METHODS & SOURCES
This is the working vocabulary behind Tinework’s practice. It defines the method, shows how the terms relate, and names the books, articles, frameworks, and standards that shaped it.
01
THE METHOD
Tinework combines four distinct intellectual lineages into a practical sequence for operational work. They are complementary, not interchangeable. The job provides direction. Observation supplies evidence. System redesign changes the work. AI enters only at the task level, where it can be tested.
A
ULWICK / STRATEGYN
Define the stable job, map its steps, and express success as measurable desired outcomes. This gives the engagement a solution-independent operating frame.
Sources: Anthony W. Ulwick, 2016, Lance A. Bettencourt and Anthony W. Ulwick, 2008
B
CHRISTENSEN / HALL / DILLON / DUNCAN
Understand the functional, social, and emotional progress people seek in a particular circumstance—and why they hire one solution rather than another.
Sources: Clayton M. Christensen, 2016, Clayton M. Christensen, 2016
C
DEMING
Treat performance as the product of a system. Make a prediction, test a bounded change, study variation and results, then adjust, adopt, or stop.
Sources: W. Edwards Deming, 1982 / 2018 reissue, W. Edwards Deming Institute, ongoing
D
SVPG / CAGAN & JONES
Give a cross-functional team the job, outcomes, evidence, constraints, and business context. Let it discover a solution while testing value, usability, feasibility, and viability.
Sources: Marty Cagan and Chris Jones, 2020, Marty Cagan, 2018, Marty Cagan, 2017
01
Name who needs to accomplish what. Keep the job independent of the software and process used today.
OUTPUT
A functional job statement and a named job executor.
Sources: Anthony W. Ulwick, 2016, Clayton M. Christensen, 2016, Clayton M. Christensen, 2016
02
Translate success into observable directions of improvement. Separate the person’s outcomes from the business measures that justify the work.
OUTPUT
Desired outcomes, constraints, and baseline measures.
Sources: Anthony W. Ulwick, 2016, Lance A. Bettencourt and Anthony W. Ulwick, 2008
03
Watch the workflow happen. Capture its steps, decisions, handoffs, systems, exceptions, controls, and evidence.
OUTPUT
A current-state workflow grounded in real cases.
Sources: Hugh Beyer and Karen Holtzblatt, 1997, G. Lynn Shostack, 1984, Object Management Group, 2.0.2
04
Remove work that does not serve the job. Change the sequence and boundaries before adding automation.
OUTPUT
A future-state workflow and explicit design choices.
Sources: Michael Hammer, 1990, G. Lynn Shostack, 1984, Marty Cagan, 2018
05
Assign each step to a person, deterministic software, or AI. Preserve human judgment, escalation, and recovery where they matter.
OUTPUT
A task-level allocation with controls and exception paths.
Sources: Lisanne Bainbridge, 1983, Fabrizio Dell’Acqua et al., 2023, Marty Cagan, 2017, National Institute of Standards and Technology, 2023
06
Test the smallest coherent change against the agreed outcomes. Compare the result with the baseline before wider deployment.
OUTPUT
Measured evidence and a decision to adjust, adopt, or stop.
Sources: W. Edwards Deming, 1982 / 2018 reissue, W. Edwards Deming Institute, ongoing, National Institute of Standards and Technology, 2023
02
WORKING ONTOLOGY
The terms form a chain: a job is judged by its desired outcomes; a workflow is the present means; evidence grounds its current state; a future-state workflowreallocates the work; and an outcome observationtests whether the change helped.
The term keeps the source method’s essential meaning.
The source concept is narrowed for workflow consulting.
A working definition assembled from several disciplines.
CORE RELATIONSHIPS
WORK AND OUTCOMES
Terms that keep the engagement centered on what must be accomplished.
The stable result a person or team needs to accomplish, stated without assuming the current tool or solution.
AdaptedAnthony W. Ulwick, 2016, Clayton M. Christensen, 2016
The person or team responsible for trying to get the job done.
AdoptedAnthony W. Ulwick, 2016
A measurable direction of improvement the job executor uses to judge whether the job was done well.
AdaptedAnthony W. Ulwick, 2016, Lance A. Bettencourt and Anthony W. Ulwick, 2008
An agreed indicator used to compare the current result with the result after a change.
