Design or improve a product/service - "Create a service blueprint for [process]"
• Prioritize opportunities - "Help me prioritize these features using RICE scoring"
• Build a business case - "Size the market for [opportunity]"
• Plan strategy - "What frameworks should I use to evaluate [decision]?"

The skill will recommend appropriate frameworks and guide you through applying them.

Core Concept

Strategic frameworks provide structured lenses for understanding problems, evaluating alternatives, and designing solutions. Each framework excels at surfacing particular insights - from customer experience gaps to capability requirements to market opportunities. Effective strategy consulting involves selecting the right frameworks for the context and synthesizing insights across multiple models.

Framework Selection Guide

Choose frameworks based on what you need to understand:

Strategic Question	Recommended Frameworks	Primary Insights
What do customers experience?	Customer Journey Map, Service Blueprint	Experience gaps, touchpoint quality, emotional arc
What job is the customer hiring us for?	Jobs-to-be-Done (JTBD)	Functional/emotional/social jobs, hiring criteria
What must we be capable of?	Capability Tree / Job Tree	Core competencies, solution-agnostic requirements
What drives growth?	Flywheel, North Star Framework, AARRR Metrics	Reinforcing loops, sustainable growth engines
How should we grow?	Ansoff Matrix, Blue Ocean Strategy	Market/product expansion paths, uncontested space
What impacts outcomes?	KPI Tree / Driver Tree, OKR Framework	Measurable levers, cause-effect relationships
What should we build?	Opportunity-Solution Tree (OST), Kano Model	Prioritized opportunities, feature value classification
What should we build first?	RICE, ICE, MoSCoW	Scoring-based prioritization, effort vs. impact
Where is waste and delay?	Value Stream Map, Service Blueprint	Bottlenecks, handoffs, non-value-adding work
How do we solve this problem?	Design Thinking / Double Diamond	Divergent/convergent exploration, user-centered design
What do we believe?	Hypothesis Tree / Assumption Mapping	Critical assumptions, learning priorities, risk areas
What's our timing?	Horizon Model (H1/H2/H3)	Short/mid/long-term balance, innovation portfolio
What's in our portfolio?	BCG Matrix, GE-McKinsey Matrix	Investment priorities, resource allocation
What's our position?	Wardley Map, Porter's Five Forces	Evolutionary stage, competitive intensity
What's our business model?	Business Model Canvas, Value Proposition Canvas	Value creation, delivery, and capture
What external forces affect us?	PESTLE Analysis, SWOT Analysis	Macro environment, internal/external factors
How should we sequence?	Customer Maturity Model	Progressive sophistication, market segmentation
How big is the opportunity?	Market Sizing (TAM/SAM/SOM)	Addressable market, investment justification
What delights customers?	Kano Model	Table stakes vs. differentiators, satisfaction drivers

Framework Categories

Detailed framework documentation organized by category:

Category	Frameworks	File
Business Model	Business Model Canvas, Value Proposition Canvas	categories/business-model.md
Capability & Scope	Capability Tree / Job Tree	categories/capability-scope.md
Competitive & Environmental	Porter's Five Forces, SWOT, PESTLE	categories/competitive-environmental.md
Customer Experience	Customer Journey Map, Service Blueprint, JTBD	categories/customer-experience.md
Growth & Strategy	Flywheel, Ansoff Matrix, Blue Ocean, AARRR, North Star	categories/growth-strategy.md
Learning & Risk	Hypothesis Tree / Assumption Mapping	categories/learning-risk.md
Market & Segmentation	Customer Maturity Model, Market Sizing	categories/market-segmentation.md
Metrics & Measurement	KPI Tree, OKR Framework	categories/metrics-measurement.md
Portfolio & Timing	Horizon Model, BCG Matrix, GE-McKinsey	categories/portfolio-timing.md
Prioritization	OST, RICE, ICE, MoSCoW, Kano Model	categories/prioritization.md
Process & Efficiency	Value Stream Map, Design Thinking	categories/process-efficiency.md
Strategic Positioning	Wardley Map	categories/strategic-positioning.md

Using Frameworks Together

Strategic insight often emerges from applying multiple frameworks to the same problem. Different frameworks reveal different aspects of the challenge.

