Hello Reader,

February 1, 2003. Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated over Texas during reentry. Seven astronauts die. NASA investigators later traced the failure to a foam strike during launch (a piece of insulation that hit the wing at 500 mph).

Engineers knew about the strike. They analyzed it. They presented their findings to management sixteen days before the disaster. Their slide said: "Review of test data indicates conservatism for tile penetration." Management saw no red flags. The meeting moved on.

The Columbia Accident Investigation Board later wrote: "It is difficult to understand why this slide was presented and why its conclusion was not challenged." The engineers had the right information. They buried it under jargon, presented technical criteria before establishing threat, and answered questions nobody knew to ask.

That slide is now a case study in communication failure. Not because the thinking was wrong. Because the structure made the thinking invisible.

You do this, too. You start with your solution before people understand the problem. You front-load context before creating any reason to care. You present answers to questions your audience isn't asking. Then you blame them for not getting it.

That's the SCQA Model: Situation, Complication, Question, Answer. It's about earning attention by structuring information in a way that aligns with how minds naturally process it. This mental model is part of Re:Mind, my toolkit for clearer thinking. Understanding SCQA is about making your thinking implementable, rather than ignored.

Why Use It

SCQA mirrors how humans naturally process new information. We need context to understand disruption. We need to feel tension before we care about resolution. Skip a step, and comprehension breaks.

Barbara Minto studied this at McKinsey. She found that executives retained information structured as Situation → Complication → Question → Answer, but lost the thread when consultants jumped straight to recommendations. The sequence isn't arbitrary. It's how attention and understanding build.

The Columbia engineers violated this. Their slide opened with: "Review of test data indicates conservatism for tile penetration." Management needed the Situation first: "Columbia is operating normally in orbit." Then the Complication: "A foam strike occurred during launch that was larger than anything in our test database." Then the Question: "Could this strike have caused critical damage?" Then the Answer: "We need imagery to assess the risk."

Instead, they buried the threat in technical jargon. Decision-makers couldn't follow the logic because the logic was presented out of order.

You need this model when your thinking is sound but your communication fails to land.

When to Use It

Deploy SCQA when you're about to present something important to people who don't yet know why they should care.

You're proposing a strategic shift. Don't start with your recommendation. Start with the Situation (current state), then the Complication (what changed or broke), then the Question (what needs solving), then your Answer.

You're writing an executive summary. Readers should understand the problem before you present the solution. Situation establishes baseline. Complication creates urgency. Question focuses attention. Answer delivers.

Someone keeps interrupting your presentations. You're probably starting with Answer. They don't have the context to understand why your solution matters. SCQA forces you to earn their attention first.

How to Use It

Before your next important communication, structure it as four sequential beats.

Situation: What's the agreed-upon baseline? What do we all know to be true right now? Keep this brief—you're just establishing shared reality.

Complication: What changed? What broke? What's creating tension or risk? This is where you earn attention by showing that the stable situation now has a problem.

Question: What decision does this complication force? Sometimes you state this explicitly. Sometimes it's implied. But make sure you know what question your Answer is addressing.

Answer: Present your solution, insight, or recommendation. Now people have the context and tension to understand why it matters.

Reverse-engineer this on failed communications. Take a presentation that didn't land. Did you start with Answer? Map backwards: What Complication created the need for that Answer? What Situation established the baseline before the Complication? Notice how much clearer the logic becomes when you present it in order.

Next Steps

Take something you need to communicate this week—a proposal, an email, a presentation. Before you draft it, write out four sentences:

• Situation: [established baseline]
• Complication: [what changed/broke]
• Question: [what needs solving]
• Answer: [your solution]

Don't write anything else until those four points are clear. Then build your communication around that sequence. Notice how much easier it is to write, and how much clearer the result becomes.

Where It Came From

Barbara Minto developed SCQA at McKinsey in the 1970s and codified it in "The Pyramid Principle." She observed that brilliant consultants often failed to land recommendations because they violated the natural sequence of understanding. The framework drew from Aristotelian logic, but added the critical insight that establishing tension (Complication) is what creates receptivity to solutions. The model became foundational in consulting because it solved a persistent problem: smart people talking past each other, not because of what they said, but how they sequenced it.

Until next time, keep questioning. Your mind is the last territory you truly control.

Think Independently, JC

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