Product Theory
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.
Product Theory
Product Theory
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.
Product Theory
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.
mental models
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.
Product Theory
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.
Product Theory
The Sunk Cost Fallacy: Why Your Users Stay (and Why That Should Scare You)
Past investment shouldn't influence future decisions, but it always does. How the sunk cost fallacy retains your users — and why the retention it buys you might be a prison, not a product.
Product Theory
Product Theory: The Complete Table of Contents
Every chapter in Product Theory — the mental models behind how users price, choose, stay, and churn. Read the free essays or get the book.
pricing psychology
Pricing Psychology: 7 Rules That Actually Change What People Buy
Price isn't a number. It's a story people tell themselves about what something is worth. Here are seven rules — anchoring, decoys, charm pricing, mental accounting — that quietly decide what people buy.
Product Theory
The Utility Paradox: Why We Scrutinize Tools and Splurge on Treats
The more useful something is, the harder we scrutinize its price. Why we under-invest in essentials, over-invest in indulgences, and how great products flip the switch.
Product Theory
Metric Theater: When Your Dashboard Lies to Everyone at Once
DAU up. Churn down. Everyone nods. Meanwhile a user is quietly switching to a competitor. That gap has a name — Metric Theater — and it's killing your product.