Focus groups | GroupMap

Corrective Action Plan

What is a Corrective Action Plan?

A Corrective Action Plan is a systematic approach to addressing problems or issues that have been identified in a process, system, or project.

Why Use a Corrective Action Plan?

A Corrective Action Plan can be used when there is a need to address and improve an issue in the workplace. It could be the quality of a product or service, customer satisfaction, or the overall efficiency and effectiveness of a process or system.

It helps your organizations identify and address problems early on, before they become larger issues that can negatively impact the organization’s reputation, financial performance, and overall success.

Who Should Run One?

Anyone who is involved in a process or system can benefit from a corrective action plan. This includes

Individuals and teams responsible for quality control, risk management, and Six Sigma.
Project managers
Change agents and leaders
Team leaders and agile scrum masters

Related templates

DMAIC Analysis
5 Whys – key topic
RAID Log

Tips for effective corrective action plans

Be inclusive. Involve the whole team or group.
Use technology to involve people in different locations rather than miss their contribution.
Minimize Groupthink by brainstorming ideas individually.
Be specific rather than broad when defining ideas.
Keep things positive. Remind people they are helping to build solutions and avoid the ‘blame game’.
Provide adequate time in the session for people to share their ideas.
Monitor outcomes, if improvements aren’t observed revisit the process.

References

Corrective Action Plan template

How to Use the Corrective Action Plan Template

The Corrective Action Plan is a map designed to facilitate a collaborative approach to identifying and addressing issues in the workplace.

Start by making sure all stakeholders impacted by issues have access to the map. Using an online collaborative tool such as GroupMap allows those stakeholders to engage both in person and remotely. It can also allow for the group to share their input either synchronously or asynchronously depending on their availability.

As one section of the map leads to the next, it is best to work through it one column at a time. First have the group decide upon the top three issues it will discuss. Then have them settle on the corrective actions they will use to address them. Finally, have the group identify the various metrics that will be used to track success in the ‘Measurement’ column.

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Whether you have your best minds together in the same room, or distributed around the world, GroupMap’s unique technology allows groups of up to 2000 to submit ideas independently at separate times, from different places, in different timezones. Prevent dominant personalities swaying the group, drowning out the opinions of others – GroupMap allows everyone to brainstorm independently then effortlessly combines that information to reveal the full spectrum of ideas. GroupMap templates keep the objective front and center throughout the session, keeping everyone on task. This ensures the activity identifies actionable issues rather than becoming just a discussion on ideas. GroupMap gives you all the group decision making tools you need to prioritize, decide and take action.

Create your first map and invite people in to start sharing their thoughts right NOW. Experience the power of GroupMap with our 14-day, no risk, FREE trial. You don’t even need to provide your credit card details to access to all of our features, including the entire suite of templates, for a full 14 days.

Scrum Values in Action

What is Scrum Values in Action?

Scrum Values in Action is a fun and easy icebreaker that can help your team get to know each other better and help them start to think about how the Scrum values apply to them.

The five Scrum Values are essential for creating an effective and productive team. It will help them work together better to achieve their goals. The values are:

Openness
Commitment
Courage
Focus
Respect

Why use Scrum Values in Action?

Scrum Values in Action can help deliver all of the benefits of an icebreaker with a focus on Scrum. It encourages participation, helps to build relationships, and creates a positive atmosphere for the meeting. It can help to reduce any tension that may be in the room as well as increase engagement and energy levels.

This icebreaker is an excellent way of revisiting the Scrum Values and can act as a gentle reminder of the values themselves.

Importantly, discussing the Scrum Values is a helpful way to build a solid and cohesive team culture.

This helps a team stay focused on project goals and encourages continuous improvement.

Related templates

Tips for running Scrum Values in Action

Maintain a mood that's lighthearted and friendly.
Give examples for each value to illustrate.
If you are delivering a remote session, make sure everyone can access the collaboration tools.
Give adequate time for people to respond.
If no one is responding, use a transparent process to decide who goes next. e.g. alphabetical order, or order of people on screen.
Positively reinforce responses. Thank people for contributing.

References

Who Should Use Scrum Values in Action?

Scrum Values in Action is a great tool to kick off an agile retrospective. They are useful for Scrum Masters and their agile software development teams.

It can also be used by any group looking to start a conversation around team culture and values.

Scrum Values in Action Template

How to Run Scrum Values in Action

Start with a positive mindset. Welcome input and thank people for their response. Remind people that there are no wrong answers and that they should be able to share freely and without fear.
Explain what each of the values means. Then invite the group to think about behaviors that could reflect those values.

Using an online Icebreakers tool means that people can collaborate, see ideas in real-time, and can add comments.

