Mental models and frameworks I've absorbed from reading. Named so I can think with them.
From — The Dream Machine
Man-Computer Symbiosis
Licklider's core insight: the computer doesn't replace human thinking, it amplifies it. The interface is the product. What looks like a technology problem is almost always an interaction design problem.
From — Thinking in Systems · Donella Meadows
Stocks and Flows
Most problems aren't about events — they're about the system that produces the events. Fixing a stock is slow. Changing a flow is leverage. Most product work optimizes stocks when it should be redesigning flows.
From — The Innovator's Dilemma · Clayton Christensen
Jobs to Be Done
Customers don't buy products. They hire them to do a job. The job is always older than the product. When you find the job, you find the real competition — which is rarely who you thought.
From — Finite and Infinite Games · James Carse
Infinite Play
Finite players play to win. Infinite players play to keep playing. Most product strategy — roadmaps, OKRs, quarterly reviews — is finite game thinking applied to infinite game contexts. The goal isn't to win the quarter; it's to still be playing in five years.
From — The Courage to Be Disliked · Kishimi & Koga
Separation of Tasks
Identify whose task a problem actually is. Most interpersonal friction in product teams comes from one person taking on another's task — a PM "helping" by solving engineering problems, or an engineer solving product problems. Do your task. Trust others to do theirs.
Observation
The Constraint That's Doing the Work
In any system with a problem, there's usually one constraint that's load-bearing for the whole failure. Everything else is downstream of it. Finding that constraint is 80% of the job. Most teams skip straight to solutions and wonder why things don't improve.