Stable Diffusion

Autonomy at the VP Level

Place decision autonomy at the VP layer — not the leaves, not the top — to maximize thinking without producing chaos.

Centralized vs. Decentralized Org Choice

Pick your org model from your product strategy: speed (Amazon) or unified experience (Apple), and accept its cost.

Productivity4 steps

Chop-It-Up AI Collaboration Loop

Don't hand AI one giant spec — specify a little, review a little, repeat in tight loops.

Innovation4 steps

Complement-the-Frontier Model Strategy

Don't rebuild foundation models — train small specialty models that attack their weaknesses in speed, cost, and niche tasks.

Finance3 steps

Deferred-Buyout Creative Pricing

Keep the exploration phase cheap by billing rights separately, so a late pivot doesn't mean you already paid to own dead work.

Entrepreneurship4 steps

Dogfood-Driven Realism

Be the end user, use your product intensely daily, and never ship anything that isn't useful to you.

Communication4 steps

Explain-It-to-Prove-You-Understand-It

Force yourself and others to explain decisions; if you can't articulate it, you probably don't understand it.

Communication4 steps

Exponential Feedback via the Competency Lens

Give feedback on root-cause behaviors, not surface symptoms, so it compounds — use a competency rubric as the diagnostic lens.

Self-Mastery4 steps

Fall-On-Your-Face Taste Calibration

Deliberately push AI past its limits in a safe environment to build a gut feel for what it can do.

Innovation4 steps

Fault-Tolerant User Interfaces

Design your UI to match the real hit-rate of your machine learning, not a fantasy of 100% accuracy.

Productivity5 steps

Frontier of Understanding (Goal by Risk Type)

Before committing to an outcome goal, set the goal at the true edge of what your team knows — understanding, dependency, execution, or strategic risk.

High-Ceiling Market Test

Attack markets with a high ceiling and easy switching; incumbents win only where there's little left to build.

Knowledge-Work End-State Idea Generation

Pick an area of knowledge work and reason forward to its end state as AI matures — then build for that.

Entrepreneurship4 steps

Latency Over Velocity: Conviction-Based Startup Decisions

A startup's edge isn't speed — it's a tight turning radius; swap experiment-driven decisions for informed conviction.

Innovation3 steps

Optical Correction X-Ray

Blow a single letter up huge and probe its joints to see where a real type designer breaks geometry to look perfect.

Marketing4 steps

Recall vs. Discovery Interface Split

Match interface density to user intent: dense grids for recall, low-density sound-rich feeds for discovery.

Scalable Leadership vs. Selective Micromanagement

When you lack confidence in your team's direction, don't go hands-off — micromanage tactically and temporarily to get them back on track.

Innovation4 steps

Separating Change-Aversion from Real Problems in a Redesign

After a redesign, split 'upset because it changed' from 'upset because it's worse' before you react.

Self-Mastery5 steps

Song Exploder Your Intuition

Turn a gut reaction to a design into a reusable, articulable design rule by reverse-justifying why you feel it.

The 12 Product Management Competencies

Map every PM skill into four areas — execution, customer insight, product strategy, influence — and 12 competencies that hold from APM to CPO.

Communication3 steps

The Blur Test

Take your glasses off and squint at a brand to judge its cohesion, color story, and overall feeling.

The Goals-First Refresh Cascade

Set the scope of a rebrand by naming the goal first, then let every later round cascade from broad to narrow.

Strategy5 steps

The Product Strategy Stack

Separate mission, strategy, product strategy, roadmap, and goals into five layers you can define top-down and debug bottom-up.

Communication3 steps

The Strategy-Isn't-Done-Without-Wireframes Rule

Treat a strategy doc like a house blueprint: it isn't complete until wireframes show what the product looks like when the strategy is built.

Productivity4 steps

Think It, Build It, Ship It, Tweak It

Four product phases where spend rises stage by stage — so you must retire risk before the money starts.

Mindset3 steps

Three-Model Triangulation

Apply three different mental models to a problem; agreement across them sharply raises your odds of being right.

Communication3 steps

Top-Down Design Diagnosis

Before touching any detail, spend days naming the one big-picture reason a design bothers you.

Two-Day Work-Test Hire

Bring finalists on-site for two days to do a real end-to-end project — it screens skill and fit at once.

Peak Performance3 steps

Variety-as-Rest Anti-Burnout

Beat burnout by switching to a different kind of work when you lose steam, instead of stopping.