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Whether you have your best minds together in the same room, or distributed around the world, GroupMap’s unique technology allows groups of up to 2000 to submit ideas independently at separate times, from different places, in different timezones. Prevent dominant personalities swaying the group, drowning out the opinions of others – GroupMap allows everyone to brainstorm independently then effortlessly combines that information to reveal the full spectrum of ideas. GroupMap templates keep the objective front and center throughout the session, keeping everyone on task. This ensures the activity identifies actionable issues rather than becoming just a discussion on ideas. GroupMap gives you all the group decision making tools you need to prioritize, decide and take action.

Create your first map and invite people in to start sharing their thoughts right NOW. Experience the power of GroupMap with our 14-day, no risk, FREE trial. You don’t even need to provide your credit card details to access to all of our features, including the entire suite of templates, for a full 14 days.

Character Alignment Chart

groupmap-template-Character Alignment-with ideas-img

The Character Alignment Chart

This icebreaker activity lets you create different actions for any given situation and classify them as lawful, chaotic, good, evil or somewhere in between.

This is an imaginative way to encourage people to think about their values, how they approach decision-making, and the roles they play when working together.

This is a fun way to explore how people’s values play out in different situations.

Why Use One?

This activity encourages self-reflection by revealing how each person may respond to a situation. The benefits of this include:

It encourages creativity and solving problems from a different perspective.
It promotes team building by understanding how different people respond to the same situation.
People can explain their decision-making process in a non-threatening way.

Who Should Use One?

This activity is well suited for group facilitators, trainers, team leaders, or people leading groups to solve common issues that have multiple solutions.

Its game-based theme works well with retreats, creative problem-solving, and other collaborative settings.

Related templates

Tips for the Character Alignment Chart

Have a scenario ready to go, such as onboarding a new vendor or having to speed up production.
Use technology and online collaboration tools to allow people to add their ideas in real time.
There is room for all roles, including Evil, Unlawful and Chaos. Tell people to reserve judgment as the reasons for this behaviour might reveal a different, yet important perspective.
Having all actions in a single category may have implications. Have the team discuss what it could mean for the group.

References

Character Alignment Chart Template

Lawful Good

Upholds the law and is driven by duty and justice. Follows a moral code and respects authority.

Lawful Neutral

Seeks to maintain the law, but is not bound by good or evil. Is motivated by duty or tradition.

Lawful Evil

Uses the law to gain power or control. Is motivated by selfish desires.

Neutral Good

Seeks to do good, but is not bound by rules or laws. Is driven by empathy and compassion to help others.

Neutral Good

Remains balanced between following the law and their beliefs. Seeks to maintain balance and self-interest.

Neutral Good

Primarily motivated by their own self interests, rather than the law. May use others to further personal goals.

Chaotic Good

Prioritizes doing good over following the law or social norms. Is driven by freedom and individuality.

Chaotic Neutral

Prioritizes freedom and individuality over law or moral codes. Is unpredictable and difficult to control.

Chaotic Evil

Prioritizes own desires and goals above all else. Enjoys causing harm and destruction, and is difficult to control.

How to Run a Character Alignment Activity.

Firstly, create a few scenarios that you can pose to the group. For example:

You are the head of a new innovation hub for the company and have been charged with coming up with new ideas to improve the product and service offerings of the team. What kind of actions would you take?
You are running a community consultation workshop to get policy feedback on greening the neighbourhood, targeting the younger generation. What kind of actions would you take?
You can make the scenario as detailed or as simple as you like. Explain each of the different character types above to the group.

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Whether you have your best minds together in the same room, or distributed around the world, GroupMap’s unique technology allows groups of up to 2000 to submit ideas independently at separate times, from different places, in different timezones. Prevent dominant personalities swaying the group, drowning out the opinions of others – GroupMap allows everyone to brainstorm independently then effortlessly combines that information to reveal the full spectrum of ideas. GroupMap templates keep the objective front and center throughout the session, keeping everyone on task. This ensures the activity identifies actionable issues rather than becoming just a discussion on ideas. GroupMap gives you all the group decision making tools you need to prioritize, decide and take action.

Create your first map and invite people in to start sharing their thoughts right NOW. Experience the power of GroupMap with our 14-day, no risk, FREE trial. You don’t even need to provide your credit card details to access to all of our features, including the entire suite of templates, for a full 14 days.

Mood Wall Ice Breaker

Mood Wall GroupMap with names as an icebreaker

What is a Mood Wall?

A Mood Wall is a simple tool that allows people to share their current emotional state or mood by placing their name on a board that displays a range of emoticons.

This is a powerful way to build empathy and get a sense of the energy and mindset of the people in the room.

Using a Mood Wall requires minimal setup. You can choose a range of emotions and simply have people add their names on the Wall. You can go the extra step by having them comment on why they feel that way.

A Mood Wall can be a fun icebreaker that sets the tone for a collaborative and empathy-focused meeting.

Why use a Mood Wall?

Besides being a really simple way of getting everyone to check in and be present for the meeting, a Mood Wall can:

Encourage self reflection. Having people check in on their own feelings helps them become aware of their own emotional state as they start the meeting.
Encourages communication. People can share a single feeling and reason for their choice; this helps to break down barriers.
Builds empathy and understanding. By being aware of how the team is feeling, this can help people work better together.

