book

Competing Against Luck

By Clayton M. Christensen, Taddy Hall, Karen Dillon, and David S. Duncan

1 recommend/use · 1 sourced episode

Every sourced reference

Short attributed excerpts only. Timestamps are approximate.

“competing against luck is a really good intro”

Speaker: Ryan Singer▶ Watch at ~1:41:00approx.

Set the max time you'll spend first, then design a solution that fits it — instead of estimating a concept.

Narrow a fuzzy request down to the specific problem worth solving before you design any solution.

Put product, a senior engineer, and a designer in a room to sketch and break ideas until one is clearly buildable in the appetite.

When a project overruns its appetite, don't extend it or gut the agreed value — pull it back into shaping mode.

Calibrate how prescriptive a shaped plan is to the builder's seniority — more detail lifts juniors, less frees seniors.

At kickoff, have the builders translate the shaped idea into nine-or-fewer implementation chunks to test scope and build clarity.

Spot an error or want this page removed? Request a correction or removal.