Tinework synthesisW. Edwards Deming Institute, ongoing
A condition the new workflow must respect, such as cost, time, privacy, policy, or available authority.
Tinework synthesisNational Institute of Standards and Technology, 2023
WORKFLOW
Terms that describe how the job is accomplished in practice.
The connected sequence of actions, decisions, handoffs, systems, exceptions, and controls used to accomplish a job.
Tinework synthesisG. Lynn Shostack, 1984, Object Management Group, 2.0.2
An evidence-grounded representation of how the work happens now.
AdaptedHugh Beyer and Karen Holtzblatt, 1997, G. Lynn Shostack, 1984
A bounded action that moves the job toward completion.
AdaptedLance A. Bettencourt and Anthony W. Ulwick, 2008, Object Management Group, 2.0.2
A place where information or judgment determines which path follows.
A transfer of work, information, or responsibility between people, teams, or systems.
AdaptedG. Lynn Shostack, 1984, Object Management Group, 2.0.2
A case the normal workflow cannot complete without another path or intervention.
AdaptedObject Management Group, 2.0.2, Lisanne Bainbridge, 1983
A check, limit, approval, or recovery mechanism that keeps the workflow within its intended boundary.
Tinework synthesisNational Institute of Standards and Technology, 2023, Lisanne Bainbridge, 1983
A delay, error, repeated effort, uncertainty, or burden that prevents a desired outcome.
Tinework synthesisHugh Beyer and Karen Holtzblatt, 1997, G. Lynn Shostack, 1984
DESIGN AND ALLOCATION
Terms used to decide what should change and where AI belongs.
A proposed way to accomplish the same job with a better sequence, boundary, and allocation of work.
Tinework synthesisMichael Hammer, 1990, G. Lynn Shostack, 1984
The explicit assignment of each step to a person, deterministic software, or AI.
Tinework synthesisLisanne Bainbridge, 1983, Fabrizio Dell’Acqua et al., 2023
A bounded task for which representative tests show that AI improves the target outcome within acceptable risk.
Tinework synthesisFabrizio Dell’Acqua et al., 2023, National Institute of Standards and Technology, 2023
Interpretation or accountability that remains with a person because context, consequence, or uncertainty makes delegation unsafe or ineffective.
Tinework synthesisLisanne Bainbridge, 1983, National Institute of Standards and Technology, 2023
PRODUCT DISCOVERY AND OWNERSHIP
Terms used when a team is responsible for discovering and delivering an operational solution.
A small cross-functional group with the product, design, and engineering capability needed to discover and deliver a solution.
A product team given an important problem, outcomes, context, and constraints—and trusted to determine the solution.
The learning work used to identify and test a solution before committing to full delivery or deployment.
AdaptedMarty Cagan, 2018, Marty Cagan, 2017
An observable change in customer, user, or business behavior that the product team is asked to produce.
Tinework synthesisMarty Cagan and Chris Jones, 2020, Marty Cagan, 2018
A delivered feature, artifact, or release. It shows that work was completed, not that the intended outcome occurred.
Tinework synthesisMarty Cagan and Chris Jones, 2020, Marty Cagan, 2018
The value, usability, feasibility, and business-viability questions that a proposed solution must answer.
AdoptedMarty Cagan, 2017
EVIDENCE AND LEARNING
Terms that keep a proposed improvement testable and reversible.
An authorized observation, recording, artifact, system trace, or example that shows how the work occurs.
Tinework synthesisHugh Beyer and Karen Holtzblatt, 1997
A consequential belief that has not yet been supported by sufficient evidence.
Tinework synthesisW. Edwards Deming, 1982 / 2018 reissue, W. Edwards Deming Institute, ongoing
A proposed workflow or solution that can be inspected and tested but is not yet the operating baseline.
Tinework synthesisW. Edwards Deming Institute, ongoing, National Institute of Standards and Technology, 2023
A bounded real-world test of a candidate against defined outcomes, controls, and stopping conditions.
AdaptedW. Edwards Deming Institute, ongoing, National Institute of Standards and Technology, 2023
Evidence that the candidate improved the intended outcome and respected its constraints in representative use.
