Mental models: šR-ICE Framework
A riff on Sean Ellis' ICE Framework. R ā Rice, R = Relevance.
Eeek. My first post on Substack!
tl;dr
The šR-ICE Framework is one I use to help me quickly assess ideas/options in my personal life domain.
Iām keen on documenting all (or just some š¤·š¼āāļø) the mental models I apply in various scenarios, as inspired by Ray Dalio, Sean Parrish, Duncan Anderson and Peter Bevelin.
Plus, given another post I want to write about (my personal operating stack) will reference my šR-ICE Framework, why not start here?!
What is it not?
Firstly, this is not to be confused with the RICE Framework attributed to Sean McBride at Intercom.
What is it then?
While I do ā¤ļø rice (thereās even a homage to this fact in some of Edroloās textbooks!), thereās more to it than that. Itās my personal riff on Sean Ellisās ICE framework to help with ranking ideas and making decisions about which ideas to pursue:
R = relevance
I = impact
C = confidence
E = ease of execution
Essentially, you give a score from 1 to 10 for each of R-I-C-E, then multiply them. The max score is 10,000, lowest score is 1. For I-C-E and how this works in more detail, I wonāt recreate the wheel. Rather, Iāll point you to this great summary here.
Three things I will mention are:
the score you give to each letter for each thing is relative to all the other things on your list;
youāll find yourself wanting to score the things up the top of your list again as you move through all the other things on your list - this is a good thing; and
you could add (instead of multiply), but I find multiplying for the purposes of ranking things to help my brain in seeing one thing is better than another (e.g. Comparing one thing with a RICE score of 10,000 (10* 10* 10* 10) to another thing with a RICE score of 3,200 ( 10*5*8*8), is easier to see as being better than using addition and comparing 40 (10+10+10+10) to 31 (10+5+8+8).)
What do you mean by Relevance?
This is a score from 1 to 10 for how relevant something is to my (evolving) values and goals. I introduced this to help me choose ideas/things with my purpose and what Iām trying to achieve in life front-and-centre in the decision-making process.
For example, vaping regularly for me personally would be a 0/10, whereas doing š§š¼āāļø yoga regularly would be a 10/10.
Example pleaseā¦
In the example below, Idea 4 is the clear winner:
When do I use it?
I like to use this scoring framework when Iām assessing ideas/options in my personal life domain. Sometimes I rely on it solely (e.g. revolving door decisions), other times I use another mental model or framework to help me (e.g. one-way door decisions).
For example:
choosing a builder to work with on a home renovation project
analysing job opportunities
analysing the components of my personal operating stack (post coming soon!)
analysing which blogging platform to use š¤
What do I like about it?
I love itās simplicity.
I love how it helps keep me accountable and true to my values and goals.
What donāt I like about it?
The less insight into or experience with Impact, Confidence, and Ease of execution that you have, the less reliable this framework is (sh1t data in = sh1t data out).
Solution => do not rely on this when making important decisions in an unfamiliar area / area you do not understand well
When thereās a long list of ideas to assess, the process can get unwieldily.
Solution => try and go āup a levelāā¦
step 1. tag each idea with a theme
e.g. blog, video, email campaign, postal campaign, paid ad campaign
step 2. pull out all the themes, then R-ICE rank them!
e.g. email campaign might come out on top
step 3. then R-ICE rank the individual ideas within the highest ranked theme
e.g. focus on all your email campaign ideas, and R-ICE rank them
In conclusionā¦
Thanks for reading. That was a simple one for me to document, and a great place for me to start writing š¤ I hope it was useful for you.