When Should I Use a Mood Wall?

A Mood Wall can be used by meeting or workshop facilitators. It can also be used by teachers and lecturers. They are useful for:

Company meetings to encourage openness and collaboration.
Market research sessions for people to add their reactions.
Counselling or design thinking sessions to practice empathy.
Team building events to kick off a big workshop.

Related templates

Tips for your Mood Wall Ice Breaker

Set expectations and boundaries. Explain the Mood Wall and ask for people to be genuine.
Create a safe and supportive environment. Be explicit that all feelings are valid and that it is important to honour all of them.
Give people time to think and consider. You might even want to try a short guided meditation.
Encourage active listening. Have people demonstrate empathy and reflect on what is being said.
Reflect on the activity. After the discussion, ask people to share their thoughts about how they might impact your meeting or workshop.

References

Mood Wall Template

How to Run a Mood Wall

Draw, print or write different emoticons on a large whiteboard or wall and hand out sticky notes to each person who can then add their names to the wall. Then invite each person to add their name to the emoticon that best reflects how they feel.

Alternatively, you can use an online brainstorming tool like GroupMap for both real-time and remote sessions. It can also be set up so that people add their names independently and are therefore not influenced by other people’s responses. You can then reveal the results in total to the whole group. This will reduce bias and anchoring.

Create

Brainstorm

Discuss

Create

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Discuss

Save effort, time and money with GroupMap

Whether you have your best minds together in the same room, or distributed around the world, GroupMap’s unique technology allows groups of up to 2000 to submit ideas independently at separate times, from different places, in different timezones. Prevent dominant personalities swaying the group, drowning out the opinions of others – GroupMap allows everyone to brainstorm independently then effortlessly combines that information to reveal the full spectrum of ideas. GroupMap templates keep the objective front and center throughout the session, keeping everyone on task. This ensures the activity identifies actionable issues rather than becoming just a discussion on ideas. GroupMap gives you all the group decision making tools you need to prioritize, decide and take action.

Create your first map and invite people in to start sharing their thoughts right NOW. Experience the power of GroupMap with our 14-day, no risk, FREE trial. You don’t even need to provide your credit card details to access to all of our features, including the entire suite of templates, for a full 14 days.

Team Canvas

What is a Team Canvas?

The Team Canvas was firstly developed by Alex Ivanov and is designed to work through with your team. By working through the elements outlined, you’ll collectively map the purpose, objectives, metrics, values, behavioral standards, influence, inclusion, rituals, and symbols that help teams function.

You can use the Team Canvas for new teams or teams that may be struggling and could do with some improvement.

The Team Canvas is also used to guide better choices, solve conflicts, lift, or add more meaning to the workday.

Elements for brainstorming in a Team Canvas can vary from a “basic” five elements of Purpose, Goals, Roles and Skills, Values and Roles Activities to a full version that that explores key aspects personal and team alignment, key values and goals and as well as the expectations and capacity of the team.

Elements explored in the full version of the Team Canvas include:

Identifying People and their Roles in a team;
Outlining the Purpose of “why are we doing this in the first place?”
Looking at the Common Goals that as team you would like to achieve in a feasible, measurable and time-bounded way;
Brainstorming what each team member’s Personal Goals are;
Sharing what are the Values of the team that they stand for and guide the way they work and operate;
Looking at the Strengths and Assets available now within the team to achieve the Goals set;
Understanding what Weaknesses and Risks are recognized individually and as a team;
Checking to see what Needs and Expectations are required for each team member to achieve the Common and Personal Goals;
Setting the Rules and Activities that the team together would like to introduce after completing the Team Canvas.

Related templates

Anchors and Engines
House Rules
Team Canvas Basic
Agile Retrospectives

Facilitation tips

Start by showing the team canvas and explain that together you’ll be using it as a tool to help you understand each other better.
Allow for anonymous brainstorming if you feel like your team would be more comfortable to honestly express their thoughts and ideas.
Walk through each of the elements in the Team Canvas with your team and provide example questions that resonate the most and can help in your team providing structured ideas and feedback.

Why Do a Team Canvas?

The Team Canvas exercise is for every team member to participate actively with help from a facilitator. The canvas helps everyone map out their desired future state and goals.

It makes it visible for everyone and transforms abstract team concepts into visible concrete ones.

The outputs of the canvas are the guide rails that will help prevent team members falling off the edge when there are conflicts, decisions, or problems. It’s designed to help you foster team performance.

Who Should Use a Team Canvas?

The Team Canvas has been designed to assist leaders and teams in organizations in challenging the current state and imagine a better future state for how they work. Use the exercises to adopt new team norms, introduce practices and rituals for how they can work more effectively.

Use the Team Canvas to help:

Your team navigate the ups and down and provide some early warning signals so the team can adjust;
Your team to understand and agree on purpose, goals, measures, and values;
Your team decides what behaviours and rituals to support your goals and values.

