Find the Loops Available to You
Even when told exactly what to build, you can still run most of the product loop.
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 91%
Cutler's answer to PMs stuck in slow, waterfall, top-down companies who say they cannot practise product management. His claim: you consistently underestimate what loops are available to you. Even when an executive dictates the feature, you can still write the one-pager, articulate the alternatives you didn't take, agree observable success criteria, and document assumptions and risks — going through the motions and building a real portfolio of practice instead of a two-year blur you can only shrug about in your next interview.
Origin
Cutler's own advice, developed from mentoring PMs in large transforming companies. He frames it as an antidote to the fundamental attribution bias where employees of big companies overestimate systemic drag and underestimate what is possible.
Core principles
- 01Throwing up your hands is a choice, and it costs you your own development, not just the company's.
- 02The loop is decomposable — you can run stages of it even when the 'what to build' decision is taken from you.
- 03Some people genuinely cannot leave their company; that constrains exit, not effort.
- 04Write your portfolio as you go, because in two years it will all read as a blur.
How to run it
- 1
Accept the dictated option, then write the one-pager anyway
When leadership says build X, treat X as the selected option and write the one-pager that would have existed had X been one of five options. You get the analysis reps without fighting the decision.
Pro tip Framing it as 'selected option is X' rather than 'X was wrong' keeps the exercise politically safe.
- 2
Go to the executive and agree observable success criteria
Say: I know you've told me to build this — what would we observe if this was working versus not working? I'm here to help you with that. Now you have metrics.
Pro tip Positioning yourself as helping the executive succeed at their own decision is what makes this land rather than read as insubordination.
- 3
Document the assumptions and risks regardless
Even if you are told to forget all that and just build the thing, nothing stops you writing down every assumption and risk you can see. You have gone through the motions and the artefact exists.
- 4
Nudge one thing at a time
Don't attempt transformation. Nudge — just one little thing per cycle. The environment is stultifying; the answer is incremental leverage, not a crusade.
Watch out Attempting to install a whole methodology in a hostile environment is how PMs burn credibility and then conclude nothing was possible.
- 5
Write your portfolio as you go
Capture the reps as you accumulate them. Otherwise, at the next job opportunity, all you can do is shrug and say you worked in a messed-up company — which honours neither the company nor yourself.
In the wild
An executive dictates a feature with no discovery. Instead of complying silently, the PM writes the one-pager as if X had been one of five options, then asks the executive what they would observe if X were working versus not working.
→ The PM ends up with success metrics, a documented alternatives analysis, and a risk register — most of the loop — without ever contesting the decision.
Cutler contrasts the PM who documented reps as they went with the one who waits two years and then can only say 'I worked at a messed-up company' in an interview.
→ The first has a portfolio; the second has nothing to show, and Cutler notes that isn't honouring yourself.
Common mistakes
Overestimating systemic drag
Cutler's fundamental-attribution-bias point cuts both ways: people at high performers underestimate how much luck and inertia carried them, and people at big companies overestimate the systemic drag in their organisation while underestimating what is possible.
Waiting for permission to practise
PMs treat 'the company won't let me do discovery' as the end of the conversation. Almost every stage of the loop except the go/no-go decision remains available without anyone's permission.
Is it for you?
Best for
Product managers in top-down, waterfall, or slow-moving companies who feel they cannot practise the craft.
Not ideal for
PMs at companies that already run fast loops — this is a workaround for constraint, not an operating model.
From the transcript
“you often underestimate what Loops are available to you in that company”
“even if like someone from on high says build X you can at least say you know what uh selected option is X what would…”
“almost like write your portfolio as you go because if you wait two years you're gonna think it was just all a blur”
From the episode
What differentiates the highest-performing product teams
John Cutler (Amplitude, The Beautiful Mess)