Welcome to the PMSD Tools Directory. Here, you can quickly browse and learn about more than 20 different tools that are used in different parts of the PMSD process. The purpose of the directory is to provide quick access to practitioners who know what they are looking for; or for those curious to learn more.
The tools are drawn from a wide range of sources. Some are adapted from the original PMSD Roadmap. Many have been adapted from the BEAM Exchange and the Springfield Centre.
Overall, the diversity of tools reflects that PMSD is an approach guided by core principles and drawing on a variety of tools that support practitioners.
Below you can find a brief summary of all of the tools in the Directory, including an overview of the nature of the tool, ideal conditions for its use, and a link to the full description and any downloads or templates that come with it.
Read more about the core principles of PMSD and how to use this toolkit.
Market Analysis Tools
Tool |
Description |
When can this be used? |
|---|---|---|
| Market systems selection | A process for prioritising which market systems to focus on for a project. | This can be used in every project, from the project design and proposal writing phase, through to the early inception phase of implementation. |
| Preliminary market mapping | A tool for visualising the key actors and relationships in a market system, and the process for developing the first rough draft of the market map. | This should be used in every project planning to use PMSD or take a systems thinking approach to markets. It is useful both in programme design, and the market analysis phase. It should be used by the project team along with one or two key market actors. |
| Marginalisation analysis | This is an analytical tool for understanding target groups, and the differences in vulnerability and power, and how to include them in the process. | This can be used in the project design stage which needs to understand target groups in order to develop strategy or in early planning stages of implementation. |
| Root cause analysis – Causal loop diagrams | An analytical tool for analysing system dynamics and understanding interconnections between issues/problems. | This can be used in a project which has already gathered information, and is looking to strengthen systemic analysis with formal tools. It can be used in conjunction with market mapping to help market actors dig deeper into issues. |
| Economic analysis – Value chain analysis | These are tools and models for quantifying the size of market segments, and understanding how value is captured along a value chain. | This can be used by a consultant delivering a targeted assignment; or a project needing support to quantify its market analyses. For instance the results of this could be presented during a Participatory Market Mapping exercise to improve the analysis taking place. |
| Sustainability analysis – Who does, who pays | A simple table for understanding roles of different current and future market actors which forms part of the sustainability analysis during intervention design. | This is useful in a project which has some basic information about key market actors, and is looking to deepen its analysis and start thinking about possible visions for change. |
| Engaging key actors | A process for identifying which market actors to focus on and for developing a strategy to engage with them. | This can be used at the early, mid or later stages of a project – whenever engaging with market actors needs to be reconsidered. |
Market Actor Tools
Tool |
Description |
When can this be used? |
|---|---|---|
| Will-skill matrix | A simple table for selecting possible market actor partners based on their capacity and incentive. | When considering different market actor partners to work with in a project. |
| Influence-relevance matrix | A detailed table for analysing the importance of different stakeholders (similar to skill-will matrix). | When considering which market actors provide the most strategic opportunity to engage with in a given project. |
| Business model canvas | A template (“canvas”) that breaks down core elements of any business model into nine components. Some are tangible (e.g. customers, channels, resources), and others are more conceptual (e.g. value proposition). | By a project team in the midst of supporting new business models, to visualise different choices and tradeoffs;
OR By a project in early stages of market analysis, to be more systematic and analytical in understanding current business models of market actors. |
Intervention Tools
Tool |
Description |
When can this be used? |
|---|---|---|
| Participatory Market Mapping | A participatory process for engaging stakeholders to analyse the market together, through the development of a market map. | In projects in which collaboration between market actors is feasible as a route to change, often used in the early stages to help ascertain project direction but can also be used later in a project to assess change and re-motivate actors. |
| Exercises for Market Mapping Workshops | Exercises that help focus participatory market mapping workshops and assist the facilitator steer the process | Before and during participatory market mapping workshops |
| Self Selection | An overall management philosophy that assist in the selection of partners who are committed to change being sought. It is based on the principle that partners only engage when the interventions relate to their own interests. | At any point in a project when interventions are being put into practise and especially where projects have the adaptability to adjust the partners they work with during the project. |
| Facilitation tactics and activities | A set of principles for how to decide which activities to undertake as a facilitator; list of possible activities and the rationale behind each in terms of behaviour change. | In a project which has already undertaken substantial analysis and is looking for guidance on types of PMSD activities it could carry out (especially low-cost ones). |
| Firm-level improvement plan (FLIP) | A simple template for tracking the desired behaviours of a market actor as they relate to the wider market system change. | In a project that is explicitly working with market actors, wanting to experiment with new ways of tracking those partnerships. |
| Business case | General guidance for how to influence a business/market actor to change based on their underlying business case (“what’s in it for them”). | In a project that has identified the businesses it wants to see change their offerings but it is unclear how exactly to ‘pitch’ that change to the business. It is also useful for staff wanting to improve their business acumen. |
| Partnership agreement | Guidance and templates for how to structure a more formal agreement between a PMSD project and a market actor. | In projects providing support to market actors on how to structure formal agreements (MoU, contract or otherwise). |
| Empowerment of marginalised actors | A set of suggested tactics (market literacy, negotiation) for empowering marginalised actors and building their capacity to engage with markets. | In projects looking for new ways to engage and support marginalised actors. This is usually carried prior to participatory market mapping but it can also be used at other points in a project if required. |
| Market Interest Groups (MIGs) | Guidance for a group of market actors working together in a systematic way to improve the inclusivity and performance of the market system. | Typically MIGs are formed during or after a participatory market forum in which market actors have analysed the market systems together using market mapping and come to conclusions about priorities for development. |
Monitoring Tools
Tool |
Description |
When can this be used? |
|---|---|---|
| Theory of Change | A project level statement of the high-level links between project activities, market actor behaviour changes, market system changes and impacts on target groups. | During the early stage of framing project strategy, or at a mid-point review where strategy is changed and there is desire for an explicit Theory of Change. |
| Results Chains | A tool for mapping out the assumed links between a specific intervention and its ultimate behaviour change and system change impacts. It can be used as a management tool. | In a project with solid M&E capacity and a desire to use results chains for all/some of its interventions. |
| Adopt Adapt Expand Respond (AAER) | A systemic change framework that helps projects think about a sequence of interventions and desired changes in a wider market system. | In a project that aims for wider systemic change beyond the target group that has made some progress within initial interventions/models and is interested in exploring how ‘scaling up’ or ‘crowding in’ could work and looking for a framework to structure that thinking. |