Team Canvas Template

The Team Canvas template is divided into eight “windows” or elements to brainstorm ideas on, with a centre focus on the Purpose of conducting the exercise. Designing a team is an iterative process, and together with your team, you can prototype behaviours and rituals that reflect your team values and objectives using the Team Canvas. Together you can examine if it’s working for you, collect feedback and fine tune as you go.

People & Roles

What are your names and the roles in the team? What are we called as a team?

Values

What do we stand for, what are our guiding principles, what are our common values that we want to have at the core of our team?

Personal goals

What are our individual personal goals? Are there personal agendas that we want to open up?

Strengths and assets

What are the skills in our team that will help us achieve our goals? What are we good at, individually and as a team?

Common Goals

What you as a group really want to achieve? What is your key goal is measurable, feasible and time bounded?

Rules & activities

What rules do we want to introduce after this session? How do we communicate and keep everyone updated? How do we make decisions? How do we execute and evaluate what we do?

Needs and expectations

What each one of us needs to be successful? What are our personal needs towards the team to be at our best?

Weaknesses and Risks

What are the weaknesses we have individually and as a team? What are some obstacles we see ahead of us?

How to Do a Team Canvas

Use the Team Canvas exercises to adopt new team norms, introduce practices and rituals for how together everyone can work more effectively. The Team Canvas can help all team members begin conversations, gain clarity and produce results.

Tip To get the most from the Team Canvas, gather input from a range participants with different perspectives. When you’re working with a large or distributed team, getting everyone together at the same time can be difficult, inconvenient, and costly. Using different technologies like video conferencing, online forms, and collaborative brainstorming software such as GroupMap can help overcome these challenges.

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Save effort, time and money with GroupMap

Whether you have your best minds together in the same room, or distributed around the world, GroupMap’s unique technology allows groups of up to 2000 to submit ideas independently at separate times, from different places, in different timezones. Prevent dominant personalities swaying the group, drowning out the opinions of others – GroupMap allows everyone to brainstorm independently then effortlessly combines that information to reveal the full spectrum of ideas. GroupMap templates keep the objective front and center throughout the session, keeping everyone on task. This ensures the activity identifies actionable issues rather than becoming just a discussion on ideas. GroupMap gives you all the group decision making tools you need to prioritize, decide and take action.

Create your first map and invite people in to start sharing their thoughts right NOW. Experience the power of GroupMap with our 14-day, no risk, FREE trial. You don’t even need to provide your credit card details to access to all of our features, including the entire suite of templates, for a full 14 days.

Six Thinking Hats

What is the Six Thinking Hats Technique by Edward De Bono?

The Six Thinking Hats is a role-playing model developed by Edward de Bono in 1986. Each hat represents a different lens or perspective on a particular issue and is an insightful activity that prevents narrow thinking.

It serves as a team-based problem solving and brainstorming technique that can be used to explore problems through various perspectives in order to uncover options that might otherwise be overlooked.

The basic premise behind the Six Thinking Hats is that most people think and reason in a specific way based on their personality type. This means that a more emotional person may generate ideas differently than a more analytical person, and vice-versa. Similarly a pessimist will approach a situation very differently than an optimist.

An example of the benefit of running the thinking hats techniques is therefore to encourage different perspectives to be shared, seen and discussed as part of the decision making process.

The six types of “Thinking Hats” are:

White Hat: Similar to the calm and pure emotions associated with the colour white, this type of thinking focuses on analytical, objective thinking, with an emphasis on facts and feasibility.
Red Hat: We often associate the colour red with anger and heat and hence this represents emotional thinking, subjective feelings, perception, and opinion.
Black Hat: The colour black has been stereotypically linked with doom and gloom and so this forms a type of thinking that is critical, skeptical, focused on risks, and identifying problems.
Yellow Hat: Often symbolising sunshine and happiness, the yellow hat is about thinking optimistic, speculative, best-case scenarios.
Blue Hat: Blue being the colour of the sky and high above creates a sense of structured thinking, high-level overview of the situation, the big picture.
Green Hat: Associated with the colour of trees and nature, the green hat is about creative, associative thinking, new ideas, brainstorming, out-of-the-box.

Related templates

Meeting tips using the 6 thinking hats technique

Encourage each person to contribute to each of the perspectives. Avoid putting people into categories – Everyone can and should use all the hats.
One or more hats can be used at any point during a discussion process.They are used as a convenience for directing and switching the thinking process as needed. (E.g. “Let’s have some black hat thinking…”)
Simple sequences of two or three hats may be used together for a particular purpose, for example:

Use the Six Thinking Hats for Better Meetings

Six Thinking Hats is a powerful technique for decision making that includes different points of view.

The process and methodology allows emotion and skepticism to be brought into what might normally be a purely rational process, and it opens up the opportunity for creativity within decision making.

Decisions made using the Six Thinking Hats technique can be more resilient and based on a holistic perspective, allowing you to avoid pitfalls and gaps before you have committed to a decision.

