1. FRAMEWORK THINKING
7 FRAMEWORKS TO USE TO SKYROCKET YOUR CAREER

2. FRAMEWORK THINKING
sean johnson @intentionally
Partner at Digital Intent and Founder Equity
Professor at Northwestern’s Kellogg school of Management
Startup Team in a box - Product, UI/UX, Development, Traction
www.digintent.com
Seed stage technology investors.
www.founderequity.com

3. WHY SHOULD YOU LEARN TO
LEVERAGE FRAMEWORKS?
Find out here: www.sean-johnson.com/framework-thinking
FRAMEWORK THINKING
sean johnson @intentionally

4. GTD
Drastically multiply your effectiveness
by managing actions, not projects.
FRAMEWORK THINKING
sean johnson @intentionally

5. GTD is based on two premises:
1. Your brain is terrible at keeping track of everything.
Get things out of your head into a system, and review it
enough that your brain can relax and trust your system.
1. You can’t manage projects, only actions. Your brain
needs to know exactly what physical action you need to
do next in order to make progress.

6. Collect: Have as many inboxes as you need to
collect everything as soon as it occurs to you.
Get it out of your head.
!
Process: For each item in your inbox,
determine the next appropriate action.
!
Organize: Set up a proper system for trashing,
filing or tracking next actions.
!
Review: Create proper times for appropriately
reviewing your projects and next actions.
!
Do: Based on your time, energy and context,
make progress on your next actions.

7. To collect properly, you need as many inboxes as necessary to be sure
you capture everything. This can mean a paper notebook on your desk, a
physical inbox for mail, a phone for notes on the run, etc.

8. Set aside regular times for processing your inbox. For each item in your inbox,
use the following workflow, organizing them with the tools indicated.
Is it actionable? NO Throw it Away
File It For
Reference
Incubate It
someday lists, etc
YES
Projects
anything with multiple steps
What is the next
action?
Do It
anything you can do in 2min
Defer It Delegate It
keep a “waiting for” list
Calendar
date-specific actions
Next Action Lists
to do as soon as you can

9. Once everything is processed and organized, make sure you review frequently.
Review your calendar and next action lists throughout the day, and do a
comprehensive review each week. An example weekly review plan is below:
Get Clear
• Collect loose papers and materials
• Get Inbox to zero
• Empty your head
Get Current
• Review Action Lists
• Review past and upcoming calendar
• Review Waiting For list
• Review Project (and larger outcome) lists
• Review any relevant checklists
Get Creative
• Review Someday/Maybe
• Be creative and courageous

10. The obvious purpose of all of this is to DO stuff. You’ll often be doing things in
response to specific calendar events, but the purpose of GTD is to make you
focused and productive the rest of the time. Use your next actions list and the
following filters to decide what to do at any given moment.
Context
Your physical location and the tools you have at your
disposal determine your context. You can’t make phone
calls when you don’t have your phone, for example.
Time
You can’t do a 2 hour task when you only have 15 minutes.
Energy
Some activities require intense focus and energy. You
should do these when your energy levels are at their peak,
and do less demanding tasks when you’re energy is lower.
Priority
What’s most important?

11. http://gettingthingsdone.com/
To Learn More, Read This:

12. THE EMPATHY MAP
Immerse yourself in the mind of your customer to make
smarter product and marketing decisions.
FRAMEWORK THINKING
sean johnson @intentionally

13. It’s critical to always keep the needs of the customer
top of mind when making product or marketing
decisions. The Empathy Map is a collaborative tool
for fleshing out a customer’s psychographic profile.

14. What are they thinking and feeling about
their worries and aspirations?
What are they
hearing while
using our product,
from their friends
or boss?
What are they
experiencing as
pain or fear when
using our product?
What are they
seeing while using
our product in their
environment?
What are they
experiencing as
positive or gain
when using our
product?
What are they saying & doing while using
our product in public or in private?

15. How to use the Empathy Map:
• Assemble your team, bringing any secondary or
primary research you’ve already compiled.
• For each section of the empathy map, have each team
member add a thought on a sticky note and place it on
the map.
• Discuss the collaborative sketch, and consolidate the
notes into a cohesive document.

16. THE LEAN CANVAS
Business plans are static and inflexible. Business is not.
The Lean Canvas helps you go from Plan A to a plan that works.
FRAMEWORK THINKING
sean johnson @intentionally

17. Business plans change. It’s smart to plan for change
by turning your plan into hypotheses to be tested
and modified based on customer/market feedback.
The Lean Canvas helps you do this.

