A rigorous framework for annual organizational strategy planning using Scenario Planning, Leverage Points, and MECE. Moves beyond the typical budget-driven planning exercise to build strategies that are genuinely resilient, focused on high-leverage interventions, and complete in their analysis. Designed for leadership teams and founders.
Antifragility is the mental model that describes systems which actually improve when exposed to stressors, randomness, and disorder. Unlike resilience (which merely resists shocks) or robustness (which stays the same), antifragility thrives on volatility. Understanding what is antifragility and how to use antifragility helps founders, investors, and knowledge workers design strategies that get stronger under pressure rather than breaking.
Blue Ocean Strategy is a strategic framework developed by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne that argues companies should create uncontested market space — "blue oceans" — rather than competing in existing, crowded industries — "red oceans." The framework provides analytical tools (the Strategy Canvas, Four Actions Framework, and Eliminate-Reduce-Raise-Create Grid) for systematically identifying how to make competition irrelevant by creating new value-cost frontiers and capturing new demand.
A structured approach for diagnosing business problems — from declining revenue and stalled growth to team dysfunction and product issues — using 5 Whys, Issue Trees, and Root Cause Analysis. Most business problems are addressed at the symptom level, which is why they recur. This framework finds the actual cause.
Game Theory is the mathematical study of strategic interaction — situations where the outcome for each participant depends on the choices of all participants. Developed by John von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern (1944) and extended by John Nash, it provides formal frameworks for analysing negotiation, competition, cooperation, and conflict across economics, political science, biology, and business strategy.
A Nash Equilibrium is a set of strategies in which no player can improve their outcome by unilaterally changing their own strategy, given what the others are doing. Named after mathematician John Nash, who proved that every finite game has at least one Nash Equilibrium, it is the central solution concept in game theory and explains stable outcomes in strategic interactions — not necessarily optimal, but stable because no one has individual incentive to deviate.
A structured planning framework for new product launches using Pre-mortem analysis, Second Order Thinking, and MECE. Covers the critical planning gaps that cause most launches to underperform — from incomplete risk identification to unintended consequences of go-to-market decisions. Designed for product managers and growth teams at any stage.
A structured framework for setting product pricing using First Principles Thinking, Anchoring Bias, and Cost-Benefit Analysis. Most pricing decisions are made by copying competitors or gut feel. This guide helps product managers and founders build pricing from the ground up — from actual value delivered to price anchoring architecture — and avoid the most common pricing mistakes.
Scenario Planning is a strategic decision-making mental model that replaces single-point forecasting with a set of plausible, structurally distinct futures. Rather than predicting which future will occur, it helps leaders design strategies that remain viable across multiple futures — building robust plans that survive uncertainty rather than fragile ones optimized for a single expected outcome. Developed at Shell in the 1970s, it is now widely used in corporate strategy, military planning, public policy, and long-range business planning.
Second Order Effects are the indirect consequences of an action that occur as a result of the first-order effects. While first-order effects are often obvious and intended, second-order effects are frequently unexpected, larger in magnitude than the initial action, and sometimes work directly against the goals of the original intervention. Thinking in orders of effect is essential for policy design, product decisions, competitive strategy, and investment analysis.
A step-by-step framework for founders facing high-stakes startup decisions — from pivots and pricing to hiring and market bets. Combines First Principles Thinking, Inversion, and the Pre-mortem to cut through uncertainty, kill bad options early, and commit with clarity. Designed for early-stage founders who can't afford to get the big calls wrong.
The Lindy Effect is a counterintuitive mental model that states the expected remaining lifespan of non-perishable things — ideas, technologies, books, business models, institutions — is proportional to their current age. The longer something has already survived, the longer it is likely to continue surviving. Coined by Nassim Taleb based on informal observations at Lindy's deli in New York, it is a powerful tool for filtering durable ideas from temporary fads and for calibrating investment in enduring vs. novel solutions.