When Should I use the Six Thinking Hats Technique?

Use the Six Thinking Hats model to help with:

Running better and more structured meetings especially if there tends to only be a single view at every meeting.
Making better decisions by having a more holistic and wide ranging view of the problem.
Approaching problems from various angles of facts, emotions and creativity.
Inspiring idea generation as an ice-breaker activity by having different people play different roles.
More collaboration during brainstorming and decision making with assigned roles including facilitator responsibilities.

Six Thinking Hats Template Example

Imagine if you are facilitating a meeting to introduce a new product or service to the market. In doing so, you might ask people to wear different hats, or to navigate between the hats around this goal.

White Hat

“What are the facts that we know?”

– Our survey last month indicated a 5% preference of the green product by women aged 25 – 45.

– Return rates from sales has fallen by over 50% since the introduction of the new delivery packaging.

– There are new delivery routes available via Company Logistics.

Yellow Hat

“Why should we be optimistic?”

– The new product could increase our revenue diversification stream and increase our family of products.

– We can start receiving better feedback and testimonials from our customers.

– The impact from damage from delivery will meet our service standards.

Red Hat

“What are your gut reactions?”

– The green colour inspires a sustainable look and is very appealing. This is even a great shade.

– The impact on the reduced return rates could mean additional resources.

– How do the new delivery routes impact our delivery times? I would certainly be interested in learning more about it.

Green Hat

“How can we create opportunities?”

– A green range could be expanded to a different colour range set or be symbolic.

– Creating multiple channels will allow us to establish new partnerships and partners.

– Speeding up quality and reliability of delivery could allow us to bundle exisiting products.

Black Hat

“What risks should we keep in mind?”

– Is a 5% preference sufficient for us to make a single colour product? What happens if preferences change.

– What is the cost of maintaining the packaging quality and sustainability?

– The new delivery routes may not have been proven as reliable yet or may increase our costs.

Blue Hat

“What systems or processes will be needed?”

– Let’s go around the room and discuss the colour options based.

– How has the reduced return rates impacted our warehousing department?

– Would there be any other changes to our workflow with a new delivery partner and will it change our logistics technology?

How to Use the Six Thinking Hats to Run Better Meetings

Six Thinking Hats is a powerful technique for looking at decision-making from different points of view. By introducing a structured parallel thinking process, it helps people to be more focused and mindfully involved in a discussion.

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Save effort, time and money with GroupMap

Whether you have your best minds together in the same room, or distributed around the world, GroupMap’s unique technology allows groups of up to 2000 to submit ideas independently at separate times, from different places, in different timezones. Prevent dominant personalities swaying the group, drowning out the opinions of others – GroupMap allows everyone to brainstorm independently then effortlessly combines that information to reveal the full spectrum of ideas. GroupMap templates keep the objective front and center throughout the session, keeping everyone on task. This ensures the activity identifies actionable issues rather than becoming just a discussion on ideas. GroupMap gives you all the group decision making tools you need to prioritize, decide and take action.

Create your first map and invite people in to start sharing their thoughts right NOW. Experience the power of GroupMap with our 14-day, no risk, FREE trial. You don’t even need to provide your credit card details to access to all of our features, including the entire suite of templates, for a full 14 days.

What, So What, What Now?

What is a What, So What, What Now?

What? So What? Now What? is a reflective model that helps teams evaluate a shared experience or a recent event so that they can identify ways to improve or act. This critical thinking model was researched and developed by Rolfe et al. in 2001. It is also attributed to Henri Lipmanowicz and Keith McCandless, the creators of Liberating Structures.

The What, So What, What Now exercise works on brainstorming and reflecting on:

Understanding the event (What?)
Making sense of the facts and implications (So What?)
Identifying the course of action or new solutions (Now What?)

Why Do a What, So What, What Now?

This model can be used for a critical reflection session through a crisis management situation where you need to define and frame the problem, analyse the impact and then consider the possible actions to address the issue.

Related templates

Facilitation tips

Remind participants that they should address the facts and observations before jumping into action.
Make sure you gather the right people from each section of your organization to be part of this exercise and identify the possible actions and implications from each angle.
A worthy goal is to ensure that there is consensus on the definition of the problem itself before looking at implications and solutions. If needed, reword the statements to reflect the group’s definition of the problem.
Communicate outcomes to stakeholders and regularly update progress on actions.

Who Should Use this Technique?

This system is a reflective method that can be used by groups who would like to better understand problems and discover better solutions.

Examples include:

Crisis Management such as last minute cancellations due to a global pandemic or loss of venue booked.
Problem solving meetings where the delivery time has exceeded expectations.
Retrospective meetings to help teams work through continuous improvement issues.
Impact analysis meetings where a change of policy, an incident or event has repercussions on strategy, people or processes.
See last minute cancellations due to a global pandemic or loss of venue booked.

