Building the SCQ Pyramid

What I want to discuss here is how we start to build the Pyramid—specifically, how to construct a mental pyramid that helps in the thinking process. When we explore the concept of the "Idea Pyramid" or the "Mental Pyramid," we find that at the top is a summary, or what we might call an elevator pitch. Below that are the key messages, and further down is the back pocket, which includes the ideas, evidence, and details we need to support our main points.

The key is to consider the questions the client wants answered, identify the supporting key points, and explain those points effectively. We aim to create a structure that fosters synthesis, communication, and coherence throughout the process.

So, we look at the entire situation: the complication, the questions, and their answers. This governs our thoughts. Next, we identify key ideas and outline the supporting details for each of those key points, building our pyramid around this structure.

For example, in response to the question of how a company (let’s call it ACME) should develop a value proposition tailored to the ranching market, we recognize a few key lines: we must understand the unique needs of ranchers, adapt the product line to meet those needs, and educate the ranchers about ACME's capabilities.

Each of these points requires evidence and analysis to support them, effectively answering the question of how we develop that value proposition. We can apply a similar approach when discussing why ACME should invest $40 million to expedite the approval process for a bird product. Key lines here might include the fact that we have a $2 billion market potential, that early approvals can generate more profit for ACME, and that competitors are also pursuing similar strategies. Behind these reasons, we need to provide analysis demonstrating how we arrived at these conclusions.

Additionally, we want to ensure that our ideas are mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive. This means organising our topics and issues into distinct buckets—any idea should fit into only one bucket, and together, the buckets should encompass the entire range of possible solutions.

For example, consider the process of making dinner: we might have buckets for selecting a menu, buying ingredients, and preparing courses. We then categorise each piece into these singular buckets.

Another example of a collectively exhaustive approach could be in discussing reasons to acquire a competitor. Possible reasons might include a complementary customer base, superior technologies, or digestible sizes. We aim to ensure that all possibilities have been considered and allocated to a single, appropriate bucket.

Lastly, this approach ties back to frameworks like the 5D model that I learned from former student Maddie Quiland at Salant. This includes defining the context of the project, identifying relevant variables, establishing a baseline, deliberating the design, and then deploying the solution. After implementation, we also need to conduct a debrief to evaluate the outcomes and what we learned from the process.