High Agency Model
Own the outcome, execute creatively, and persist through adversity
- Difficulty
- Advanced
- Time to result
- ~ongoing to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 92%
High agency is the ability to find a way to achieve an outcome without waiting for perfect conditions or blaming circumstances. Doshi breaks the trait into three reinforcing components. Ownership makes the person responsible for moving the result rather than merely describing the obstacle. Creative execution searches for workable paths through adverse conditions and sometimes changes those conditions directly. Resilience keeps the effort alive when the obvious path fails. Doshi observed that these qualities often explained why some product managers produced impact far beyond what their credentials suggested, while others with strong potential remained below it. The model is especially relevant to product management because the job routinely includes insufficient resources, legacy infrastructure, staffing issues, and customer problems. It turns agency from a vague personality judgment into observable behavior that can guide self-review, coaching, and hiring discussions.
Origin
Doshi credits Eric Weinstein with coining the term high agency. The phrase matched a concept Doshi had carried for years, and his observations of product managers led him to articulate ownership, creative execution, and resilience as the components that distinguish surprising impact from unrealized potential.
Core principles
- 01Conditions do not need to be perfect before action begins
- 02Ownership focuses attention on the outcome rather than the excuse
- 03Creative execution finds or creates a path through constraints
- 04Resilience sustains action after the first path fails
- 05Agency can make practical impact exceed credentials or apparent potential
How to run it
- 1
Own a specific outcome
Define the result you will take responsibility for changing. Shift from reporting why the environment is difficult to asking what action remains available.
Pro tip Phrase the responsibility as an outcome, not a list of assigned tasks.
Watch out Ownership does not mean pretending every external condition is under your control.
- 2
Accept current conditions as inputs
Name resource, infrastructure, staffing, and customer constraints accurately without making perfect conditions a prerequisite for progress. Distinguish a real boundary from an assumed dependency.
Pro tip Ask which condition can be worked around and which can be changed.
Watch out Agency is not denial; ignoring a genuine constraint can waste effort or create harm.
- 3
Execute creatively through constraints
Generate multiple paths to the outcome, including paths that reverse an adverse condition. Choose the strongest feasible route and act before certainty is complete.
Pro tip Look beyond the standard process when the standard process assumes resources you do not have.
Watch out Creative execution still has to respect organizational and ethical boundaries.
- 4
Persist and adapt
When the first route fails, use the evidence to change the approach rather than surrendering ownership. Continue while the goal remains valid and a credible path exists.
Pro tip Treat resistance as information about the route, not immediate proof that the outcome is impossible.
Watch out Resilience should not become stubbornness after evidence invalidates the goal.
- 5
Review agency as behavior
Evaluate whether you owned the result, created options, and adapted under pressure. Coach those behaviors directly instead of labeling someone as naturally high or low agency.
Pro tip Compare observed impact with the constraints and support available, not only with credentials.
Watch out Do not use 'low agency' to excuse weak leadership, missing resources, or structural dysfunction.
In the wild
A PM cannot secure a full infrastructure rewrite before a customer launch. Instead of waiting, the PM owns the reliability outcome, works with engineers to isolate the riskiest dependency, narrows the initial launch, creates monitoring, and prepares a rollback. When the first rollout plan fails a load test, the team adapts the sequence rather than abandoning the outcome.
→ Ownership, creative execution, and resilience produce responsible progress despite imperfect conditions.
Doshi observed PMs whose on-paper capabilities suggested modest expectations but who took strong ownership, creatively worked through disadvantages, and remained resilient. He also saw highly credentialed PMs with substantial potential fail to approach it when those behaviors were absent.
→ High-agency behavior helps explain surprising positive impact better than credentials alone.
Common mistakes
Waiting for perfect conditions
Product work always contains resource, infrastructure, staffing, and customer constraints. Making their removal a prerequisite surrenders the available agency.
Confusing ownership with control
You can own the effort and outcome without controlling every variable. The model asks for responsible action within reality, not omnipotence.
Turning resilience into blind persistence
Persist through adversity while the goal and path remain credible. Stop or change direction when evidence, authority, or boundaries make the current course invalid.
Is it for you?
Best for
Product managers and leaders operating with scarce resources, legacy systems, staffing problems, or other persistent constraints.
Not ideal for
Situations where persistence would violate a hard boundary, ignore decisive contrary evidence, or require authority the person does not have.
From the episode
Shreyas Doshi on pre-mortems, the LNO framework, the three levels of product work, why most execution problems are strategy problems, and ROI vs. opportunity cost thinking