Organizational Memory
Business models card, MethodKit for Memory & Reminiscence
Card 8 of 66 · MethodKit for Memory & Reminiscence
  • ThemeStrategy & Direction
  • CardCard 8 of 66
  • Questions5 to explore
Strategy & Direction

Business models

How you get money & create value

How the organization makes money and creates value is often understood differently by different people inside it.

A business model is more than a revenue line. It covers who pays, what they pay for, what the organization delivers in return, and the chain of activities that makes that exchange possible. When that logic is written down, it becomes much easier to spot gaps, explain trade-offs, and think clearly about changes.

Many organizations run on more than one model at the same time: a subscription alongside project work, or a free product that supports a paid service. Documenting each model separately, and how they relate, keeps the picture clear when one changes.

The value of capturing business models is not only strategic. It is practical: when someone new joins the finance or sales team, they should be able to read how the organization actually makes money rather than piece it together over months.

What to capture

For this part of the company brain, what is worth writing down and keeping current. The goal is not a complete archive but a living record that new people can read and returning people can trust.

Revenue streams

Each source of income, what triggers it, and roughly what it contributes, so the financial logic of the organization is visible to more than just the finance team.

Value delivered

What the organization actually gives to each type of customer or user in exchange for money or attention, stated in plain terms rather than marketing language.

Key dependencies

The suppliers, partners, or platform relationships the model depends on, and what happens to the model if any of those change.

Model evolution & experiments

Revenue models that were tried and retired, and what was learned, so the current structure is understood as a choice rather than a given.

Questions to explore

Use these on your own or in a group. There are no right answers, only better conversations.

  1. Can everyone who works here explain, in plain language, how the organization makes money?

  2. Which revenue streams are growing and which are shrinking, and does the documented model reflect that?

  3. What does the organization give to its customers that they could not easily get elsewhere?

  4. Which parts of the business model depend on relationships or agreements that live in one person's head?

  5. What assumptions about pricing, volume, or customer behavior does the current model depend on?

Things to notice

  • Business models tend to be documented at the moment of founding and never updated, even when the actual revenue logic has changed significantly.
  • Organizations with multiple revenue streams often treat them as one model, which makes it harder to evaluate or change any individual part.
  • The informal version of how money actually works, including pricing exceptions and unpublished discounts, often exists nowhere in writing.