Make plans that make sense.
🤪 See what’s up with Resolution in 2024! 🧐
Resolution is the math-powered, “what if scenario” machine for making better plans. It’s a fast, transparent way to figure out how you and your team are going to get from Point A to Point B, and what it’s going to take to do it. And it’s weirdly satisfying!
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What kind of scenarios is Resolution good for?
Resolution is extremely awesome when you are trying to figure out how to turn something you have into something you want, even if you aren’t entirely sure how you’re going to do it.
(It’s okay if you don’t get it at first! Try some of the pre-built examples in the Model Index.)
This makes it especially good for things like:
- sales pipelines
- marketing funnels
- account management plans
- market sizing
- budgeting
- fundraising
- capacity planning
… or even stuff around the house like vacation planning or setting up a store for your six year old.
Got a budget?
Resolution is a great way to build a budget that’s connected to what the money is actually for. Convince your colleagues, impress your boss. Learn more here.
But... what about spreadsheets?
Spreadsheets are amazing. But unlike Resolution, they aren’t built for figuring out how things work — they’re built to do calculations once you already know how those things are supposed to work. That makes them a bad way to answer basic questions.
This means:
- it’s easy to change a number, but very hard to change how it’s determined
- logic is usually invisible, and often set by someone who doesn’t totally understand it
- you can set any value to anything you want, even if it makes no sense
- it’s very hard to have a discussion with someone about whether your spreadsheet is “right”
These problems are manageable with a lot of manual effort and excellent communication skills, but since no one has time for that, we usually just ignore them and pretend we understand what we’ve been told.
Say goodbye to spreadsheet face.
“But I’m really good at making spreadsheets!”
I bet you are! Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean they make any sense to your colleagues or your customers. Resolution pulls all of your pesky assumptions out of formulas, and puts them where everyone can see them. Learn more here.
When should you use Resolution?
If you and everyone involved truly understand the math behind a complicated scenario, and that scenario isn’t in flux, using a spreadsheet makes a lot of sense. Examples of this include things like a quarterly profit and loss statement, or a bill of materials.
However, if you’re working with a new scenario, or are trying to get your arms wrapped around major changes (like adding a new product, market, channel, etc.), you should try Resolution first.
Need more examples? Search the model index.
Help is just a click away.
Resolution is meant to be something you can figure out on your own. There’s no coding, or even pretend coding (ahem, formulas). But if you’ve got an especially tricky scenario, want more hand-holding as you learn the ins and outs, or you’d like to learn how to teach Resolution to others, check out our consulting page and don’t hesitate to contact us.