Models & Frameworks
Explore practical tools entrepreneurs use to understand problems, customers, opportunities, business models, competition and growth.
30 of 30 frameworks
Design Thinking
A human-centred, five-stage process for uncovering real problems and prototyping solutions with users
DISCOVER → UNDERSTAND → CREATE → TEST
Jobs-to-be-Done
A lens for understanding the underlying job customers are 'hiring' a product or service to do
UNDERSTAND
Problem Statement Framework
A simple four-part sentence structure that forces clarity about who has a problem and why it matters
DISCOVER → UNDERSTAND
The Five Whys
A rapid questioning technique that pushes past surface symptoms to explore the deeper root cause of a problem
DISCOVER → UNDERSTAND
PESTEL Analysis
A six-factor scan of the macro-environment used to spot emerging opportunities and threats beyond the firm's control
DISCOVER → UNDERSTAND
Trend → Problem → Opportunity
An EntreXplorer framework for tracing how a broad trend creates new behaviours, problems and testable venture opportunities
DISCOVER → UNDERSTAND
Value Proposition Canvas
Map customer jobs, pains and gains against how your product relieves and creates them.
UNDERSTAND → CREATE
Customer Persona
Turn scattered research into one memorable, evidence-based profile of a target customer.
UNDERSTAND
Empathy Map
Separate what a customer says and does from what they actually think and feel.
UNDERSTAND
Customer Journey Map
Trace every step a customer takes, from first discovering a need to using the product afterwards.
UNDERSTAND → CREATE
Business Model Canvas
See your whole venture — customers, value, operations and money — on a single page.
BUILD → CREATE
Lean Canvas
A one-page model built for early-stage ventures, focused on problem, solution and metrics rather than operations.
CREATE → TEST
Lean Startup
Turn risky assumptions into evidence before you spend money building the wrong thing.
UNDERSTAND → CREATE → TEST
Build-Measure-Learn
Run a disciplined feedback loop that converts effort into validated learning, not just output.
CREATE → TEST
Assumption Mapping
Sort your assumptions by importance and evidence so you know exactly which one to test first.
UNDERSTAND → TEST
Experiment Canvas
Design one specific, rigorous test for a single assumption, with a clear pass/fail threshold set in advance.
TEST
SWOT Analysis
Map internal strengths and weaknesses against external opportunities and threats to sharpen strategy.
UNDERSTAND → CREATE
Porter's Five Forces
Analyse how attractive and competitive an entire industry is, not just one company's internal position.
UNDERSTAND → CREATE
Competitive Positioning Map
Plot your venture and rivals on the two dimensions customers actually care about to spot open space
UNDERSTAND → CREATE
Blue Ocean Strategy
Create uncontested market space by making competition irrelevant rather than fighting head-on for existing customers
UNDERSTAND → CREATE
Strategy Canvas
Visualise how your venture's value proposition compares against competitors across the factors buyers actually weigh
UNDERSTAND → CREATE
Effectuation
Start from the means you already have and build outward through affordable-loss experiments, rather than starting from a fixed goal
DISCOVER → UNDERSTAND → CREATE
Causation
Start from a clear predetermined goal and work backwards to plan the resources and steps needed to achieve it
UNDERSTAND → CREATE → BUILD
Affordable Loss
Decide how much you can commit to a venture attempt by defining what you are willing and able to lose, not what you might gain
DISCOVER → UNDERSTAND → TEST
Means-Based Opportunity Mapping
Surface venture ideas from what you already have, rather than waiting for the perfect idea to appear.
DISCOVER → UNDERSTAND
AARRR (Pirate Metrics) Funnel
Break growth down into five measurable stages so founders know exactly where customers are being lost.
BUILD → LAUNCH → GROW
Product-Market Fit Diagnostic
Assess how strongly a product fits real customer needs using multiple converging signals, not a single score.
TEST → GROW
Growth Loops
Design growth mechanisms where existing users directly generate new users, rather than relying only on a leaky one-way funnel.
GROW
Unit Economics Framework
Work out whether the money made from a single customer, over their lifetime, actually exceeds the cost of acquiring them.
BUILD → TEST → GROW
Venture Readiness Overview
Get a first, broad sense of how much real evidence a venture idea has gathered across seven key areas before moving forward.
DISCOVER → BUILD → TEST → GROW