What is it?

• The Options Framework is a technique you can use with groups of up to 7 people to get a preferred solution to a difficult problem.
• It gives you a preferred way forward, a more ambitious solution, a conservative solution, and the narrative behind your journey that can be explained to a board or steering committee.

Why is it useful?

• It helps you achieve consensus on a preferred solution to a difficult problem.
• It prepares you for more detailed analysis while documenting your discussion along the way.

Objective

To brainstorm and achieve consensus on a preferred solution to a difficult problem, ready for more detailed economic and financial analysis.

When would you use it?

• Any time you need to brainstorm a long list of solutions and reduce them to a focused short list.
• Before carrying out detailed economic and financial analysis.

Rules

• Draw the framework on a whiteboard or use Post-its so you can swap ideas easily.
• Encourage people to change their minds during the process.
• Limit to 6–7 people; larger groups get stuck in too much discussion and too little action.

The Options Framework Questions

• Scope – What is the potential service coverage?
• Service Solution – How are you going to create the solution?
• Service Delivery – Who is going to deliver the solution?
• Implementation – When are you going to deliver the solution? How quickly? Will it be phased?
• Funding – How are you going to pay for the solution?

Process

1. Agree with the group what the current situation is.
2. Get a shared understanding of the ‘status quo’ (i.e. the bare minimum if nothing changes).
3. Agree on spending objectives, making them SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Timely).
4. Define desired outcomes at the end of the project (e.g. “educate 400 under-11-year-olds per year” rather than “build a school”).
5. Complete the top row (Scope) first, then work down row by row. Each row informs the next.
6. Ask: What would the least ambitious scope look like (conservative)?
7. Ask: What would the most ambitious scope look like (stretch)?
8. Ask: What would an intermediate scope look like (in between)?
9. For each row, select a preferred solution and mark it green.
10. Identify impossible options and mark them red.
11. Mark the rest yellow (conservative if left of green, ambitious if right).
12. Continue row by row until all rows are complete.
13. Allow the group to revisit and adjust earlier decisions if needed.
14. Write up the narrative of the session to explain how the group arrived at its decisions.

Secret Sauce

• Make sure the right people are in the room, ideally those with informed views on the issue.
• For complex problems, consider several workshops with multiple stakeholder groups.
• Record the narrative as you go – this is key for explaining decisions later.
• Run with a co-facilitator: one leads the process while the other captures the narrative.
• Don’t go into too much detail too soon; keep the level appropriate (strategic, programme, or project).