Jeff Whitlock

President
Grain

Be Less Wrong: Mental Models for Product Decision Making

Case Study Conference Speaker
Workshop Instructor
November 10, 2023

What features should we build?
How should we implement them?
When are they ready to ship?

Decision making is central to the job of every product leader. To be great product leaders, we all want to be right in every decision we make. But this isn’t possible.

We face too much uncertainty in our profession. Being wrong is inevitable. Furthermore, trying to be right all the time can lead us to defend our position and pre-existing beliefs. Instead, we should try to be wrong less often.

This workshop will cover uncommon mental models (heuristics, frameworks, techniques, and thinking strategies) that product leaders can use to be less wrong. For each model, we’ll introduce the concept and then follow-up with case studies and exercises to practice using it to make decisions in your daily work.

Watch Talk

Slaying Giants

Case Study Conference Speaker
Workshop Instructor
April 23, 2019
Watch Talk

About 

Jeff

Most recently Jeff built PingPong, a video messaging app for remote teams. Acquired by Grain.

Earlier in his career he started at McKinsey & Co., He was fortunate to land a product management opportunity at Vivint SmartHome. While working with a great team, they were able to build the best-rated smart home app at the time (4.5 stars over 2400+ reviews).

After leaving Vivint, he pursued his passion for Africa by joining a motorcycle taxi, ride-sharing startup in Uganda called SafeBoda. At SafeBoda, he wore many hats: product manager, UX designer, and call support director. Perhaps the most exciting and difficult challenge while at SafeBoda was building a world-class tech team with team members from 5 countries (Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, Ghana, and the US).

At SafeBoda, they successfully built and launched the product, achieving 10K+ rides within the first 4 months. Jeff, unfortunately, had to leave SafeBoda prematurely for personal reasons, but the company is still going strong and is now doing >8,000 rides per day.

Join us at the Front!

In it's 8th year, Front is a sell-out event, with a 1,000 annual attendees from across the country and around the world. Join us at the Front to share, learn, and be inspired to create amazing products.

Case Study Conference

Jul 1
-
2
,
2024
Salt Lake City, UT
Register

Workshop Series

Nov 8
-
10
,
2023
Salt Lake City, UT
Register