Main Takeaways:
- What are the mental models?
- Why are they relevant in product management?
- How can you use them in your product role?
- How can they help you in your career?
8. What are mental models?
What is elementary, worldly wisdom? Well, the first
rule is that you can’t really know anything if you
just remember isolated facts and try and bang
‘em back.
(...) You’ve got to have models in your head. And
you’ve got to array your experience -both
vicarious and direct- on this latticework of models.
Charlie Munger - 1994 - Marshall Business School
Berkshire Hathaway - 20.5% ROI since 1965
Picture credits: Omaha World Heritage
9. What are mental models?
PAST EXPERIENCES
AND LEARNINGS
MENTAL MODEL
10. - Create a mental picture of a situation, which becomes a model that you can
later apply in similar situations
- The models have to come from different disciplines, as the wisdom in the
world is not limited to one academic department
- They can unlock ‘super thinking’, the ability to think better about the world -
use it to your own advantage!
What are mental models?
11. Let’s look at a couple of examples...
1. De-risking models: Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
2. Dealing with conflict: decision logs
What are mental models?
14. HOW CAN YOU USE THEM?
GENERAL THINKING PRIORITISATION
Circle of competence
First principles thinking
Thought experiment
Second-order thinking
Probabilistic thinking
(...)
Find the bottleneck
Cost of delay
Eisenhower matrix
80/20 rule
Long-term ROI
(...)
Sources: Farnam Street and Eric Jorgenson
15. OPTION A OPTION B (...)
DECISION LOG TEMPLATE
+ Pros - Cons + Pros - Cons + Pros - Cons
2- CONTEXT1- DECISION
4- RESOURCES
3- OPTIONS
5- OUTCOME
REMEMBER: the value of the model lies in the collaboration with your peers!
List the pros and cons List the pros and cons List the pros and cons
Describe the decision, who needs to be involved and
when do you have to reach consensus
Describe the background information needed to bring all
your colleagues to the same page
List the resources, such as additional documentation or
data assets
Detail the outcome of the discussion and the final option
considered