Use the What, So What, What Now to help with:

resolving crisis and issues strategically;
gaining new perspectives and understandings;
clarifying our assumptions and beliefs, and developing a clear rationale for our actions and approaches;
promoting a positive sense of self-awareness and self-confidence
taking informed action; and,
focusing on a philosophy of continuous growth and improvement.

What, So What, What Now Template

The What, So What, What Now template provides 3 separate columns and allows everyone in the team to collaboratively define the problem and share implications on the project or their work. The thumbs up and thumbs down feature lets you check for consensus along the way.Capture additional comments and move people from problem definition through to creating actions that address and overcome the issue.

How to Do a What, So What, What Now?

Tip To get the most from the What, So What, What Now technique, gather input from a range participants with different perspectives. When you’re working with a large or distributed team, getting everyone together at the same time can be difficult, inconvenient, and costly. Using different technologies like video conferencing, online forms, and collaborative brainstorming software such as GroupMap can help overcome these challenges.

Brainstorm

Like / Dislike

Result

Brainstorm

Like / Dislike

Result

Save effort, time and money with GroupMap

Whether you have your best minds together in the same room, or distributed around the world, GroupMap’s unique technology allows groups of up to 2000 to submit ideas independently at separate times, from different places, in different timezones. Prevent dominant personalities swaying the group, drowning out the opinions of others – GroupMap allows everyone to brainstorm independently then effortlessly combines that information to reveal the full spectrum of ideas. GroupMap templates keep the objective front and center throughout the session, keeping everyone on task. This ensures the activity identifies actionable issues rather than becoming just a discussion on ideas. GroupMap gives you all the group decision making tools you need to prioritize, decide and take action.

Create your first map and invite people in to start sharing their thoughts right NOW. Experience the power of GroupMap with our 14-day, no risk, FREE trial. You don’t even need to provide your credit card details to access to all of our features, including the entire suite of templates, for a full 14 days.

Value Proposition Canvas

What is the Value Proposition Canvas?

The Value Proposition Canvas is a tool developed by Dr Alexander Osterwalder to ensure there is a fit between a product and market by exploring the relationship between a Customer’s needs and the value proposition of the organization.

This can be a new or an existing product or service, but aims to align what an organization delivers to reduce the pains and increase the gains for their target customer.

The Value Proposition Canvas has two building blocks – customer profile and an organisation’s value proposition.

In the Customer Profile block, we look at the following elements:

Gains – the benefits which the customer expects and needs and the things which may increase likelihood of adopting a value proposition.
Pains – the negative experiences, emotions and risks that the customer experiences in the process of getting the job done.
Customer jobs – the functional, social and emotional tasks customers are trying to perform, problems they are trying to solve, and needs they wish to satisfy.

A customer profile is created for each customer segment, as each segment has distinct gains, pains and jobs.

In the Value Map block, we look at the value proposition that an organization offers through its products and/or services, including:

Gain creators – how the product or service creates customer gains and how it offers added value to the customer.
Pain relievers – a description of exactly how the product or service alleviates customer pains.
Products and services – the products and services which create gain and relieve pain, and which underpin the creation of value for the customer.

Why Do a Value Proposition Analysis?

The Value Proposition Canvas can help any business or organization to:

Define their customer profiles. By brainstorming and analyzing the Customer Profile block, companies can identify their customers’ major jobs-to-be-done, the pains they face when trying to accomplish their jobs-to-be-done, and the gains they perceive by getting their jobs done.

Visualize the value of the organizations’ product or service create. Define the most important components of your offering, how you relieve pain and create gains for your identified and targeted customers.
Achieve Product-Market fit. Adjust your Value Proposition based on the insights you gained from customer evidence and achieve Product-Market fit.

Related templates

References

Osterwalder, A., Pigneur, Y., Bernarda, G., Smith, A. (2014) Value Proposition Design: How to Create Products and Services Customers Want, John Wiley & Sons.
Example of value proposition canvas
University of Texas GroupMap blog

Tips to start your Value Proposition Canvas

We suggest starting with the right side – the Customer Profile – if you are interviewing your customer segments. But you could begin at the left and map out your value proposition as far as you understand that and use that to imagine your ideal customer.
On the left side – the Value Proposition – we suggest starting with your product or service, but you could start with the pain relievers and gain creators and use those to brainstorm new products or services.
Align both sides by ensuring that the value propsition addresses the most significant pains and gains from the customer profile.
You may find that there are sections of the canvas you can’t complete and so you may need to pause and go do some research – client interviews, surveys, online research – to gather more information before continuing with the canvas.

Who Should Use a Value Proposition Canvas?

The Value Proposition Canvas is a great tool for marketing experts, product owners, and value creators and their teams, who work to develop products and services to a targeted audience. It is also valuable for any teams and organizations who are trying to understand how customers make decisions and what offers to create that they will find appealing.

When Should I Complete a Value Proposition Canvas?

