Templates
A picture is worth a 1000 words. What are the most useful templates for maximally effective communication of intent and function?
| Template | Question | Pull | Story |
|---|---|---|---|
| Outcome Map | What does success look like? | When outcomes are clear, every decision has a setpoint | The Picture |
| Value Stream Map | Where's the waste? | When waste is visible, removing it feels inevitable | — |
| Dependency Map | What must happen first? | When sequence is clear, the right next step is obvious | — |
| Capability Map | What can we do? | When readiness is honest, ambition serves rather than blinds | — |
| A&ID | How do agents orchestrate? | When agents and instruments are visible, good intentions become architecturally verifiable | A&ID Story |
| Business Model Canvas | How does the venture create and capture value? | When value flows are visible, extraction can't hide | — |
| Empathy Map | What does the player see, think, feel, do? | When you see through their eyes, translation replaces broadcasting | — |
| Affinity Diagram | What groups emerge from the noise? | When relationships surface, naming them gives leverage | — |
Context
- Matrix Thinking — Templates are the tools, matrix thinking is the method
- First Principles — Systematically establish the truth
- Flow Engineering — The methodology the maps serve
- Navigation System — Value, Belief, Control: the three systems every template diagnoses
- Tight Five — The meta-pattern that binds five into one
- Template Standards — The spec: when does a template become a standard?
- Gratitude — The loop that confirms alignment
Questions
What gap would change everything if you could see it?
- Which template crossed with which system would reveal the blind spot you're currently working around?
- When the matrix shows the same template asking three different questions, which column do you instinctively avoid — and why?
- What Cartesian product of your domain language crossed with these meta patterns hasn't been computed yet?
- If templates are structured absence, what absence on this page is still pulling?