18. CUSTOMER
SEGMENTS
Who are the
customers you plan
on targeting?
UNIQUE VALUE
PROPOSITION
Why are you
different and worth
paying attention to?
PROBLEM
What are the top 3
problems your
customers have?
SOLUTION
How is the product
the solution
to those problems?
UNFAIR
ADVANTAGE
What can’t be easily
copied or bought?
KEY METRICS CHANNELS
How will you reach
your customers?
COST STRUCTURE
What are your costs going to be to deliver this solution?
REVENUE STREAMS
How will you make money?
There are 9 aspects of the business model canvas. Your goal is to identify and
document your hypotheses for each box as succinctly as possible.

19. CUSTOMER
SEGMENTS
UNIQUE VALUE
PROPOSITION
PROBLEM SOLUTION UNFAIR
ADVANTAGE
CHANNELS
COST STRUCTURE REVENUE STREAMS
KEY METRICS
Once you’ve outlined your hypotheses, you identify which are the most risky.
Ask yourself how confident your are with each hypothesis.

20. CUSTOMER
SEGMENTS
Secondary market
research.
UNIQUE VALUE
PROPOSITION
Landing pages
Tactical Paid
Traffic
Competitive
research
PROBLEM
Customer problem
interviews
SOLUTION
Customer solution
interviews
Prototypes
Beta versions
UNFAIR
ADVANTAGE
Market research
Intuition
CHANNELS
Tactical
acquisition
campaigns
Competitive
research
COST STRUCTURE
Tactical acquisition campaigns
REVENUE STREAMS
Solution interviews
Pricing page tests
Competitive benchmarks
KEY METRICS
Competitive
benchmarks
Analytics
Create a test for each hypothesis. Some can be done in a few hours from your
computer, while others require “getting out of the building” and talking to customers.

21. Using the Lean Canvas:
• Turn your business plan into a series of hypotheses and plot
them on the canvas.
• Rank your hypotheses in order of most risky to least risky -
how confident are you about each of them?
• Develop a way to test each hypothesis, and implement.
• Revise the canvas based on the results of your experiments.
• Repeat.

22. http://amzn.com/1449305172
To Learn More, Read This:

23. THE KANO MODEL
Build better products by understanding customer needs
and their relationship with your product’s attributes.
FRAMEWORK THINKING
sean johnson @intentionally

24. SATISFIED
DISSATISFIED
NOT IMPLEMENTED FULLY IMPLEMENTED
One axis plots the degree to which you’ve implemented a feature. The other plots
how satisfied the customer would be with that feature if implemented well.

25. SATISFIED
DISSATISFIED
NOT IMPLEMENTED FULLY IMPLEMENTED
MUST HAVE
FEATURES
Must have features are those a user wouldn’t notice if implemented, but definitely
notice if missing. These must be in your product in order to be considered.

26. SATISFIED
DISSATISFIED
NOT IMPLEMENTED FULLY IMPLEMENTED
MUST HAVE
FEATURES
PERFORMANCE
FEATURES
Performance features are those the customer really cares about. They definitely
notice the better you are at them. These are usually where you look for your USP.

27. SATISFIED
DISSATISFIED
NOT IMPLEMENTED FULLY IMPLEMENTED
MUST HAVE
FEATURES
PERFORMANCE
FEATURES
DELIGHTER
FEATURES
Delighter features are those the customer wouldn’t notice if they’re missing, but
love when they see them. These create long-term customer loyalty.

28. Must Have Features:
A milk jug that doesn’t leak.
A car that starts.
Word processor that saves files.
Performance Features:
Simpler file sharing
Free photo storage
Faster Internet connection
Delighter Features
Free shipping
Bonus item in package
Amazing customer support

29. SATISFIED
DISSATISFIED
NOT IMPLEMENTED FULLY IMPLEMENTED
Keep in mind that needs change over time. A feature that used to be a delighter
eventually becomes a must have (free email, for example.)

30. Using the Kano Model:
• Address all must have features. But…
• Determine whether they're actually must haves. Customers aren’t
always sure what they need.
• Spend the majority of your time innovating on performance
features. That’s where you win the business.
• Look for ways to unexpectedly delight customers since those will
drive long-term loyalty and word of mouth.

31. THE CUSTOMER FUNNEL
Discover the key levers for driving growth in a business by
understanding the components of the customer relationship.
FRAMEWORK THINKING
sean johnson @intentionally

32. The Customer Funnel is great for focusing
marketing activities on things that will influence
the 5 phases of the customer lifecycle.

