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Core Tools Playbook

Core Tools Playbook

Facilitating team interactions

Structured tools and specifically visualisation techniques have become our teams’ go-to as basis for the facilitation of team interactions.

We use these industry standard tools such as Vision Statements, Decision Frameworks, Stakeholder or Context Maps, Experience or Feature Maps, or Roadmaps to support literally all our individual and collaborative activities, be this goal setting, strategy definition, knowledge sharing, analysis, ideation, consensus finding or  prioritisation or planning.

Core Tools Playbook Cover

Inception playbook

Over the last decade, the lean / agile community has created a large number of tools and techniques to solve day to day problems such as goal setting, strategy definition, consensus finding, ideation, visualisation, context sharing or prioritisation.  This free playbook provides actionable recipes, examples and templates, for 20 industry standard tools we have found most helpful in day to day use.

What does it cover?

This playbook covers recipes for 20 industry standard tools, including templates and examples:

  • Vision
  • Strategic Drivers
  • Project Sliders
  • Business Model Canvas
  • Context Model
  • Stakeholder Matrix
  • Stakeholder Onion
  • Expectations & Value Proposition
  • Supply Chain
  • Experience Map
  • Storymap
  • Dependency Map
  • Roadmap
  • Epics & User Story
  • 1-2-4-All
  • Affinity Map
  • Decision Framework
  • Maturity Model
  • Value Chain
  • Wardley Map

There are, of course many more valuable tools, but these are some we use most frequently, and those we had the stomach to write recipes for 🙂

Why bother?

  • Modelling improves analysis and clarity of thought (for individuals, small and massive teams)
  • Modelling fosters high bandwidth, high empathy team interactions
  • Modelling supports collaboration across disciplines
  • Modelling leads to better outcomes as teams arrive at better, more informed insights

So these are not your ideas?

While I have adapted and innovated on top of tools, I am lucky enough to be able to stand on the shoulders of giants, and draw on their work. I have given credit to the original creators within the playbook.

This also means, that you are in really good hands, and am not using ‘yet another’ random tool, I’m inventing out of vanity 🙂

But how does it all fit together/

Well, it doesn’t have too.

The tools work very well individually.

However, as the playbook suggests, there is an order, a sequence on can put them in, which then lends itself very well to run project kick offs (Inceptions). If that is something that sounds useful, check out our Lean Inception Template.

Lean inception blueprint

Lean Inception Toolkit

A toolkit for the planning, design and facilitation of Lean Inceptions. We use this toolkit as starting point whenever we have to run an inception.
TheBurnUP Podcast

Burn Up Podcast Episode

In this episode Swahti Poddar and I discuss inceptions.
LeanInceptions

Inception Introduction

Conference Talk + Presentation Deck

This is where you might want to start, an introduction with case-study examples of what inceptions are, how they unfold, and how to do them…
Watch conference talkDownload Deck
Download presentation with speakernotes.
Inception Playbook cover

Inception Playbook

A detailed description of how to design, plan and run inceptions, covering the overall flow, collaboration&visualisation tools&techniques and facilitation methods.
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We’d love to hear from you if you want to chat about an opportunity or challenge we might be able to help you with, if you want to work with or for us, or if you fancy chat to exchange thoughts.
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