Common Framework Combinations

Designing a new service:

1. JTBD → Understand what job customers are hiring for
2. Customer Journey Map → Understand current experience
3. Service Blueprint → Design operational delivery
4. Capability Tree → Identify required capabilities
5. Hypothesis Tree → De-risk critical assumptions
6. OKRs → Define success metrics

Optimizing an existing product:

1. Value Stream Map → Find bottlenecks and waste
2. Customer Journey Map → Identify pain points
3. OST → Connect opportunities to experiments
4. RICE Scoring → Prioritize improvements objectively
5. North Star Framework → Align on growth metric

Planning platform strategy:

1. Wardley Map → Understand evolution and positioning
2. Capability Tree → Define platform capabilities
3. Flywheel → Design network effects
4. Horizon Model → Balance short and long-term
5. Market Sizing → Size the opportunity
6. BCG Matrix → Allocate resources across portfolio

Entering new markets:

1. PESTLE Analysis → Understand macro environment
2. Porter's Five Forces → Assess industry attractiveness
3. Market Sizing → Quantify opportunity
4. JTBD → Understand customer needs
5. Ansoff Matrix → Choose growth strategy
6. Hypothesis Tree → Test market assumptions

Designing a new business model:

1. JTBD → Understand customer jobs
2. Value Proposition Canvas → Design job-solution fit
3. Business Model Canvas → Design full business model
4. Blue Ocean Strategy → Identify differentiation
5. Flywheel → Design growth engine
6. Hypothesis Tree → Identify riskiest assumptions

Product discovery and prioritization:

1. Design Thinking → Explore problem and solution space
2. OST → Map opportunities to solutions
3. Kano Model → Classify feature value
4. RICE Scoring → Prioritize quantitatively
5. MoSCoW → Scope for release
6. OKRs → Track outcomes

Strategic planning cycle:

1. PESTLE → Scan external environment
2. SWOT → Summarize position
3. Porter's Five Forces → Assess competitive dynamics
4. GE-McKinsey Matrix → Evaluate portfolio
5. Ansoff Matrix → Define growth strategies
6. Horizon Model → Balance time horizons
7. OKRs → Set measurable objectives

Multi-Framework Analysis Process

1. Define the strategic question - What decision or insight is needed?
2. Select relevant frameworks - Choose 2-4 frameworks that address different angles
3. Apply each framework independently - Don't let one framework bias another
4. Look for convergence and divergence - Where do frameworks agree/disagree?
5. Synthesize insights - What patterns emerge across frameworks?
6. Identify critical assumptions - What beliefs underpin the analysis?

Evaluating Alternatives

When comparing strategic options, frameworks help structure the analysis:

For each alternative, document:

• Which frameworks support this approach (and why)
• What strengths each framework reveals
• What risks or trade-offs each framework exposes
• What dependencies or requirements are needed
• What assumptions must hold true

This creates a more rigorous foundation for decision-making than intuition alone.

References

Detailed methodology documents for each framework are in the references/ folder. See individual category files for links to relevant references.

Sources & Attribution

Framework definitions and strengths adapted from the uploaded image table. Additional methodology content synthesized from standard practice in product strategy and service design consulting.

Key influences:

• Customer Journey, Service Blueprint - Service design literature (Polaine, Løvlie, Reason)
• Jobs-to-be-Done - Clayton Christensen, Tony Ulwick (Outcome-Driven Innovation)
• Business Model Canvas, Value Proposition Canvas - Alexander Osterwalder, Yves Pigneur
• Capability Tree - Enterprise architecture practice (TOGAF, Zachman)
• Flywheel - Jim Collins (Good to Great), Amazon growth strategies
• North Star Framework - Amplitude, Sean Ellis
• Ansoff Matrix - Igor Ansoff (1957)
• Blue Ocean Strategy - W. Chan Kim, Renée Mauborgne
• AARRR Metrics - Dave McClure (500 Startups)
• OKR Framework - Andy Grove (Intel), John Doerr (Measure What Matters)
• OST - Teresa Torres, Continuous Discovery Habits
• RICE Scoring - Intercom product team
• Kano Model - Noriaki Kano
• MoSCoW - Dai Clegg (DSDM)
• Value Stream Map - Lean manufacturing (Womack, Jones), DevOps
• Design Thinking - IDEO, Stanford d.school; Double Diamond - UK Design Council
• Hypothesis Tree - Lean Startup (Eric Ries), scientific method
• Horizon Model - McKinsey Three Horizons: Sharpe, B., et al. 2016. "Three horizons: a pathways practice for transformation." Ecology and Society 21(2):47. http://dx.doi.org/10.5751/ES-08388-210247
• BCG Matrix - Boston Consulting Group (Bruce Henderson, 1970)
• GE-McKinsey Matrix - General Electric and McKinsey & Company
• Wardley Map - Simon Wardley
• Porter's Five Forces - Michael Porter (1979)
• SWOT Analysis - Albert Humphrey (Stanford Research Institute, 1960s)
• PESTLE Analysis - Francis Aguilar (ETPS variant, 1967)
• Customer Maturity Model - Capability Maturity Model origins (SEI/CMU)
• Market Sizing - Standard venture capital and consulting practice