13 Mental Models Every Founder Should Know (Jayme Hoffman -

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Regret Minimization Framework | Maker: Jeff Bezos

Regret minimization framework helps you make tough decisions by projecting to

your future self and looking backward on your current decision. RMF will help

you leave your job and build the thing you’ve been thinking about for the last 2.5

years.

I knew that when I was 80 I was not going to regret having tried this. I was not
going to regret trying to participate in this thing called the Internet that I thought
was going to be a really big deal. I knew that if I failed I wouldn’t regret that, but I
knew the one thing I might regret is not ever having tried. — Jeff Bezos

Jeff Bezos — Regret Minimization Framework ( VIDEO )

Bijan Sabet on Regret Minimization Framework

The Idea Maze

Maker: Balaji S. Srinivasan

The idea maze is a framework for thinking about and planning the many paths

your startup may take.

“A good founder is capable of anticipating which turns lead to treasure and which

lead to certain death. A bad founder is just running to the entrance of (say) the

“movies/music/filesharing/P2P” maze or the “photosharing” maze without any

sense for the history of the industry, the players in the maze, the casualties of the

past, and the technologies that are likely to move walls and change assumptions.” —
Balaji S. Srinivasan

The idea maze — cdixon

Market Research, Wireframing and Design

The VR Idea Maze

The idea maze for AI startups

Schlep Blindness

Maker: Paul Graham

Schlep blindness prevents founders from seeing overlooked startup ideas.

“A company is defined by the schleps it will undertake. And schleps should be dealt
with the same way you’d deal with a cold swimming pool: just jump in.” — Paul
Graham

Schlep Blindness — PG

Where Are The Big Ideas — Schlep Blindness

Jobs to be Done

Maker: Clayton Christensen

Jobs-to-be-done helps you understand why a customer may choose to hire your

product. Knowing this will help you more accurately develop and market to

customer needs.

If you understand the job, how to improve the product becomes just obvious. —

Clayton Christensen

Understanding the Job — Clayton Christensen ( VIDEO )

Jobs to be Done

Six Steps to Put Christensen’s Jobs-to-be-Done Theory into Practice

Intercom on Jobs-to-be-Done ( BOOK )

Minimum Viable Product

Maker: Frank Robinson

Minimum viable product is a process for testing assumptions and making sure

theres a need for your idea.

The MVP process:

1. What is my riskiest assumption?

2. What is the smallest experiment I can do to test this assumption?

A Minimum Viable Product Is Not a Product, It’s a Process

Minimum Viable Product — Race to Deliver Customer Value

MVP: A Proven Methodology to Maximize Return on Risk

Confirmation Bias

Maker: Thucydides

Confirmation bias is a type of thinking where you tend to notice or look for what

confirms your beliefs rather that what contradicts them. This type of thinking is

very dangerous as you move through the idea maze and MVP-process.

“It is the peculiar and perpetual error of the human understanding to be more

moved and excited by affirmatives than by negatives.” — Francis Bacon

Mental Model: Confirmation Bias

Francis Bacon: On the Confirmation Bias

Confirmation Bias: Your Brain is So Judgmental ( VIDEO )

Product Market Fit

Maker: Andy Rachleff

Product market fit is when you’re in a good market and the product you’re

working on satisfies the market. Getting to PMF is crucial because the biggest

company killer is a lack of market.

Part 4: The only thing that matters

The Real Product Market Fit

Product/Market Fit: What it really means, How to Measure it, and Where to find
it

MoneyBall for Startups: Invest BEFORE Product/Market Fit, Double-Down

AFTER.

When has a consumer startup hit product/market fit?

100 People Love

Maker: Paul Graham

Getting a 100 people to love you is far better than having a million people just sort

of like you. 100 customers or users that love you will tell the world about your

tiny little company and give you feedback or ideas that help you make the

experience much better.

“It’s better to make a few people really happy than to make a lot of people

semi-happy” — Paul Buchheit

Startups in 13 Sentences: 5. Better to make a few users love you than a lot
ambivalent.

Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky: make 100 people love your product
AARRR

Maker: Dave McClure

AARRR or ( Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Referral, Revenue ) is a

framework for customer lifecycle.

Startup Metrics for Pirates: AARRR!

Startup Metrics for Pirates ( SLIDESHARE )

AARRR: Pirate Metrics for SaaS

Network Effects
Maker: Robert Metcalfe

Network effects occur when a product or service becomes more valuable as more

people use it. Network effects help you build better, faster-growing and more

valuable products and businesses.

All about Network Effects — a16z

Marketing Nerd: Why Your Business Should Care About Networks

Economies of Scale
Maker: Adam Smith

Economies of scale are simple economics where the costs of your product or

service decreases as the volume increases. Facebook, Amazon, Apple and Google

all have strong economies of scale.

“Economies of scale are a good thing. If we didn’t have them, we’d still be living in

tents and eating buffalo.” — Jamie Dimon

Startup Exhibit Economies of Scale — Balaji S. Srinivasan

What Are Economies Of Scale?

Disruptive Innovation

Maker: Clayton Christensen

Disruptive innovation is when your product or service starts out as a simple

solution at the bottom of a market and then relentlessly moves up market,

eventually displacing the established competitors and redefining the industry.

“If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” —

Henry Ford

Disruptive Innovation

Clayton Christensen (Innovators Dilemma) at Startup Grind 2013

Conjoined Triangles of Success

Maker: ’Action’ Jack Barker

Conjoined triangles of success or “CTS” do a great job of helping you understand

just how truly ridiculous the startup world can be. 😂

Now what do those two triangles make together? A box. They make a box. You can’t

make that shit up. — Jack Barker

The Conjoined Triangles and Startup Success

Are The Conjoined Triangles Of Success Real? ‘Silicon Valley’ Mocks A Famous
Business Model

Ref :
https://medium.com/the-mission/13-mental-models-every-founder-should-know-c4d44afdcdd