Welcome
"The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function." F. Scott Fitzgerald
"A very neat tool for almost anything! I keep it open in the background all the time". Anders Jangbrand
Southbeach is a visual analysis, conceptual design and diagramming style. It fosters joined up thinking - situations that can only be fully understood by embracing multiple perspectives. Southbeach helps to clarify the problem, untangling conflicting causes and effects so as to generate innovative outcomes. Scenario planning is one way the tool is used.
A universal visual language. Use Southbeach to model any complex situation in fields as far flung as finance, engineering, management, the law, global issues, education, marketing, the service economy, health care, information technology, strategy or politics. Add perspectives to your models. What is useful? What is harmful? From which viewpoint?
While the method will grow with you, Southbeach Notation is simple, immediate and - many consultants claim - intuitive. Some facilitators get by with just a flip chart, Post_It notes and highlighter pens (red for harmful and green for useful). For more complex work, the free Southbeach Modeller software allows you, with your colleagues, to explore multi-faceted scenarios incorporating new ideas, systems, processes and trends. Project models to create a shared space during important workshops.
Visually eloquent. Southbeach can help you resolve complex organizational tensions and social dilemmas (wicked problems). Use it to map out contradictory requirements in any technical or human system. Southbeach functional or process models can describe problems or solutions in areas such as corporate sustainability, service design, value stream mapping, climate change, biodiversity, resource utilization and the green agenda.
The technique keeps you moving forward. Whether thinking through a personal life goal, a new business idea, global trends, a complex technical challenge, or coping with a difficult change or transformation at work with your team, Southbeach diagrams provide the visual elements you need to pinpoint the root causes of inertia, to innovate and to work towards actionable solutions.
Southbeach is both a personal thinking tool and a collaborative consulting tool. The approach is oriented towards counseling and mentoring, team work and group facilitation. The Modeller software is designed for efficient use in a workshop setting or when working face to face with a domain expert.
Using one tool and drawing style you can substitute for many other commonly needed diagrams in methods such as six sigma, lean and DfSS, including cause-effect analysis, conceptual maps, causal loop diagrams, sign diagrams, polarity charts, force-field diagrams, influence diagrams, flows, theory of constraints, affinity diagrams, SIPOC, argument maps, dialogue mapping, SWOT charts, TRIZ 9-boxes and numerous window-pane diagrams. Flexible grid, pool and swim lane overlays provide management consultant style models. Unlike Visio or PowerPoint diagrams, every Southbeach model is consistent in approach and meaning and so can be used to derive key insights.
An ideal research tool. Keep notes with models and annotate any visual element. Invoke web searches from the names of elements of the diagram. Copy and paste from the web browser to create model elements. Link elements to web pages. Build conceptual maps. The in-built web-browser is fast and convenient, keeping everything together in one place. When you share models with your colleagues, they get all your notes and links. Model file size is small and transfers easily in email or via the Web.
License
There is a free version of Southbeach Modeller. See Download page. You are licensed to share it with others so that your team can create, share and edit models together. You may also include a copy of Southbeach within any other commercial product or service that you provide to your own customers.
Upgrades will become available, ranging from low price add-ons to features demanded by Fortune 500 corporations.
Interested in TRIZ?
Southbeach 0.9 builds on typical TRIZ notations. It has been developed to support a variety of applications where TRIZ or TRIZ-like methods are effective, including P-TRIZ.
Technology
Southbeach Modeller is a modern Microsoft Windows application. It has been implemented to take advantage of the many new features that Microsoft .NET provides. The tool is a suitable platform for the development of advanced interactive TRIZ applications.
Feedback
If you choose to try Southbeach, do send us feedback. Click on the Feedback button in the tool. Enter your message. Press Send. That's it. Your message is delivered via a Web service. This also works when you are offline. Your offline messages are delivered when you are next online.
If you like Southbeach, but it does not do quite what you need, tell us. Explain what you are trying to achieve. A Share button in the tool allows you to send a model to any email address. Our address on the beach is feedback@southbeachinc.com.