What Is the Iceberg Model?
Most people react to problems.
They see the apparent reason and look for quick fixes.
But in complex systems —like a business— problems usually have deep root causes.
Like what?
Like the processes, structure, or people’s beliefs.
Not fixing these reasons causes issues to occur again and again.
And turn them into bigger problems.
The Iceberg Model is a useful system-thinking tool to discover real reasons of apparent problems.
It divides the problems into four steps:
- Event: The apparent problem.
- Pattern: The patterns (or trends) that led to the problem.
- Structure: The structures, processes, or relationships between them that create the problem
- Mental model: Beliefs and assumptions people hold about the system
How can you use it?
One example.
Imagine your customer acquisition costs increased by 30% last quarter.
This is the event.
But this problem must have deeper causes.
So let’s use the questions below to find what’s below the surface:
Four Layers Of The Iceberg Model:
1. Event
What happened?
“Our customer acquisition costs increased by 30% last quarter.”
2. Pattern
What are the patterns/trends that caused this?
“Our main advertising channel has been getting expensive due to privacy changes.”
3. Structure
What is the structure that created this problem?
“Our team is not organized in a way to experiment with new channels. Their training is also limited to one platform. So we stayed dependent on one channel.”
4. Mental Model
What assumptions and beliefs (mental models) incited the problem?
“We believed that if what we do works well, we don’t need to look for any alternatives.”
It’s a simple example.
But you see how Iceberg Model can uncover deeper problems in a business.
So when you face problems, don’t immediately react to the event.
Use the Iceberg Model to find what’s under the hood.
Because the only way to keep growing is by fixing the real problems.
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