5W2H
The 5W2H is one of the process management tools, sometimes also considered a simple but powerful quality management tool.
In practice, the 5W2H works as an action plan that helps you answer questions crucial for planning and conducting a project.
PDCA
PDCA stands for Plan, Do, Check, and Act. It is a method that emerged as one of the quality management tools, but it has also evolved to help manage other processes within a company.
As a process management tool, the PDCA does not focus only on specific demands. The method directs towards continuous improvement, and for that reason, it is also called the PDCA cycle.
SWOT / SWOT Analysis
The SWOT analysis is a comprehensive tool commonly presented as improving a company’s strategic planning, which is true. It turns out that the SWOT analysis or matrix can be both a tool for managing people and processes and being adopted even at a personal level.
To make this last possibility more straightforward, we talk about using SWOT analysis by an individual to analyze their strengths and weaknesses and improve themselves professionally. The same idea applies in the context of a company.
PM Canvas
PM Canvas or Project Model Canvas is a recent (2013) innovative methodology developed as a project management tool. The main objective of PM Canvas is the quick and precise application of the planning, execution, and management of a project based on neuroscience and collective and collaborative intelligence.
Although it looks complex, PM Canvas is simple. Following this management tool, the elaboration of a project relies on the answer to the question: why? What? Who? Like? When? And how much? But that can undergo adaptations. The idea is to organize these blocks of questions and answers on a single page. Ideally, use an A1-sized sheet of paper and colored Post-its —one color for each question—with a maximum of 140 characters of text each.
This type of visual organization proposed by PM Canvas makes understanding a project more manageable and keeps teams focused on each objective in search of a greater goal.
BCG Matrix
The BCG matrix is a management platform that favors strategic decision-making based on analyzing the participation of a company’s product or service in the market. Unlike most other tools presented so far, BCG does not carry the acronym words that help understand it.
The name comes from the creation of a graphical analysis methodology by Bruce Henderson, management expert and founder of Boston Consulting Group. As a result, the BCG matrix emerged an analysis technique based on the lifecycle of products or services, the results of their market share, and their potential. The BCG matrix relies on developing a chart that considers all the company’s products or services, the number of sales or assistance, and the situation of each one in the market.
The purpose of this management tool is to find out what the company should do:
- Build — for which products or services it is strategic to take steps to increase market share;
- Maintain — identify which products or services to maintain in the market without changes in their form of participation;
- Harvest — analyze which products or services can still yield something for the company, find out how to exploit them to the full, but gradually discontinue them;
- Abandon — identify which products or services should no longer be part of the company’s reality.
Ansoff Matrix
From one matrix to the other, we arrive at the Ansoff matrix, a management tool focused on its growth based on its products or services and four possible strategies. The matrix bears the name of its creator, consultant Harry Igor Ansoff. It is widely used by managers and marketing professionals, given the need to know the risks of growing their business. The Ansoff matrix is like a graph that lists four factors: existing products, new products, existing markets, and new markets.
The relationship between them is what brings us to the four strategies mentioned. Look:
- Penetration ― existing products vs. existing markets. The idea is to increase the sale of products that the company already offers in markets where it already operates;
- Product development ― new products vs. existing markets. It is related to the introduction of new products in a market in which the company already operates;
- Market development ― existing products vs. new markets. Market development is the expansion of the company’s market share based on already-known products;
- Diversification ― new products vs. new markets. Sometimes, the boldest growth strategy introduces a new product by taking the company to a market in which it does not yet participate.
Indeed, creating the relationships between the four factors is not enough. After choosing the strategy, the company needs to conduct analyses to serve as a basis for its action plan to pursue growth.
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