Never heard of it?
It's a concept used by market research company, WhyFive, to ask the right questions that will provide meaningful insights.
In this case, the online shopping patterns of South Africans were analysed for emerce commerce - a company which builds full-house digital retail platforms - and the findings were presented to a group of its existing and potential clients at a presentation in Cape Town recently.
The Rumsfeld Matrix is based on a quote by American politician, Donald Rumsfeld.
"There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don't know we don't know."
Considering Rumsfeld managed to persuade the entire world to go to war on the premise that there were threats in the desert that we don't know we don't know about, it's a concept that seems to have merit, explains Brandon de Kock, Director of Storytelling at WhyFive.
Applying the Rumsfeld Matrix, WhyFive quizzed 24,500 people who were economically active and with access to the internet on their online shopping habits, and, here's what they came up with...
"We know that mobile is the fastest growing platform and is going to take over the world," says De Kock.
The data collected seems to bear this out, with 22% of all the respondents answering the survey using a smartphone.
Another question asked was: How many of the respondents made purchases using their phone? A total of 47% said they had, the majority of which were in the 16 to 24 age group.
"Perhaps it is time to reframe this important known known. Consumers are becoming increasingly device agnostic and retailers need to satisfy all their needs," De Kock says. Phones are being used as tablets and tablets are being used as phones, so online retailers have to be accessible from any platform.
This is the stuff we think we know - otherwise known as the educated guess.
The assumption is that the people who buy online are white and rich, which was borne out to be largely true by the survey. But when asked what they buy online, an interesting insight emerged, 46% of the online buying was books and only 6% was groceries.
"So people do want to buy online, but not all goods are created equal," De Kock points out.
These are the things that you know you don't know, or as De Kock puts it: "We know what we are doing, but what the hell are our competitors up to?
"We can't rely on mystery shoppers or unsolicited insights, and the question to be asked is: Who is best at getting the shoppers to visit their stores?"
Or the stuff you never thought of.
"We only ever see the world from our own perspective, so are the 'black swans' of research able to instantly erase a known known?" asks De Kock.
The assumption is that black consumers don't shop online, but the survey showed this not to be necessarily true. Their buying patterns are just different, and most of their buying online is from stores such as Dion Wired or Makro and other retailers with a physical store.
"What if mortar and clicks is as important as clicks and mortar?" De Kock asks.
He points that many online retailers are starting to cotton on to this phenomenon.
For example, Amazon opened pop-up stores in shopping malls last year, where consumers could 'test drive' new products. A number of fashion retailers have used the same concept with customers going into the pop-up store to try on clothes or shoes and then buying them online.
While WhyFive provides 'the what' and 'why' of e-commerce, emerce commerce provides 'the how' in terms of constructing online platforms. Matt Roux, Chief Technology Officer, walked the audience through how they do it to meet a client's needs, whether they are starting online retailing from scratch or want to enhance their existing platforms.
To find out more, visit www.emercecommerce.com or www.whyfive.co.za.
