The Cobra Effect: Why Your Best Metric Might Be Breeding Snakes
Every incentive creates a game. The Cobra Effect is what happens when it's not the game you wanted—and why your best-looking metric might be the one breeding snakes.
The IKEA Effect: Why Users Love the Ugly Thing They Made
People value what they build far beyond its objective worth. The best products don't just get used — they get built on. Here's how to design for it.
The Empty Cup: Why You Can't Learn With a Full One
A distinguished professor watched a Zen master pour tea until it spilled across the floor. The lesson still lands: you can't fill a cup that's already full.
Hedonic Stockholm Syndrome: Why Users Cling to Products They Hate
People don't stay in bad situations because they can't see better options. They stay because their brain protects the known from the threat of the unknown.
Conway's Law: Why Your App Feels Like Three Different Companies
The seams in your product are copies of the seams in your org chart. That's not a metaphor — it's Conway's Law, and it predicts what your app feels like to use.
3 Stories to Read When You Have to Choose
Three old stories about choosing well: the crossroads, the strawberry on the cliff, and the woman carried across the mud. What they teach about the moment of decision.
Mental Models for Product Managers: 12 That Actually Change Decisions
Most product decisions go wrong for reasons that already have names. Here are 12 mental models — what each one is, a concrete product example, and when it quietly lies to you.
Charm Pricing: Why the Last Digit Is Positioning, Not Math
Everyone knows the $9.99 trick. Everyone still falls for it. Here's why the last digit of your price is a positioning decision, not a math one.
3 Wisdom Stories for When You Feel Stuck
Being stuck and going nowhere are not the same thing. Three old stories about the difference — and what to do when you can't see your own progress.
Jobs To Be Done: Why Nobody Actually Wants Your Product
A fast-food chain couldn't sell more milkshakes—until they stopped studying the milkshake and started watching who bought it, and when. That's Jobs to Be Done.
The Decoy Effect: The Option That Exists to Lose
The medium popcorn was never meant to sell. It was meant to sell the large. Meet the decoy effect—and why it lives on your pricing page.
3 Stories to Read When You're Tempted
Temptation rarely shows up as a villain. It shows up as a reasonable-sounding voice. Three old stories for the moment you're about to give in.