Reverse Engineering to Build Openness
Two reverse-engineering habits that let a conscientious brain manufacture the openness it lacks
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 3
- Confidence
- 82%
For people naturally low in openness, LaPointe prescribes an obsession with reverse engineering as the practical route to more open, situationally-aware thinking. It has two forms: reverse-engineering backward from a desired outcome to find the true inputs, and reverse-engineering feedback backward from the intended outcome you want in the other person. A third leg is deliberately loading enough situational awareness to make good decisions about people you never talk to.
Origin
Evan LaPointe / CORE Sciences, offered as the single best exercise for a conscientious person to feel more open.
Core principles
- 01A conscientious brain resists open exploration but excels at deconstruction, so channel openness through structured reverse engineering
- 02Work backward from the outcome you want to choose the actions most likely to increase its probability
- 03Harshness in feedback measurably reduces the probability of the intended outcome, so the delivery must be reverse-engineered from the outcome
- 04Situational awareness is an input you can deliberately stuff into your brain without a full 'world tour'
How to run it
- 1
Reverse-engineer against the desired outcome
State the outcome you want (win a market, ship a feature) and deconstruct the real inputs that generate it, then build strategy to attack the most relevant inputs.
Pro tip Do this at both big scale (what truly wins this market) and micro scale (what specific inputs produce this result).
- 2
Reverse-engineer feedback from the intended change
Before giving feedback, define the exact change you want in the person, then design the story arc of the message to maximize the probability of that change instead of just discharging your opinion.
Pro tip Ask 'what could I do right now to increment and set the stage for a big shift over time that they are bought into,' rather than making the point bluntly.
Watch out Impolite, harsh delivery activates the safety system, producing optics-based compliance that can take six months instead of six minutes to act on.
- 3
Deliberately load situational awareness
Stuff enough real-world context into your brain (e.g. talk to more than five customers) that the daily decisions affecting people you never speak to actually account for them.
Pro tip Think of it like knowing your flight conditions before you fly; without situational awareness you cannot tell if a strategy like PLG is even viable for your business.
Watch out Executives who skip this make confident decisions that are 'super disconnected from reality,' e.g. betting on PLG for a hyper-technical product that can never self-serve.
In the wild
LaPointe describes leadership teams obsessed with product-led growth who, lacking situational-awareness work, don't realize their hyper-technical solution or their customers' budgeting process makes self-serve signup impossible.
→ Company after company pursues a strategy that was never viable because no one reverse-engineered the actual conditions.
Common mistakes
Discharging feedback without an intended outcome
Delivering blunt, harsh feedback discharges your view but reduces the probability of the change you actually wanted, because harshness triggers the safety system.
Skipping situational awareness because you're busy
'I don't have time to talk to customers' leads to daily decisions that ignore the very people they affect, disconnecting strategy from reality.
Is it for you?
Best for
Highly conscientious, low-openness leaders who want a concrete practice to make better, more creative decisions
Not ideal for
People who already immerse deeply in customer reality and generate abundant alternatives
From the transcript
“the best exercise for a conscientious person especially to feel more open is to become obsessed with reverse engineering”
“number one it would be reverse engineering against a a desired outcome to truly understand the inputs that generate that outcome”
“the second thing to understand about openness in reverse engineering is just situational awareness”
“I'm asking you to stuff into your brain enough situational awareness that the decisions you make every day that affect all those people you're not…”
From the episode
Improve strategy, influence, and decision-making by understanding your brain
Evan LaPointe (founder of CORE Sciences)