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Business & Strategy

Triage

Model #0654Category: Business & StrategyDepth to apply:

By Updated 3 sources

4 min read

Contents

  1. 1. Core Idea
  2. 2. How to See It
  3. 3. How to Use It
  4. 4. Founders & Leaders
  5. 5. Connected Models
  6. 6. One Key Quote
  7. 7. Summary & Further Reading
Business & Strategy
Section 1

Core Idea

Triage is sorting items (tasks, opportunities, customers) by urgency and impact so you allocate limited resources to what matters most. It comes from emergency medicine: not everyone can be saved first. The core idea: you can't do everything. Explicitly rank by criteria — urgency, impact, feasibility — and commit to the top tier; deprioritise or drop the rest. Build and scale by triaging continuously so effort goes to the highest-leverage work.

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Section 2

How to See It

Operations & Support
You're seeing Triage when incoming work (tickets, requests) is sorted into "do now," "do later," or "don't do" so the team focuses on the critical path. Without triage, everything feels urgent and the wrong things get done.
Strategy
You're seeing Triage when the roadmap or initiative list is explicitly ranked and the bottom items are cut or deferred. "We're not doing that this year" is triage. So is "this customer gets priority."
Resource Allocation
You're seeing Triage when time, budget, or people are assigned by priority tier — e.g. "top 5 accounts get dedicated CSM; rest get pooled support." Triage makes the allocation rule explicit.
Section 3

How to Use It

Define criteria (e.g. impact × urgency, or strategic fit). Sort everything into tiers: must do, should do, could do, won't do. Allocate resources to the top tier; don't spread thin across all tiers. Re-triage when new items arrive or conditions change. Accept that some things will be consciously not done.
Decision filter
"Have we triaged? If we're treating everything as priority, we haven't. What's in the top tier — and what are we explicitly not doing or deferring? If we can't name what we're saying no to, we haven't really triaged."
As a founder
Triage the backlog, the roadmap, and the customer list. Use simple criteria (e.g. impact and urgency) and put the top 10–20% in "do first"; the rest get "later" or "no." Assign people and time to the top tier. Re-triage in a regular cadence so new opportunities don't crowd out focus. Saying no is the output of triage.
Section 5

Founders & Leaders

Sheryl SandbergFormer COO, Meta; founder, Lean In
Sandberg has spoken about prioritisation and "ruthless prioritisation" at scale — deciding what gets resources and what doesn't when you can't do everything. She applied triage at Meta (and Google) to product, growth, and ops. Founders can apply this by making triage explicit: rank by criteria, resource the top tier, and communicate what's in and what's out so the organisation doesn't dilute effort.
Section 7

Connected Models

Reinforces
Eisenhower Decision Matrix
Eisenhower sorts by urgent/important. Triage is the same idea applied to a list: rank by criteria, then do the top first. Use Eisenhower for individual tasks; triage for backlogs and portfolios.
Reinforces
80/20 Rule (Pareto)
Pareto says a minority of items drive most of the outcome. Triage finds that minority — the top tier — and focuses there. Don't spread effort evenly; triage so 80% of effort goes to the 20% that matters.
Tension
Opportunity Cost
Opportunity cost is what you give up. Triage makes it explicit: by choosing the top tier, you're giving up the rest. Accept the cost; don't pretend you can do it all.
Section 8

One Key Quote

"If it isn't a clear yes, then it's a clear no."
— Greg McKeown, Essentialism (2014)
Section 11

Summary & Further Reading

Triage is sorting by priority so limited resources go to what matters most. Rank by impact and urgency; commit to the top tier and deprioritise or drop the rest. Re-triage regularly; saying no is the point.
01
Essentialism — Greg McKeown (2014)
Book
Disciplined pursuit of less; prioritisation and saying no.
02
The Effective Executive — Peter Drucker (1967)
Book
Focus on contribution and doing the right things; triage at the executive level.
03
Lean In — Sheryl Sandberg (2013)
Book
Sandberg on prioritisation, trade-offs, and resource allocation in career and leadership.

Why this matters next

mental modelsLeverage

Triage applied the Leverage mental model

mental modelsTrade-offs

Triage applied the Trade-offs mental model

mental modelsScale

Triage applied the Scale mental model

mental modelsCost

Triage applied the Cost mental model

mental modelsOpportunity Cost

Triage applied the Opportunity Cost mental model

mental modelsEisenhower Decision Matrix

Triage applied the Eisenhower Decision Matrix mental model

Frequently asked questions

What is Triage?

Triage is a mental model used for better thinking and decision-making.

How do you apply Triage?

To apply Triage, identify situations where this framework is relevant, then use it as a lens to evaluate your options and decisions. The model is most useful when combined with other complementary mental models.

What category does Triage fall under?

Triage falls under the Business & Strategy category of mental models. Other models in this category can be found on the Business & Strategy hub page.

Why is Triage important?

Triage is important because it provides a structured way to think about problems that would otherwise be approached with intuition alone. Understanding this model helps you avoid common reasoning errors and make better decisions.

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