I’m a big advocate of practical tools: checklists, forms, and that sort of thing. When I was a VP of operations at a large association, I learned a lot about frameworks.
This post is about one very simple kind of framework: Quadrant analysis.
You’ve seen these before. It’s a 2×2 matrix where some value on the x axis goes from low to high and a value on the y axis goes from low to high. You fill in each of the four boxes with how you should treat things in that quadrant.
Here are two classic examples of quadrant analysis followed by one specifically for publishers. Each of the examples is slightly different to show other ways to use this kind of chart.
Urgent vs Important
This is a very simple example with a single descriptor for each quadrant. It shows low vs. high urgency, and low vs. high importance.
Effort vs Impact
This example suggests adding specific tasks to each quadrant, and ranking them by priority. It addresses low vs. high effort and low vs. high impact.
What to do with my magazines?
This example allows for free-form text to describe a strategy for each quadrant. It assumes that advertiser interest and market share are the most important considerations for a each of a collection of magazines.