Tinework synthesisW. Edwards Deming Institute, ongoing, National Institute of Standards and Technology, 2023
A measured result after use, kept distinct from the prediction made before the change.
Tinework synthesisW. Edwards Deming Institute, ongoing
Time or attention released by the new workflow and deliberately reassigned to higher-value work.
Tinework synthesisMichael Hammer, 1990, Lisanne Bainbridge, 1983
03
BIBLIOGRAPHY
These links point to the author, publisher, journal, or standards body where possible. Inclusion means the source shaped part of the practice. It does not imply endorsement of Tinework’s synthesis.
Tinework does not represent this synthesis as formal ODI, Contextual Design, the SVPG product model, BPMN, or NIST AI RMF compliance. An engagement that uses a source method more strictly will say so in its scope.
01
HOW IT INFORMS THE PRACTICE
Provides the functional-job, job-executor, job-map, and measurable desired-outcome structure used at the start of an engagement.
Open source02
ARTICLE
Lance A. Bettencourt and Anthony W. Ulwick. Harvard Business Review, 2008.
HOW IT INFORMS THE PRACTICE
Shows how to decompose a job from beginning to end without treating the current product or process as the job itself.
Open source03
ARTICLE
Clayton M. Christensen, Taddy Hall, Karen Dillon, and David S. Duncan. Harvard Business Review, 2016.
HOW IT INFORMS THE PRACTICE
Adds the progress and circumstance lens that helps explain why someone changes how they accomplish a job.
Open source04
BOOK
Clayton M. Christensen, Taddy Hall, Karen Dillon, and David S. Duncan. Harper Business, 2016.
HOW IT INFORMS THE PRACTICE
Formalizes the progress-in-a-circumstance view of a job and the causal question of why people hire, replace, or keep a solution.
Open source05
HOW IT INFORMS THE PRACTICE
Grounds workflow discovery in observation and interview while people perform real work in context.
Open source06
HOW IT INFORMS THE PRACTICE
Introduces service blueprinting as a way to make visible actions, supporting work, and failure points inspectable as one system.
Open source07
HOW IT INFORMS THE PRACTICE
Supports redesigning obsolete work before using technology to make the existing process faster.
Open source08
HOW IT INFORMS THE PRACTICE
Explains why automation can leave people with harder monitoring and exception work, shaping the method’s human-judgment and control boundaries.
Open source09
ARTICLE
Fabrizio Dell’Acqua et al.. Harvard Business School Working Paper 24-013, 2023.
HOW IT INFORMS THE PRACTICE
Provides evidence that generative AI performance varies sharply across tasks, supporting task-level testing instead of broad automation claims.
Open source10
HOW IT INFORMS THE PRACTICE
Frames a pilot as a learning cycle with a prediction, an observed result, and an explicit decision to adjust, adopt, or stop.
Open source11
HOW IT INFORMS THE PRACTICE
Supplies the system view of management: improve the conditions and process that produce results instead of blaming or optimizing isolated workers.
Open source12
BOOK
Marty Cagan and Chris Jones. Silicon Valley Product Group / Wiley, 2020.
HOW IT INFORMS THE PRACTICE
Defines empowered product teams as cross-functional teams given problems and outcomes to own, supported by product vision, strategy, context, and coaching.
Open source13
HOW IT INFORMS THE PRACTICE
Distinguishes teams trusted to solve important problems from feature teams assigned outputs and prescribed solutions.
Open source14
HOW IT INFORMS THE PRACTICE
Provides the value, usability, feasibility, and business-viability risk model used to test a proposed solution before scaling it.
Open source15
FRAMEWORK
National Institute of Standards and Technology. NIST AI 100-1, 2023.
HOW IT INFORMS THE PRACTICE
Supplies a practical risk-management frame for governing, mapping, measuring, and managing AI throughout its lifecycle.
Open source16
STANDARD
Object Management Group. OMG Specification, 2.0.2.
HOW IT INFORMS THE PRACTICE
Supplies a standard vocabulary for representing events, activities, decisions, flows, and participants when a formal process model is useful.
Open sourceA LIVING METHOD
The vocabulary will evolve as real engagements expose better distinctions. Changes should preserve the prior definition, explain the reason, and keep the source trail visible.
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