Understanding who your customers are, including what their lifestyles and real needs are to help create relevant products and services.
Develop value propositions for your products and services for effective communications and marketing to your identified customers.
Increasing the sales and profitability of your products and services.
Reducing time wasted on developing ideas that customers may not be interested in.
Improving or innovating new products or services.

The Right Way to use the Value Proposition Canvas

The value proposition template is essentially made up of 2 blocks with one being what the customer segment is and how we might best service their needs. You start by completing the various aspects of the canvas and then look for gaps and alignment to validate that what you are able or can deliver meets the needs of the customer.

While the canvas itself depicts the customer profile on the right and the natural inclination is for you to start with the goods and services of the business first, it is actually more important to firstly identify what your customer needs and expectations are. This way you are focussing on the needs of your customers and ensuring that the elements that you can control (what your product or services actually deliver) can be refined to ensure that there is alignment.

The next step is to then identify gaps and check that there is alignment between the 2 areas. This allows you to then create experiments, ask more questions or create action items that will help you move towards delighting the customer and growing your business. A really easy way is to have the team vote for the areas that need the most discussion.

Customer Profile

This section looks at what jobs or goals the specific customer has and what are their positive and negative states that they experience.

Start here.

Focus on just one segment at a time so that you do not confuse or have mixed messages in your planning process when completing the lean canvas.

Segments could be by age, social status, interest or psychographic.

By only having a single focus on the segment, it makes it easier to identify the highest priority jobs, pains and gains related to that segment. This helps you understand customer preferences, biases and thoughts.

The size of the segment can be refined if you are finding that it is too broad or too large and it starts to feel generic. For example, all people between 8 and 18 who use sunscreen is more specific than the Youth Market for sunscreen.

Value Proposition

This section is about what products and services are targeted at the segment and the key benefits provided when the customer buys from us.

Align here.

This is where you might list the actual or proposed services or goods that you might use to service the customer segment.

The goal here is not to simply list everything that you may do, but to highlight the key ones that are servicing that customer’s need.

For example, Sunscreen targeted at the ages 8 to 18 may be an aesthetic brand which has a shorter application time frame but higher SPF rating that matches their behaviour but might not include higher priced brands that have skin moisturising and anti-wrinkle qualities.

A well-suited message then connects the consumers mind to your brand or product if the value proposition is clear and meets their specific needs.

How to Complete a Value Proposition Canvas

Start a Value Proposition for a product or service by filling out the template and then where there are gaps. You can use the gaps as validation to run more experiments, ask more questions, try out new ideas. By understanding your customers’ preferences, biases and thoughts, you’ll find new ways to delight them and grow your business.

Brainstorm

Group

Vote

Discuss the Results

Brainstorm

Group

Vote

Discuss the Results

Save effort, time and money with GroupMap

Whether you have your best minds together in the same room, or distributed around the world, GroupMap’s unique technology allows groups of up to 2000 to submit ideas independently at separate times, from different places, in different timezones. Prevent dominant personalities swaying the group, drowning out the opinions of others – GroupMap allows everyone to brainstorm independently then effortlessly combines that information to reveal the full spectrum of ideas. GroupMap templates keep the objective front and center throughout the session, keeping everyone on task. This ensures the activity identifies actionable issues rather than becoming just a discussion on ideas. GroupMap gives you all the group decision making tools you need to prioritize, decide and take action.

Create your first map and invite people in to start sharing their thoughts right NOW. Experience the power of GroupMap with our 14-day, no risk, FREE trial. You don’t even need to provide your credit card details to access to all of our features, including the entire suite of templates, for a full 14 days.

Force Field Analysis

What is a Force Field Analysis?

Force Field Analysis is a tool that helps a change practitioner to visually map and analyze the driving and resisting forces behind a project, a decision or initiative. A Force Field Analysis does this identifying two forces that are arranged as opposing forces or as a “force field.” These two forces are driving forces (those that are working in the direction of the change) and resisting and/or restraining forces (those that tend to support the status quo).

Force Field Analysis is a powerful decision-making tool that was originally developed by Kurt Lewin in 1951. Today, the Force Field Analysis model is still used by many organizations for supporting change processes.

The idea behind Force Field Analysis is that situations are maintained by an equilibrium between forces that drive change and others that resist change. So, for change to happen, the driving forces must be strengthened or the resisting forces weakened.

A Force Field Analysis template in GroupMap helps you to visually map and brainstorm, in real time, the driving and resisting forces around decisions to be made.

Why do a Force Field Analysis?

When you are making difficult or challenging decisions, using an effective and structured decision-making technique such as the Force Field Analysis can help to improve the quality of your decisions and increase your chances of success.

Conducting a Force Field Analysis will help you to see the bigger picture, to identify and overcome obstacles and to develop a plan which will significantly increase the likelihood of a successful outcome.

Related templates

Anchors and Engines
PEST Analysis
Risk Assessment

Facilitation tips

The analysis is best carried out in small groups who are directly involved in the change implementation process.
Change affects everyone so it is important that everyone else who is also likely to be affected by the change is kept in the loop. This will gain everyone’s commitment and support for the change itself.
Involve everyone affected in the planning, development and decision-making from the very beginning.
Use anonymity to make sure all team members feel safe when participating around sensitive issues.

