Mutual? [? mju:t？ u？ Li] Help each other; Right;

Exclusive [? k？ sklu:s？ Special purpose; Advanced; Exclusive; Alone; Exclusive news; Proprietary property; Exclusive products (or projects, designs, etc. ); Xenophobia;

Collective [k? Lecter? vl？ Everywhere, * * * together;

Exhausted? [? g？ z？ :st？ Exhaustive; Thorough, thorough; Consume, exhaust; Detailed and detailed;

MECE analysis method, which means "mutually independent and completely exhausted" in Chinese. ?

In other words, for a major problem, it can be classified without overlapping or omission, and it can effectively grasp the core of the problem and become an effective method to solve the problem.

MECE (mutual independence and complete exhaustion) is a basic principle of McKinsey's thinking process. "Mutual independence" means that the subdivision of the problem is in the same dimension and clearly distinguished, and it cannot overlap. "Thoroughly exhausted" means comprehensive and thorough.

The focus of this scheme is to help analysts find all the key factors that affect the expected benefits or goals, and find all possible solutions. It will help managers sort and analyze problems or solutions, and find satisfactory solutions from them. There are two common practices:

First, when establishing problems, through the method similar to fishbone diagram, on the basis of establishing the main problems, decompose them one by one until all the problems are found, and through the layer-by-layer decomposition of the problems, the key problems and the preliminary ideas for solving the problems can be analyzed;

Another method is to find the main problem through brainstorming, and then consider all possible solutions to this problem without considering the existing resource constraints. In this process, we should pay special attention to the combination of various methods, which may be a new scheme, and then analyze the resources needed for each scheme, and find the most realistic and satisfactory answer from the above-mentioned schemes through analysis and comparison.

Collect information-"describe the findings-"draw a conclusion-"put forward a plan.

The first step is to confirm what the problem is.

Step 2: Find the entry point of MECE.

MECE is a method to break down a work item into several finer work tasks. It has two main principles:

The first one is integrity, that is, we should not miss a certain item in the process of decomposition, but ensure integrity;

The second is independence, which emphasizes that each job should be independent and there should be no overlap between each job.

If people are classified by MECE analysis (see the figure below

What can be done to avoid overlap and omission?

Step 1: Determine the scope.

In other words, we should clearly discuss what the problem is and what we want to achieve. This range determines the boundary of the problem. This also makes "complete failure" possible. In other words, MECE's "complete exhaustion" refers to bounded exhaustion.

Step 2: Find the entry point that meets MECE.

The so-called breakthrough point refers to what you want to divide, or what is the common attribute of everyone. For example, by color, by size, by chronological order or by importance? This step is the most difficult, but also the most critical. When looking for a breakthrough, you must remember to start from the end! At this time, you must think over the problem you want to solve or the purpose of your analysis. In other words, what problems do you want to solve and what conclusions do you draw after classification?

If you really can't think of any starting point for classification, you can try the simplest dichotomy: A and non-A. In fact, there is a very classic case of using this classification method, that is, 7-up, whose original slogan is "non-cola". In addition, there are many similar dichotomies in China traditional culture, such as Yin and Yang (female and male), right and wrong, day and night, soft and hard, and so on.

Step 3: Find out the big classification and consider whether MECE can be used for further subdivision.

For example, in the above picture, if customers are classified according to men and women, it really conforms to the MECE principle, but is it only helpful for our marketing strategy? Wherever you go, please always remember to start with the end. Literally, don't forget what you started for just because you have gone too far! From the marketing point of view, you may have to further subdivide by occupation, income, age, living area and other factors to get what you want.

Step 4: Confirm whether there is any omission or repetition.

Be sure to review it again after classification to see if there are any obvious omissions or repetitions. It is suggested to draw a pyramid structure diagram, and it is easier to find out whether there are overlapping items in an intuitive way. Of course, there may be such a situation in reality. After some categories are separated, there are several items that do not belong to the previous categories, but these items are still more important. At this time, you can try to add a category-other. But please note that this must be used with caution and not as a last resort.

References:

Encyclopedia of think tanks: MECE analysis method

MECE analysis-the basis of comprehensive logical thinking framework