Product
Mental models for product managers
Mental models are simple expressions of complex processes. Here are the six we use most.
Lana Steiner
A mental model is a shortcut for thinking about something complicated. Product managers collect them the way designers collect fonts. These are the six our product team reaches for most.
- Jobs to be done: people hire a product to make progress.
- Second-order effects: ask what happens after the first thing happens.
- Reversible and irreversible decisions: move fast on the first kind.
- The cost of delay: what does waiting a month really cost?
- Inversion: list how the project could fail, then prevent that.
- Opportunity cost: every yes is a no to something else.
None of them is an answer. Each is a better question, and a better question is usually what a stuck roadmap needs.
