Concentric Capability Model
A concentric capability model — one subject, three rings, four sectors — where depth means prerequisite rather than decoration. Six fields.
We made two examples: a library read outward from its files to its direction, and a harbour read outward from the water to the season. In both, each layer name sits on its own ring and the four wedges reach from centre to rim, so either one can be read around or outward.
Each layer name sits on its own ring at the same position, inner to outer, so depth is clear at a glance. Read any wedge outward and it tells one story where each step needs the one before: saved screens, then copied into work, then house style. Check that every label landed on its own ring. If the names end up scattered, the rings still look good but no longer say which layer is which.
Generated for this library
Input
Centre VIBARY
Rings FOUNDATION - what exists · PRACTICE - how it gets
used · DIRECTION - where it is going
Sectors PATTERNS · MOTION · PALETTES · PROMPTS
Cells one short phrase per sector per ring
Colours indigo, sage, clay, slate - all pale
Labels each on its own ring, at the top, running outward
Returned 1 diagram · 1:1 · white ground, pale sectors
rings three, each carrying exactly one layer name, the
names reading FOUNDATION then PRACTICE then
DIRECTION from the middle outward
depth each ring holding what the ring outside it needs -
the saved screens before the copying before the
house style
sectors four wedges holding their colour and their subject
from the centre to the rim
centre one white disc, the name in heavy caps
cells one short phrase each, keyword length, never a
sentenceYou fill in 6 fields — the braced lines at the top. Everything below them is fixed.
- 1The centre
- 2The three rings, inner to outer
- 3The four sectors
- 4What sits in each cell
- 5The sector colours
- 6The ring labels' placement
Concentric Capability Model
What this makes
A concentric capability model — one subject, three rings, four sectors — where depth means prerequisite rather than decoration. Six fields.
Produce ONE image, 1:1 square: a concentric capability model. Follow
The whole template, in one piece. The steps below are the entire workflow.
How to use it
- Copy the whole template with the button above.
- Replace the six FIELDS lines. Write the rings as a dependency chain — each one needing the ring inside it — rather than as three synonyms for importance.
- Paste it into any image-capable agent or model, in one message. One run returns the diagram.
- Check the ring labels before shipping: each should sit on its own ring, in order outward. A layer name floating on the wrong ring makes the whole depth unreadable.
What you swap
- The centre
- VIBARY
- The three rings, inner to outer
- FOUNDATION — what exists · PRACTICE — how it gets used · DIRECTION — where it is going
- The four sectors
- PATTERNS · MOTION · PALETTES · PROMPTS
- What sits in each cell
- PATTERNS: the saved screens / how they get copied / which ones become house style · MOTION: the curves / how they get reused / what the library moves like
- The sector colours
- indigo, sage, clay, slate — all pale
- The ring labels' placement
- each on its own ring, at the top, running outward
Before it runs
- Layers with a real dependency between them. If the outer ring could exist without the inner, the rings are stripes and the diagram should be a list.
- Sectors that survive all the way out. Each wedge must have something true to say at every depth, or it will be padded at one ring.
- A subject worth a centre. The middle of this diagram is the most emphatic spot on the page and a vague label wastes it.
When to reach for it
When something is built in layers: a capability model, a curriculum, a platform, a practice. Templates in this style draw beautiful rings and then scatter the layer names around the circle, so a reader cannot tell which ring is which layer or why anything sits where it does.
What changes
- One calm concentric diagram: a named centre, three rings, four sectors, soft sector colours.
- Each layer name labelling exactly one ring, running inner to outer in order, so depth is readable at a glance.
- Inner rings holding what the outer rings depend on, which is the only thing that makes concentric geometry mean anything.
- Four sectors that stay the same sector all the way out, so a wedge can be read from centre to rim as one story.
- Content taken strictly from the fields, since a model like this reads as somebody's actual framework.
Pairs with
- Converging Causes DiagramA convergence diagram — several causes funnelling into one hub and out to its effects — governed by the rule that keeps such a diagram true rather than merely tidy. Six fields.
- Exploded Axonometric DiagramAn exploded axonometric that pulls one site apart into stacked transparent layers — kept on white and kept analytical, because the temptation is to render it dramatic and lose the drawing. Six fields.
- Iceberg Analysis DiagramAn iceberg diagram — visible symptoms above the waterline, the causes that produce them below — where every symptom is traced to a named cause instead of the two halves being separate lists. Six fields.