Elastic Thinking
Great product managers don’t start small.
They start big — and then learn how to snap back to the MVP fast.
That rhythm — zooming out to the vision and then zooming right back in — is what I call elastic thinking. It’s the real superpower behind great product judgment.
The Unlock
This week, I realized my default mode, shaped by Google and Amazon, is to start with the big picture and work backward from there. That approach drives vision and strategy, but it can slow you down in a Meta-style environment where speed, clarity, and precision matter most.
The solution wasn’t to think smaller. It was to think faster.
So I started running mental drills:
One big idea → smaller MVP → smaller still → clear articulation of what we’d ship first and why.
I did this literally — an hour on the treadmill breaking down a single idea into stages of development. It was frustrating at first, but somewhere between steps two and three, it clicked.
I wasn’t losing creativity. I was learning to translate ambition into action faster.
The Skill: Elastic Thinking
Every great PM develops elastic thinking — the ability to stretch from 30,000 feet to ground level without losing focus or context.
It’s not “think big or small.” It’s both, in sequence:
Start with vision. What problem matters enough to solve at scale?
Snap back to MVP. What’s the smallest test that proves you’re on the right path?
Repeat. Zoom out for perspective, zoom in for execution.
That elasticity — stretching and snapping back — is what allows PMs to balance ambition with momentum.
Why It Matters
In interviews and in real product life, the PM who can think expansively and prioritize ruthlessly always stands out.
That balance signals judgment. It shows you can lead teams that build what matters now without losing sight of what matters next.
And when you practice this motion enough, your product sense changes.
You stop seeing MVPs as compromises. You start seeing them as commitments to velocity.
The Takeaway
Big vision isn’t the problem. The problem is latency — the delay between imagining something bold and identifying the simplest, fastest way to prove it.
✨ Takeaway: True product craft isn’t about thinking big or small. It’s about how quickly — and how precisely — you can move between the two.
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