Thread by @shreyas

The day you became a clearer thinker, you:

-started by identifying the real goal
-decomposed vague concepts
-framed the right questions
-sought more data or experience
-listened to multiple perspectives
-assessed upsides & downsides
-examined your own biases
-acted like an owner

Related resources👇🏾

What Are You Really Trying To Do

Decompose

Eigenquestions

Asking “why” before other questions

Listening without judging the source

Probabilistic thinking

Proxies muddy our thinking

Thinking over the long term

Metacognition is important

What’s even more important than clear thinking?

Some more tips on thinking & being

Biases & fallacies that get in the way of clearer product thinking

Mindset & Principles are more important for clear thinking than Tactics

A number of book recommendations for clear thinking, decision making, problem solving, and strategy in this thread

Some reminders of tendencies that get in the way of clear thinking as a group

On clear writing

Questions for B2B products

Questions to regularly ask for any product you work on

Questions for evaluating product features

Be aware of the Proxy Delusion and the proxies we commonly encounter in our lives

My thoughts on clearer thinking for career decisions

On Empathy, a superpower for clearer product thinking

The Upside-Downside framework for evaluating options and making decisions

For clearer product thinking, it's important to understand the difference between "the product" and "The Product"

The Mindset for clear thinking is at least as important as the Frameworks & Mental Models for clear thinking

Start-with-Principles, an approach for more rigorous discussions & decisions

The CEO Test, for more rigorous compromises

Pre-mortems are an extremely effective tool for predicting problems before they happen (which is important for clearer thinking)

A thread with the top 10 cognitive biases that product teams should understand. Includes examples of each bias. Confirmation Bias & Fundamental Attribution Error are the most crucial ones to understand for better decisions & relationships in business.

Thinking in probabilities

Creative thinking

"Think at least one level higher".

This is often one of the first thinking tools I share with new members of my team because of its effectiveness in bringing greater clarity for product decisions and execution barriers.

Recency Bias can help, but it can also hinder. In fast-paced environments, Recency Bias is a common enemy of clear thinking. Important for leaders of product teams to avoid creating an adrenaline-fueled, problem-of-the-day culture.

For many decisions with early stage products & companies, it's worth asking "Will it make the boat go faster?"

On being "more strategic, less tactical": feedback that many effective people receive at least once in their career, but usually without any guidance on how to act on it