Lenses & Frameworks
The Blueprint says where in the organization a lab lands. A lens says how we look at the problem once we are in the room. Same three hours, same group — a different lens produces a different deliverable.
Twelve Lenses
Every lab in the catalog sits under at least one lens. When you book a private session, the lens is the first thing we agree on — it determines which exercises run, which framework comes out, and what you leave holding.
Strategy
5 LABSWhere to play, how to win
Surfaces the choices an organization is actually making — and the ones it is avoiding. We work through positioning, trade-offs, and the difference between a plan and a strategy.
“What are we choosing not to do?”
Value
4 LABSWhere it comes from, who captures it
Maps how value is created, delivered, and captured across the business. Makes the invisible economics of an offering visible enough to argue about.
“Who pays, for what, and why?”
Labs in this lens
Growth
5 LABSLevers, bets, and sequencing
Separates growth theater from growth mechanics. We inventory the available levers, size them honestly, and decide which two or three actually get resourced.
“Which lever moves the number fastest?”
Labs in this lens
Alignment
4 LABSGetting the room to the same map
Most misalignment is not disagreement — it is people optimizing different things without knowing it. This lens exposes where incentives, definitions, and priorities diverge.
“Are we solving the same problem?”
Measurement
5 LABSFrom metrics to decisions
Distinguishes the numbers that describe the past from the ones that change behavior. We prune the dashboard and connect what is measured to what gets decided.
“What would we do differently if this number moved?”
Foresight
5 LABSRehearsing futures before they arrive
Builds decision resilience by testing strategy against plausible futures rather than a single forecast. Turns uncertainty from an excuse into an input.
“What would have to be true for this to fail?”
Financial Fluency
5 LABSReading the business in numbers
Gives non-financial leaders enough command of the statements, unit economics, and cost structure to challenge a number instead of nodding at it.
“Where does the money actually go?”
Execution
4 LABSTurning intent into shipped work
Focuses on the gap between what was decided and what got delivered. Covers delivery mechanics, unblocking stalled work, and the discipline of finishing.
“What is actually blocking this?”
Sales & Influence
7 LABSMoving people to a decision
Reframes selling around the buyer’s outcome rather than the seller’s feature list — and builds the presence to hold a room while doing it.
“What does the other side need to believe?”
Thinking & Creativity
6 LABSBetter questions, sharper structure
Trains the reasoning itself — how a problem gets framed, decomposed, and drawn. Includes visual sense-making, because a clear picture ends more arguments than a clear paragraph.
“Are we answering the right question?”
Leadership & Teams
4 LABSTrust, cadence, and hard conversations
Works on the human operating system — how trust gets built, how decisions get made under pressure, and how new managers stop doing their old job.
“What is going unsaid in this room?”
Labs in this lens
Technology & AI
5 LABSPractical leverage, minus the hype
Tests where new tools genuinely change the operating math and where they are a distraction. Hands-on, with real workflows rather than vendor demos.
“Does this change the work, or just the tooling?”
Lenses stack.
Most real engagements run two. A Growth lens with a Measurement lens produces a lever inventory and the leading indicators to track it. A Value lens with an Alignment lens gets a room of executives to agree on what the business actually sells before arguing about how to sell it.
A ranked lever list with the signals that prove it working
One value map the whole leadership team will sign
Scenario-tested numbers instead of a single forecast
Frameworks We Actually Use
A sample of twenty from the working library — the ones that earn their place in a three-hour session. None of these get lectured. They get filled in, argued with, and handed back to you populated with your own business.
SWOT Analysis
Albert Humphrey / SRI
Sorts internal strengths and weaknesses against external opportunities and threats.
Reach for it when
Opening move when a team needs shared situational awareness fast.
Porter's Five Forces
Michael Porter
Assesses industry attractiveness through rivalry, buyer and supplier power, substitutes, and new entrants.
Reach for it when
Entering a market, or explaining why margins keep compressing.
Business Model Canvas
Osterwalder & Pigneur
Nine building blocks covering customers, offer, infrastructure, and economics on one page.
Reach for it when
Stress-testing an existing model or designing a new one collaboratively.
OKRs
Andy Grove / Intel; John Doerr
Pairs qualitative objectives with measurable key results on a fixed cadence.
Reach for it when
Translating strategy into commitments people can be held to.
Balanced Scorecard
Kaplan & Norton
Balances financial measures against customer, process, and learning perspectives.
Reach for it when
When the dashboard has drifted to lagging financial metrics only.
Blue Ocean Strategy
Kim & Mauborgne
Creates uncontested space by changing what an industry competes on.
Reach for it when
Differentiation has collapsed and everyone is fighting on price.
BCG Growth-Share Matrix
Bruce Henderson / BCG
Plots business units by market growth and relative share — stars, cash cows, dogs, question marks.
Reach for it when
Allocating investment across a portfolio with finite capital.
Ansoff Matrix
Igor Ansoff
Four growth paths across existing and new products, existing and new markets.
Reach for it when
Naming and sizing growth options before committing to one.
Value Chain Analysis
Michael Porter
Breaks the firm into primary and support activities to locate margin and advantage.
Reach for it when
Finding where cost lives and where differentiation is actually produced.
Jobs To Be Done
Christensen / Ulwick
Frames demand around the progress a customer is trying to make, not their demographics.
Reach for it when
Product decisions keep getting made from internal opinion instead of customer need.
Value Proposition Canvas
Alexander Osterwalder
Matches customer jobs, pains, and gains against the offer’s relievers and creators.
Reach for it when
Sharpening messaging, or diagnosing why a good product is not selling.
Design Thinking
IDEO / Stanford d.school
Empathize, define, ideate, prototype, test — a human-centered loop for ambiguous problems.
Reach for it when
The problem is fuzzy and the team keeps jumping straight to solutions.
Lean Startup
Eric Ries
Build-measure-learn cycles that validate assumptions before scaling investment.
Reach for it when
A large bet rests on assumptions nobody has actually tested.
4 Ps (Marketing Mix)
E. Jerome McCarthy
Product, price, place, promotion — the classic checklist for a go-to-market plan.
Reach for it when
Launch planning, or auditing an offer for gaps.
PESTLE Analysis
Francis Aguilar
Scans political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental forces.
Reach for it when
Building scenarios, or pressure-testing a plan against outside forces.
Root Cause Analysis / 5 Whys
Sakichi Toyoda / Toyota
Repeatedly asks why until the causal chain reaches something structural.
Reach for it when
The same problem keeps recurring after being "fixed."
RACI Matrix
Project management standard
Assigns responsible, accountable, consulted, and informed roles per decision or task.
Reach for it when
Work is stalling because nobody knows who actually decides.
Kotter's 8-Step Change Model
John Kotter
Sequences change from urgency and coalition through short-term wins to anchoring.
Reach for it when
A transformation is technically sound but losing the organization.
McKinsey 7-S Framework
Peters & Waterman / McKinsey
Aligns strategy, structure, systems, shared values, style, staff, and skills.
Reach for it when
Diagnosing why a good strategy is not surviving contact with the org.
Scenario Planning
Shell / Wack & Schwartz
Builds several plausible futures and tests strategy against each rather than forecasting one.
Reach for it when
Uncertainty is high enough that a point forecast would be false confidence.
The full library runs to 100+ frameworks across strategy, operations, sales, critical thinking, and leadership. Private sessions draw from all of it.
Not sure which lens you need?
That is usually the first useful conversation. Tell us the problem in plain language and we will tell you which lens — and which lab — actually fits.