Affinity map
Group together sets of similar ideas/themes (e.g. post-it notes from a brainstorming exercise).
Benefits realisation
Makes sure the potential benefits are achieved.
Blue-sky thinking
A way to generate new and creative ideas that are not limited by current thinking or beliefs.
Brainstorming
A tool to help generate ideas relating to a specific question or issue.
Brainwriting
Helps you to understand people’s initial thoughts and knowledge about a particular issue or problem
Business Model Canvas
You can use this to map, discuss, design, and invent new business models and visualise the results.
Cause and Effect analysis
Used to identify possible causes of a problem so they can be removed, ensuring the problem won’t happen again.
Cultural web
A change management tool, which compares ‘as is’ with ‘ what we would like it to be’.
Customer journey mapping
Enables you to track and describe the experience of the customer against their expectations and what you aspire to provide.
Design walkabout
Going out and using the service you are interested in so that you can experience it first-hand.
Empathy map
Empathy maps can capture the experience of one particular user or can reflect an aggregation of multiple similar users represented
Fishikawa
It is a visualisation tool that provides a structure for information gathered by cause and effect analysis.
Human bar chart
Enables participants to self-select a theme developed from affinity mapping and create teams in under a minute.
Love and hate letters
Writing a mock letter to a service provider gives people an opportunity to draw upon the emotions they experience when
Observations
Information is gathered about people’s behaviour through watching how they navigate through a process / service journey, highlighting any areas
Open user interviews
An interview with a user which is done in an open and transparent manner, where the user can see what
Pareto analysis
Pareto analysis is based on the observation that the majority of a product’s defects (80%) arise from a small number
PDSA cycle
The Plan-Do-Study-Act cycle to conceptualise the process of continuous and iterative improvement.
Personas
Fictitious character profiles created to represent different groups of people, such as users and/or the people who deliver a service.
PESTELI
A mnemonic to help understand the environment in which you work by structuring your thinking around specific headings (e.g. Political,
Pop-up research
It is about taking your research to the people you wish to engage with, rather than relying on them coming
Power-interest grid
As part of your stakeholder analysis, you can use a power-interest grid to visualise the different stakeholders and their interests
Reframing canvas
An approach to identifying problems designed to help you think about them in different ways and thereby widen the range
Rose, Bud, Thorn
A quick exercise designed to get you to take a step back from the detail to see what is working,
Stakeholder analysis
Stakeholder analysis enables you to identify the key people you need to get support from in order to ensure your
Starbursting
Starbursting is a type of brainstorming which focusses on generating questions. You can use it when developing ideas, projects, or
Stinky fish
Enable the sharing of concerns participants may have related to the overall theme of the workshop.
SWOT
A mnemonic to structure your thoughts as you evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of a product or service along with
Tree diagram
Tree diagrams present causes and effects as a hierarchy and provide an alternative way for gathering and presenting information to