33. Acquisition: driving people to
your site from various channels.
!
Activation: getting them to sign
up and have a great first experience.
!
Retention: getting them to come back.
!
Referral: getting them to tell their friends.
!
Revenue: engaging in some form of
revenue-generating activity.

34. Most companies focus their energy on the top and bottom of the funnel,
and don’t spend as much time or energy manipulating the middle. But the middle is
where big gains can often be made much faster and for far less money.

35. There are various strategies and tactics
you can use at each stage of the funnel…

36. And different metrics you need to pay attention to
at each stage to monitor performance.

37. You can improve your funnel by working in sprints, identifying the metric you want
to improve, creating experiments, and measuring results.

38. How to Use The Customer Funnel:
• Identify what customer behavior matters for each stage of
your customer funnel.
• Get baseline data, and identify bottlenecks.
• Create some hypotheses for influencing the metric you want
to improve. Rank by level of effort, cost and potential impact.
• Implement the experiment and track the results.
• Repeat.

39. https://www.udemy.com/the-ultimate-guide-to-funnel-optimization/
To Learn More, Watch This:

40. FRAMEWORK THINKING
sean johnson @intentionally
THE FOGG BEHAVIOR MODEL
How to create more persuasive products and experiences.

41. HARD TO DO
HIGH
MOTIVATION
According to the Fogg Behavior Model, there are three elements necessary to create
behavior change: motivation, ability and the appropriate trigger.
LOW
MOTIVATION
EASY TO DO
ACTIVATION THRESHOLD
TARGET BEHAVIOR
TRIGGERS FAIL HERE
TRIGGERS WORK HERE

42. Pleasure and Pain
Will doing this action bring me immediate
pleasure or avoid immediate pain?
!
Hope and Fear
Will this action lead to a positive future
outcome for me, or avoid an undesirable
future outcome?
!
Social Acceptance or Rejection
Will this action make me more accepted
in my community, or prevent me from
being rejected by them?
If you can sufficiently increase motivation, people are willing to do
even difficult things. 6 factors you can leverage to increase motivation:

43. Time: Can I do this quickly?
Money: Is this expensive or inexpensive?
Physical Effort: Is this physically difficult to do?
Brain Cycles: Does this require me to think really hard?
Social Deviance: Do I have to break standard societal norms to do this?
Routine: Does this require me to adopt a new routine?
Similarly, if you can increase ability by identifying the barriers
preventing someone from taking action, you dramatically increase the
likelihood of your desired result. The factors driving ability include:

44. Sparks:
For people with low motivation but high ability. This trigger includes a motivation-
based element to increase motivation and take action that moment.
!
Facilitators:
For people with motivation but not ability, facilitators make the desired task easier
to do in that moment.
!
Signals:
If motivation and ability are both sufficiently high, you simply need to provide the
proper signal to remind them to take the desired behavior at the appropriate time.
Finally, by deploying the appropriate trigger at the right time, to create
the catalyst that drives your desired behavior. There are three triggers
you can deploy, depending on the relationship the user has between
motivation and ability.

45. http://amzn.com/1558606432
To Learn More, Read This:

46. THE LIFT MODEL
A systematic framework for identifying and prioritizing
conversion optimization opportunities.
FRAMEWORK THINKING
sean johnson @intentionally

47. Conversion Optimization is about more than tactics
and tips. You can change the color of your button, but
without a higher level of thinking you’ll likely miss
larger opportunities to improve. The LIFT Model
helps you think about conversion more meaningfully.

48. Value Proposition: The promise you make
to customers. The most important factor.
!
CONVERSION DRIVERS
Relevance: Is this what the visitor thought
they were going to see?
!
Clarity: Is it clear what action you want
them to take?
!
Urgency: Is there a reason they should take
action now?
!
CONVERSION INHIBITORS
Anxiety: Are you doing anything to give the
user pause about taking the next step?
!
Distraction: Are you doing anything to
divert the user’s attention from the action
you want them to take?

49. The LIFT Model lets you look at your pages from each lens, identifying ways to
remove conversion blockers and leverage conversion drivers more effectively.
45.5% IMPROVEMENT

50. How to use the LIFT Model:
• Identify a page you’d like to improve and evaluate it
using each of the factors in the LIFT Model.
• Create hypotheses for improving the page using
your findings.
• Implement the experiment and track the results.
• Repeat.

51. http://www.youshouldtestthat.com/
To Learn More, Read This:

52. WHAT OTHER FRAMEWORKS
SHOULD PEOPLE LEARN ABOUT?
Leave them in the comments on SlideShare,
or send them to me on Twitter at @intentionally
FRAMEWORK THINKING
sean johnson @intentionally