The Analysis Lifecycle Map

The Lifecycle map is a visual canvas that brings together all of an analysis’s connected elements - scenarios, decomposition drivers and indicators, and forecasting questions - in a single interactive diagram. It lets you see how your analytical work fits together, trace the relationships between scenarios and the drivers and questions that inform them, and spot what has changed recently.

Accessing the Map

The Lifecycle map is accessible from the Lifecycle link in the analysis navigation sidebar. If the analysis does not yet have any scenarios, a decomposition, or forecasting questions, the page shows an empty state with a prompt to start building out the analysis.

How the Map Is Organized

The canvas is arranged in horizontal layers, reading from top to bottom:

  1. Topic - The analysis topic sits at the top as a single anchor node representing the research question the whole analysis is built around.
  2. Scenarios - The scenarios from the primary scenario set appear in a row beneath the topic. Each scenario card shows its current likelihood label, its rank among siblings (most likely, ranked N of M, or least likely), a trend indicator (↑ or ↓ if likelihood has moved in the past week), and counts of linked drivers, questions, and citations.
  3. Decomposition - Drivers from the primary decomposition appear in a row below the scenarios. Each driver card shows how many indicators it contains and which scenarios it has been linked to.
  4. Forecasting Questions - Forecasting questions associated with the analysis appear at the bottom, showing current probability estimates and recent probability trends.

Edges (lines) connect nodes across layers to show which scenarios are linked to which drivers, and which drivers have indicators connected to which questions. These connections allow you to trace a thread of analytical reasoning from a specific future scenario all the way down to the individual indicator questions that track its probability.

Selecting a Node

Click any node on the canvas to open its detail panel. The panel slides in on the right side and displays everything relevant to that entity:

  • Scenarios - Current likelihood, likelihood trend, AI-generated rationale, written description, detailed narrative, linked drivers, linked forecasting questions, and source citations.
  • Drivers - Indicators, scenarios the driver is linked to, and citation documents.
  • Indicators - The parent driver, connected forecasting questions, and citation documents.
  • Forecasting Questions - Current probability, human and AI forecast breakdown, recent forecast history and rationales, linked scenarios, and resolution information.

Each detail panel includes a link to the full record page so you can review or edit the entity directly.

Filtering the Map

Right-click a scenario, driver, or forecasting question node to activate a filter. The map then dims unrelated nodes and keeps the selected node together with the related elements surfaced by the Lifecycle view for that type of node. A filter banner appears at the bottom of the canvas confirming what is being shown, along with a close button to clear the filter.

This is useful when an analysis has grown large and you want to focus on the relationships surrounding one specific scenario, driver, or forecasting question without visual noise from unrelated nodes.

Recent Changes

If any nodes in the analysis have been created or updated recently, a Recent changes button appears in the zoom panel. Clicking it applies a filter that highlights all recently changed nodes and their immediate connections, making it easy to see what has been updated since your last visit.

Navigating the Canvas

The canvas supports pan and zoom:

  • Pan - Click and drag on any empty area of the canvas to move around.
  • Zoom in / out - Use the − and + buttons in the zoom panel, or double-click a node to zoom toward it.
  • Reset - Returns the zoom level to 100%.
  • Fit - Adjusts the zoom to fit the board width.

Linking Scenarios to Drivers and Questions

The connections on the Lifecycle map reflect explicit links between scenarios and drivers, and between scenarios and forecasting questions. Hinsley creates these links automatically during scenario generation when it identifies which drivers and questions are most relevant to each scenario. You can also manage links manually.

To review or adjust the links for a specific scenario, navigate to the scenario’s detail page and use the Drivers and Forecasting Questions tabs. You can add or remove links from there, and for driver links you can assign a weight (strong, moderate, or weak) that indicates how strongly that driver influences the scenario.