Abstract In this article, we describe some recent results on the hybridization methods for the analysis of nonlinear systems. The main idea of our hybridization approach is to apply the hybrid systems methodology as a systematic approximation method. More concretely, we partition the state space of a complex system into regions that only intersect on their boundaries, and then approximate its dynamics in each region by a simpler one. Then, the resulting hybrid system, which we call a hybridization, is used to yield approximate analysis results for the original system. We also prove important properties of the hybridization, and propose two effective hybridization construction methods, which allow approximating the original nonlinear system with a good convergence rate.