References

Lewin, Kurt. 1946. “Force Field Analysis.” The 1973 Annual Handbook for Group Facilitators. 111-13.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force-field_analysis

Who Can Use a Force Field Analysis?

Anyone involved in the change implementation process or need to diagnose problems can use the Force Field Analysis. This includes but is not limited to:

Human Resources
C level suites / executives
Teams, departments, sections that are focused on change management
Change management consultants

Use the Force Field Analysis model to help with:

Analyzing the balance of power
Identifying the key roles involved in decision-making
Identifying who supports and opposes change within the organization
Exploring ways to influence those who are against change
Deciding whether to go ahead with a proposed change or not

Force Field Analysis Template

A Force Field Analysis Template provides a visual representation of the driving forces and restraining forces for and against an initiative, a project or change proposal.

Common dimensions used for a Force Field Analysis map include:

Driving Forces

What are the creators of change or factors that are driving change to happen or be considered

Examples can include:

Competitive advantage, need for increased productivity, overwhelming customer request, new technologies, internal team requests, new trade or commercial restrictions and requirements, to achieve funding grants & initiatives, etc.

Questions to ask:

Why do we need to make these changes?
Who is requesting for this change and why?

Restraining Forces

What are the obstacles for change or opposition that is expected to prevent change from happening.

Examples include:

Associated costs for change, opposition from some team members, potential unhappy customers and lost loyalty and revenue, available resources to manage change, time available to make the change/s on time, etc.

Questions to ask:

What factors will affect us moving forward?
Who will oppose us moving forward or making changes?

The resulting brainstorm allows for scoring to understand how important the forces are and how to address them in a further action plan or SWOT analysis.

How to Do a Force Field Analysis

Assemble a small group – between 5 – 9 people – who are directly involved in the change implementation process.

There are six general steps to completing a Force Field Analysis and the time taken will depend on the organization, the complexity of the forces, the number of people involved, amongst other things.

Tip At the end of the analysis, it is expected that an action plan will be available or is on the list to be developed to progress change for a project or initiative in a successful manner.

Scope

Define

Brainstorm

Rate

Report

Scope

Define

Brainstorm

Rate

Report

Save effort, time and money with GroupMap

Whether you have your best minds together in the same room, or distributed around the world, GroupMap’s unique technology allows groups of up to 2000 to submit ideas independently at separate times, from different places, in different timezones. Prevent dominant personalities swaying the group, drowning out the opinions of others – GroupMap allows everyone to brainstorm independently then effortlessly combines that information to reveal the full spectrum of ideas. GroupMap templates keep the objective front and center throughout the session, keeping everyone on task. This ensures the activity identifies actionable issues rather than becoming just a discussion on ideas. GroupMap gives you all the group decision making tools you need to prioritize, decide and take action.

Create your first map and invite people in to start sharing their thoughts right NOW. Experience the power of GroupMap with our 14-day, no risk, FREE trial. You don’t even need to provide your credit card details to access to all of our features, including the entire suite of templates, for a full 14 days.

Category: Focus groups

What is a Corrective Action Plan?

Why Use a Corrective Action Plan?

Who Should Run One?

Corrective Action Plan template

How to Use the Corrective Action Plan Template

Brainstorm

Like/Dislike

Action

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What is Scrum Values in Action?

Why use Scrum Values in Action?

Who Should Use Scrum Values in Action?

Scrum Values in Action Template

How to Run Scrum Values in Action

Brainstorm

Share

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The Character Alignment Chart

Why Use One?

Who Should Use One?

Character Alignment Chart Template

Lawful Good

Lawful Neutral

Lawful Evil

Neutral Good

Neutral Good

Neutral Good

Chaotic Good

Chaotic Neutral

Chaotic Evil

How to Run a Character Alignment Activity.

Brainstorm

Categorise

Share

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What is a Mood Wall?

Why use a Mood Wall?

When Should I Use a Mood Wall?

Mood Wall Template

How to Run a Mood Wall

Create the Mood Wall

Brainstorm

Discuss

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What is a Team Canvas?

Why Do a Team Canvas?

Who Should Use a Team Canvas?

Team Canvas Template

People & Roles

Values

Personal goals

Strengths and assets

Common Goals

Rules & activities

Needs and expectations

Weaknesses and Risks

How to Do a Team Canvas

Brainstorm

Group

Rate

Share

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What is the Six Thinking Hats Technique by Edward De Bono?

Use the Six Thinking Hats for Better Meetings

When Should I use the Six Thinking Hats Technique?

Six Thinking Hats Template Example

White Hat

Yellow Hat

Red Hat

Green Hat

Black Hat

Blue Hat

How to Use the Six Thinking Hats to Run Better Meetings

Brainstorm

Group

Vote

Share

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What is a What, So What, What Now?