We present a descriptive model for systems with adaptation or personalization. Although adaptation and personalization may co-exist, additional possibilities include adaptation without personalization or personalization without adaptation. This is explored in QMAP, a quadrant model for adaptation and personalization. The model is a 2D visual space with four quadrants organized along one axis for adaptation (no/yes) and another axis for personalization (no/yes). Examples are offered for each quadrant. We argue that descriptive models like QMAP are tools for thinking, enabling novel perspectives about a problem space and the possibilities within. An extension to QMAP subdivides each quadrant according to the time span of the user history or sensorimotor feedback loop that guides adaptation or personalization. For this, we use Newell’s time scale of human action where processes are positioned in bands according their duration.