Sketchplanations
Big Ideas Little Pictures
Get the book!
Sketchplanations podcast photo of Rob Bell, Tom Pellereau and Jono Hey
Prefer to listen?
🎉 Help keep Sketchplanations ad-free by supporting me

Business sketches

Explore sketches, drawings, and illustrations that simplify ideas related to Business.

To scale, you first have to do things that don't scale, advice from Paul Graham and Brian Chesky of AirBnB for scaling companies shown with a founder packing boxes themselves like Jeff Bezos of AmazonTo Scale, First Do Things That Don't ScaleUnknown Unknowns or the Awareness-Understanding matrix, or the Rumsfeld Matrix illustrated with the example of having a babyUnknown UnknownsWhat is the subscription trap? A picture example showing how canceling subscriptions is made difficult with delays, friction, and sludge.The Subscription TrapBusiness without marketing is like winking at someone in the dark illustration: with three panels including someone winking in the dark, someone leaving, and then concluding that they weren't interested (from the Steuart Henderson Britt quote)Winking in the darkSell painkillers, not vitamins illustration: showing two stores, one for vitamins with just one customer and vague future benefits, next to a busy store selling painkillers with a queue of people seeking "relief now!"Painkillers and vitaminsThe Wheel of Death illustration: a pie chart of last week's support issues from large categories of login problems, and payment issues to smaller ones at the end in shades of blue. A tool to help review and prioritise issues.The Wheel of DeathThe XY Problem (or X-Y Problem): a child tries to reach a balloon by precariously stacking chairsand asks how they can stick them together to someone outside of the room who, eventually, wonders what for?The XY ProblemBiz Stone quote: Timing, perseverance and 10 years of trying will eventually make you seem like an overnight success — illustrated by someone on the tip of an iceberg with a whole lot of it underwaterOvernight successThree types of "no" illustrated animation with parenting examples. The Yes No (no to ice cream, yes to eating). The Material No (Yes I'd get it down if I had a ladder). The Priority No (Yes we can take the bear but we'll leave to have one of the others)Three Types of "No"An employee is flummoxed by a set of opinions without data about how to proceed on a projectWithout data you're just another person with an opinionThe bus factor summary - A poor soul squashed by a bus lamented because they were the only one who knew the passwordBus factorWhat is Groupthink: People acquiescing to the manager's and what they see as others' views during a meetingGroupthinkA sketch of extrinsic motivation with a donkey being followed by a man with a stick and in turn following a carrot that's strapped always just out of reachExtrinsic motivationA meeting with some in-person participants and one remote participant showing the disadvantages of eachHybrid meetingsWhat is Chesterton's fence example explained: the meaning of Chesterton's Fence shown by two people contemplating a barbed wire fence stretching through rolling hills and wondering why on earth someone put a fence there, unaware of the large animal down the slopeChesterton's fenceFeatures are like pets illustration: a series of images shows different practical roles and responsibilities involved with owning a pet dog, compared with a solo image of how simple and rewarding one might imagine it to be - all presented as a simile for the time, effort and cost involved in developing new software features.Features are like petsLeading metrics and lagging metrics: illustrated by diet and exercise as a leading metric with weight loss as the lagging metricLeading and lagging metricsAltruism and Ambition Richard Reed quote illustration: a determined character soars through the clouds miles above the earth below and has a large wing strapped to their back. On the left hand side of the wing is a jet engine labelled "Altruism". On the right hand side is a jet engine labelled "Ambition". Altruism and ambitionThe paradox of choice: a poor soul confronted by a giant pizza selection raises their expectations, wonders about everything they're missing, anticipates getting it wrong and then blames themselves for picking the wrong oneThe paradox of choiceWhat is Manager Time Maker Time example explained: Paul Graham's manager schedule maker schedule illustrated with Manager Time, on the left shows someone in their office at their laptop, scheduling in meetings and calls throughout the day, neatly managing time with hourly and half-hourly slots in their calendar. On the right, Maker Time ideally does away with any scheduled meetings or calls to allow for an open day for our worker at their desk to grind through a complex problem or new project. The passing of time is only marked by day turning to night. Manager time, maker timeRACI framework illustration: A family making a sandcastle highlights who is Responsible, Accountable, Consulted and InformedRACISexy value illustration: the Venn diagram overlap of better and cheaperSexy valueAnalytics Maturity illustration: A young character is very happy, sat at their makeshift lemonade stand next to the sidewalk. When they close their stand, our young entrepreneur can assess their performance today using hindsight and insight to inform preparation through foresight for next weekend. Analytics maturityNet Promoter Score illustration: How to calculate NPS from the spectrum of responses to the question "How likely are you to recommend us to a friend?"Net Promoter ScoreThe transparency paradox: In an open classroom one student secretly passes a note to the other illustrating the transparency paradoxThe transparency paradoxWhat is the Peter Principle explanation: a confident and competent junior worker gets promoted to a senior level. At the senior level, they appear very happy and excel such that they get a promotion to Director. As a Director, their competence has been exceeded and we see them in a state of stress and disarray. Oh dear. The Peter PrincipleThe cost of being late illustration: an executive walks into a meeting 10 mins late adding up to 100 total lost minutes of everyone else's timeThe cost of being lateThe Law of Diminishing Returns illustration: a chart of broth quality increasing from a lone chef stirring a large pot to eventually decreasing once again as a crowd of chefs get in each other's way and goof off. Standard.Law of diminishing returnsWhat is The Shirky principle explained — from Clay Shirky — illustration in a garage where a manager is astonished by a mechanic fixing the cars so they'll never need to come backThe Shirky PrincipleWhat is the Business Flywheel example explained: the model of The Business Funnel, where prospects are filtered to yield end customers is compared with The Business Flywheel, where customers are at the centre, acting as the driving force behind your business momentum. The business flywheelAutonomy Mastery Purpose summary of Dan Pink's book DriveWhat drives us: autonomy, mastery, purposeConway's law showing how the organisation of a company, as small, distributed teams or large colocated teams can reflect the architecture of the software as modular or monolithicConway’s LawThe "virtuous cycle" of Amazon and Uber illustration: closed loop flow diagrams demonstrate the effect of growth on factors like demand, price and service for Amazon and Uber. The ‘Virtuous Cycles’ of Amazon and UberWhat is the OODA Loop example explained: military strategist John Boyd's framework for action in conflict is shown as a closed loop cycle of Orient, Decide, Act, Observe and back to the beginning. The cycle also applies to business when you reconsider the points on the cycle as Frame, Strategize, Test, Gather. OODA LoopGoodhart's law illustration showing a manager frustrated by 1000's of tiny nails when measuring on number of nails made, and pulling their hair out when presented with giant nails when measuring on weightGoodhart’s Law: when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.The customer value chain illustration: a concave up, decreasing line graph shows the different elements of competitive advantage at play as a new product or market evolves over time. The customer value chainThe Big Ideal ™Watch out for barnacles illustration: One barnacle on the left seems like nothing, but if you have enough of them coating the back of a ship and its propeller then the cost of prevention, drag and removal will cost youWatch out for barnaclesUnderstanding the ChasmWhat is The Generalised Peter Principle explained: the example of an overloaded car shows that anything that works will be used in progressively more challenging situations until it failsThe Generalised Peter PrincipleT-shaped peopleT-shaped people need breadth and depthThe knowledge funnelMore is different
Buy Me A Coffee