Introduced in 2015, the SYK model has become a paradigm of strong correlations and many body quantum chaos. It displays various features characteristic of non Fermi liquid quantum matter, including the absence of a Fermi surface, strange metallic transport behavior, and anomalous power laws in correlation functions. Remarkably, all these features are amenable to analytic description in terms of a simple effective low energy theory. The combination of these features makes the SYK model a promising ‘Lego brick’ for the phenomenological modeling of strongly correlated phases. In this talk, we will discuss the principles of this approach, and its application on the example of two case studies: an array of coupled SYK cells, and a single SYK dot coupled to leads.