No, not the movies. Although there could be some argument that the corporate world is all just a simulation.

What I’m actually referring to is the simple two-by-two matrix.

This versatile tool can help you make quick evaluations, sense check your instincts and make better decisions (including dealing with the troublesome “assumption” that can sometimes trip up our best instincts).

You may have seen a matrix like this before in the shape of:

• A value-ease matrix to evaluate which idea will give you the most bang for your buck

• The BCG growth share matrix to determine what type of growth to expect for your product

• The assumption map in last week’s post

• Futures scenario planning

• Rapid customer segmentation

• And so many others!

But the beauty of this tool is that by understanding the basic anatomy of a four-by-four matrix, you can use it to help guide almost any type of decision.

What is the Matrix?

Again, not a giant simulation to keep human minds under control.

The two-by-two matrix has four key parts:

• A horizontal (left to right) axis

• A vertical (up and down) axis

• Four quadrants

• An overall context

Three of these are visual and one is contextual.

Of course, the un-visual element (as is often the case) is one of the most important.

Set your context

To make a useful matrix, you must first set your context. It could be a whole project or just one decision within a project. It could be your business.

The key here is to identify the problem to be solved or the decision to be made.

Set your axes

Once you know what decision you’re making, the next step is to determine what two variables are the most important to that decision.

For example, if you’re evaluating which ideas will provide the most value for the least effort, your variables are value and effort (and you make the variously named value-ease or effort-impact matrix).

If you’re evaluating your product, you might use market share and growth potential (and then you get the BCG matrix).

But this is where you don’t just need to stick to the existing recipes. Looking for a project with high social impact for low carbon emissions? Social impact and emissions are your axes. Trying to determine which software to buy for your organisation? Cost and features might be your axes.

It’s not super important which variable is the vertical axis and which is the horizontal axis. However, when we look at quadrants I’ll explain how best to decide which direction your axes run.

Setting the quadrants

Once you have your axes, they will define your quadrants. So in the effort-impact matrix for example, if your high impact is at the top and low effort is on the right, then your upper right quadrant will be the high impact low effort ideas.

You will want to choose which quadrant should be your “action” quadrant - so if you’re looking for high impact low effort ideas, then that’s your action quadrant. If you’re looking for high social impact with low emissions, that’s your action quadrant. You will want to position this in a spot that draws the attention, based on your culture. So for Western teams, that’s usually the top right. But it can be whichever position that makes the most sense for your team.

The position of this main quadrant will then determine which direction your axes run. So if your high impact, low effort ideas are in the top right, you will put high at the top of the vertical impact axis, and low at the right of the horizontal effort matrix.

Optionally, you can name all the quadrants to help guide the decision about what to do with the items that fall in those quadrants. For example, the urgent-important task matrix names high urgency, high importance tasks as “do”, high urgency, low importance tasks as “delegate”, high importance, low urgency as “plan” and low urgency, low importance as “delete”. (Although I’d argue you don’t need to do unimportant tasks even if they’re urgent, unless they’re somehow mandatory.)

Using the matrix

Once you have the context, the axes and the quadrants, you can populate your matrix with your options.

A simple way to do this is to put all your items (be they ideas, tasks, products, services, businesses, projects, or anything else) onto sticky notes. You can then place these sticky notes into the relevant quadrant.

If you’re doing this as a team, I’ve found two methods particularly effective for reaching agreement on the placement of items. Option 1, each team member places their assumptions where they think they belong and then the team looks at the matrix holistically and identifies anything they think should be moved.

Option 2, if there’s a small number of assumptions, take each assumption one by one, hold it against the vertical axis and have each team member say “up” or “down” and move once for each team member, and then repeat with the horizontal positioning saying “left” or “right”.

Once you’ve plotted everything, now it’s on to the hard part: take the items from your main quadrant and turn them into action!

Over to you

Where have you seen two-by-two matrices working their magic ‘in the wild’?