July 14, 2026·
post
The funnel mental model used in product and growth is one of the most powerful ways to thi…
The funnel mental model used in product and growth is one of the most powerful ways to think.
It turns messy reality into a flow:
current state → experiments → insights → requirements → discovery → outcomes → milestones → goals (or abandonment).
Reality is not linear but structured thinking helps to move forward.
In many ways, it’s the quieter, more mature cousin of MECE.
Less about slicing the world cleanly.
More about navigating it intentionally.
The real strength of the funnel isn’t measurability.
It’s that it allows subjectivity without breaking.
You can acknowledge ambiguity.
You can say, “We don’t really understand this yet.”
And that's considered a temporary state, not failure.
Most frameworks are rigid. They try to force everything into objectives, especially numbers. You get a neat metric, yes, but often at the cost of confusing measurement with understanding.
The worst outcome isn’t just having an incoherent proxy.
It’s the illusion of clarity and progress.
A dashboard signalling “green”,
while the system quietly rots underneath.
Sometimes it’s better to accept you don’t yet understand something
than to pretend a data point or number explains it.
Progress isn’t always knowing more.
Often, it’s knowing how little you actually know, and navigating from there.
Have a thought or correction? Reach out on LinkedIn.
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