Which product is right for you?

Rationale™ and bCisive™ are based on a common core: using visual mapping techniques for improving reasoning and structuring thinking. Both tools are very valuable for making sense of complexity. However, they are distinct products with different feature sets.

Rationale is primarily an educational tool, focusing on rigorous reasoning and argument, and honing students’ critical thinking skills. It is particularly useful for developing arguments and for finding the answer to closed questions: is it true? Can this work? Is X guilty?

bCisive is intended for the professional or workplace market and is oriented towards business decision making. You’ll find stronger support for formatting of maps and for communicating with others, and a lot of work has gone into making it extremely easy to use. It’s ideal for bringing clarity to open questions: what can we do to increase revenue? How can we deal with the challenge of X?

If you are interested in teaching or learning the fundamentals of reasoning and critical thinking, Rationale is the tool for you. If your main interest is using a mapping tool specifically for decisions, you will love the flexibility of bCisive.

Product comparison
Which tool is better suited for…? bCisive Rationale
Use in the workplace
Use by students and teachers
Making sense of complexity
Visualizing your thinking and reasoning
Finding the answer to closed questions
Exploring open questions
Business decision making
Making a recommendation
Teaching reasoning and critical thinking
Collaboration and sharing your thinking
Discovering assumptions and holes in your logic
Laying out the options, pros and cons, and evidence for a decision
Rigorous examination of reasoning supporting or challenging a contention
Improving workplace productivity
Summarizing your decision rationale
Learning to plan essays
Improving workplace knowledge management