Origins and Impact

When I reflect on how my company achieved 100x value growth over 12 years, one methodology stands out: blank boarding. My team invented this approach while running an industrial water treatment company. The results were transformative—not just in financial terms, but in creating a culture of genuine collective intelligence.

The method proved consistently effective at surfacing important issues that typically remain hidden in organizations. Compensation, perceived unfairness, and process breakdowns came into the open where they could be addressed directly. Over time, our organization developed its own language for improvement, including what we called "A to A'" thinking—recognizing that a process that once worked (A) needed to evolve to a new version (A') through micro-experiments. This created a self-reinforcing culture of problem-solving.

Years later, I witnessed the ultimate proof when new employees in Quebec and Ohio independently connected to solve identical customer problems without management involvement.

The Basic Process

Blank boarding follows a simple structure:

1. Each person brings five ideas
2. Random groups of five people discuss and select their top three ideas
3. All groups present to everyone
4. Ideas are collated, duplicates identified, and priorities voted on
5. Change management team implements top priorities
6. The cycle repeats

The Implementation Challenge

Despite its effectiveness, blank boarding faces adoption barriers:

• Conference costs ($70K+ for 30 people, rising to $200K+ as we grew to 100 people)
• Time commitment (two full days)
• Processing complexity (sorting hundreds of ideas)

A Modern Implementation Approach

SimScore was developed to make blank boarding accessible without these barriers. Here's a practical implementation path:

1. Idea Collection: Use tldraw or similar tools for initial idea capture