The Quest Tree is our renamed version of the Objective Tree used in Project Cycle Management. We keep the same method, but swap the word “objective” for “quest” because it is easier to picture: a quest is something you can walk toward, with steps, obstacles, helpers, and a sense of progress, rather than a managerial noun that lives in a spreadsheet - wikis.ec.europa.eu 
# Why rename it
Objective Tree is accurate but abstract. Quest Tree is vivid: it invites people to imagine a shared journey from the current problem world into a better future world, and it makes the conversation feel less like compliance and more like collective agency, while still producing the same PCM artefact that can feed into a logframe or plan - ec.europa.eu
The rename is also a small accessibility hack. In workshops, people often understand the method immediately, but stumble over the vocabulary. “Quest” lowers the cognitive barrier, especially for community groups, artists, youth groups, and anyone who did not volunteer to become fluent in donor dialect.
# What it is
A Quest Tree is a diagram of a future situation in which the problems have been remedied, arranged so you can see “means to ends” relationships. In standard PCM language, it is the “positive interface” of the Problem Tree: each negative problem statement is rewritten as a positive desired condition, and the causal chains become progress chains - fao.org
If the Problem Tree is the diagnosis, the Quest Tree is the shared vision that is still grounded in the diagnosis.
# The flip from Problem to Quest
The practical move is simple: turn each problem statement into a quest statement by rewriting it in positive form. “Women cannot access financial services” becomes “Women have access to financial services”, and so on. Once flipped, you reorder the cards until the tree reads as a plausible ladder of means leading to higher ends - learn.tearfund.org
This is where a group quietly reveals what it believes about the world. The tree is not just aspiration; it is a claim about what changes lead to what other changes.
# How to read a Quest Tree
Read it from the bottom upward.
Lower branches are “quests we can undertake” (practical enabling conditions that we might influence directly).
Middle nodes are “milestone quests” (conditions that are still close enough to our actions to be believable).
Upper nodes are “the big quest” (the higher-level ends we care about, and that our work can realistically contribute to, rather than single-handedly deliver).
In PCM terms, this is simply the means–ends logic of an objective tree, but the quest framing helps people narrate it as a shared path rather than a hierarchy of nouns - ec.europa.eu
# How to build one in a workshop
Start with the finished Problem Tree on a wall, because the Quest Tree is derived from it, not invented in a vacuum - wikis.ec.europa.eu
Rewrite each problem card into a positive “quest condition”, keeping it concrete and observable.
Lay the quest cards out and rebuild the structure so the logic reads: “If we achieve these enabling quests, then these milestones become possible, and that contributes to the bigger quest.”
Challenge the links, not the people. The key question is not “do we like this quest”, but “does this quest plausibly enable that quest.”
Make peace with choice. A Quest Tree often contains more desirable futures than any single project can pursue, so the group must choose a strategy, not just admire the tree.
# Feed the logframe without killing the magic
The Quest Tree is allowed to be inspiring, but it must still be usable. In conventional PCM, the objective tree is used as raw material to select a strategy and then populate the logframe: chosen quests become outcomes and outputs, and the “how we get there” chain becomes activities. The quest language does not change this; it just makes the earlier thinking clearer and more memorable - ec.europa.eu
A practical trick is to keep both names in view. In the room, say Quest Tree. In the funding form, write Objective Tree, and note (to yourselves) that you are translating, not surrendering.
# What the Quest Tree is not
It is not a to-do list. If your “quests” are actually activities (“run a workshop”, “build a website”), you have jumped a level. Quests are conditions in the world, not tasks in your calendar.
It is not a fantasy map. If the top of the tree requires miracles, the lower quests will feel hollow. PCM expects the tree to be a simplified but robust summary of a plausible future, not a wish catalogue - fao.org
It is not consensus theatre. If there are competing theories of change, you can sketch alternative branches and treat them as hypotheses to test, rather than forcing false agreement.
# See - Project Cycle Management - Problem Tree - Questing and the Quest Tree Workshop - Hitchhiker Quest - Logical Framework Approach - Theory of Change - Dragons of Change