Review of 'Tools for better thinking | Untools' // Bodacious Blog

Original article: Tools for better thinking | Untools

Issue trees - Problem solving

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Issue trees
    Basically maps of problems.

    They give you a clear and systematic way
    of looking at the problem you need to
    solve.

    They help you break down a big problem
    into smaller, more manageable ones, and
    prioritize certain parts of the problem.

    In other words, they're useful for the
    "divide and conquer" strategy.

    Are also great for communicating about a
    problem with others since they provide a
    map of the problem.

    There are two basic kinds of issue trees:

    - Problem trees
      Created by answering "Why?"
    - Solution trees
      Created by answering "How?"

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"Low adoption of feature X" -> "Customers dont know about the feature."
"Low adoption of feature X" -> "Customers know about it, but still dont use it."

+-------------------------------------------------+     +----------------------------------------+
|            Low adoption of feature X            | --> | Customers dont know about the feature. |
+-------------------------------------------------+     +----------------------------------------+
  |
  |
  v
+-------------------------------------------------+
| Customers know about it, but still dont use it. |
+-------------------------------------------------+

Iceberg model - Systems thinking

When a product team doesn’t meet a deadline, use the iceberg model.

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Iceberg model
    Addressing problems only on their event
    level is often not enough.

    The real causes are often hidden from
    plain sight.

    Iceberg model is a tool that allows you to
    shift your perspective and see beyond the
    immediate events that everyone notices.

    It helps you to uncover root causes of why
    those events happen.

    That's possible by looking at deeper
    levels of abstraction within the system
    that are not immediately obvious.

How to use it

Iceberg model consists of four levels:
- Events
- Patterns
- Structures
- Mental models

sequenceDiagram
    participant Event
    participant Pattern
    participant Structures
    participant "Mental Model"
    note right of Event: The tendency at <br/>this level is to <br/>react to what has<br/> just happened.
    note right of Pattern: You can stsart <br/>to notice tends <br/>that lead to events.
    note right of Structures: The trends / <br/> patterns are given<br/> rise by the <br/>setup at this <br/>stage.
    note right of "Mental Model": The MMm holds <br/>the system together, <br/>it is the stage <br/>we need to <br/>leverage to <br/>transform a system.

    note left of Event: Failed to <br/>meet deadline.
    note left of Pattern: 3/5 past projects <br/> have overrun dates.
    note left of Structures: Sandwich issues, <br/> poor scoping <br/>, context switching, <br/> lack of structure.
    note left of "Mental Model": Belief that this <br/> is the only way <br/> of working at <br/> company x.

    Pattern->>Event: Lead to
    Structures->>Pattern: Influence
    "Mental Model"->>Structures: Generate

Find how to create notes and things in mermaid.
- Create mgrep. Make a shell pipeline with gli and mpgrep.
Create sequence diagram in mermaid.
Decorate it using roughViz.

$MYGIT/jwilber/roughViz