StrategEase tool
StrategEase is a free, interactive tool developed to help practitioners and researchers select change strategies. It guides you through a structured mapping process — linking barriers and facilitators to theories and frameworks — so you can identify strategies that are grounded in evidence and tailored to your context. StrategEase is available in two versions to meet you where you are.
Foundational tool
Designed for practitioners who are new to implementation planning or working at the individual level. Using COM-B and intervention functions as its foundation, this version walks you through a straightforward mapping process from TDF domains to change strategies.
Advanced tool
Designed for practitioners and teams ready to work across multiple levels of the system. This version expands on the Foundational tool with support for both individual and contextual strategies, additional frameworks, and a more comprehensive mapping process.
How the tool was developed
StrategEase began as a paper-based process and evolved into a free online tool, first launched in 2022. As we gathered feedback from practitioners, it became clear that a single version couldn't serve everyone equally well — those new to implementation needed a streamlined entry point, while more experienced teams needed a tool that could match the complexity of their work.
StrategEase 2.0: Advanced tool builds on the foundations of the original tool, expanding its scope to include contextual-level strategies and drawing on a broader set of implementation frameworks, including the Context Compass Framework (CCF).
Acknowledgements
We would like to acknowledge and thank the researchers who have developed the theories, frameworks, and approaches that have contributed to the development of this tool. Without their amazing efforts, this tool would not have been possible.
Theoretical foundation
We would like to give special thanks to the University College London Centre for Behaviour Change. Their work on the Theoretical Domains Framework, the COM-B, and intervention functions serves as the foundation for this tool. The contextual factors for the Context Compass Framework were drawn from the scoping review "Context matters in implementation science: a scoping review of determinant frameworks that describe contextual determinants for implementation outcomes" by Nilsen and colleagues.
Contextual frameworks
We would like to give special thanks to the researchers who developed contextual frameworks, like the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research, the EPIS framework, and PRISM.
Change strategies
The change strategies offered in this tool have been drawn from a combination of the Expert Recommendations for Implementing Change (ERIC) strategies, the EPOC taxonomy, behaviour change techniques, intervention mapping, and crowdsourcing activities with implementation practitioners.
Continue learning
Ready to go deeper? Our online courses are designed to guide you through the mapping process step by step.