foundationDraft a Shitty First Version
Write for 15 minutes without editing to overcome blank-page paralysis and activate retrieval.
⏱ 15m⚡ mental
Generative Writing
Protocol
The Narrative Product Manager
Cognitive Architectures of Authority and Innovation in the Messy Middle.
Does this sound familiar?
- Meeting rot: Your day is shredded by low-value synchronicity.
- Logical gaps: Strategy flaws are hidden behind 'clever' slide transitions.
- The Mum Effect: Your team is too polite to mention project-killing risks.
- Cognitive residue: Task switching leaves you in a permanent state of fog.
- The Transparency Paradox: Radical openness is killing your team's innovation.
Old Way
- Oral traditions and hallway context
- Slide-deck performance art
- Synchronous-first default
- Performative busyness in Slack
New Way
- High-context, durable documentation
- Narrative memos and logic trees
- Async-first strategic drafts
- Deep mental offloading rituals
Myth
Common Myth
Writing is just a way to record decisions we've already made in meetings.
Mechanism
The Narrative Operating System
Click a system to explore its habits
Generative Writing
Activate the Generation Effect to encode strategy into long-term organizational memory.
Structural Clarity
Design low-context artifacts that remain intelligible to anyone, at any time.
Cognitive Offloading
Stabilize the Zeigarnik effect by externalizing mental RAM and managing the 'Messy Middle'.
Authentic Leverage
Drive alignment through vulnerability, pre-mortems, and rigorous competitor 'steel-manning'.
Deploy the Narrative Protocol
Step01
Phase 1: Stabilize the RAM
Start with Foundation habits to clear mental fog and close open loops.
Step02
Phase 2: Install High-Context Clarity
Drill Structural Clarity to ensure your artifacts stand on their own logical merit.
Step03
Phase 3: Execute the Strategy Sprint
Switch to a high-authority narrative workflow to drive organizational alignment.
Step04
Phase 4: Audit for Logical Gaps
Use search to find specific protocols for logic trees and 'So What?' testing.
The Narrative Stack
The primary tools used by high-performance Narrative PMs to maintain clarity.
Execution
Linear
For high-velocity tracking without the 'User Story' bureaucracy.
Storage
Obsidian / Notion
For maintaining a durable, interlinked Decision Log and Idea Icebox.
Context
Loom
For providing async context without the cost of a live meeting.
Tactical
Physical Notebook
For Interstitial Journaling and the daily Shutdown Ritual.
Audit Your Writing Culture
Assess the gap between your current 'Oral' culture and a high-performance 'Narrative' culture.
Could a new hire understand your last PRD without asking you a single question?
Does your team start meetings with a 20-minute silent reading session?
Are your Slack channels full of performance or actual strategic progress?
Do you have a dedicated 'Icebox' for ideas that aren't prioritized right now?
Can you name the 'Elephant' in the room for your highest-stakes project?
Vibe Compatibility Lock
"If you can't write it, you don't understand it. The text is the final debugger of your own thoughts.
Progression
Habit Tiers
Tier 1
Foundation
Clear Cognitive RAM. Establish the baseline for thought offloading and shutdown.
Tier 2
Growth
Build Narrative Logic. Master the mechanics of Interstitial logs and Assertion headers.
Tier 3
Mastery
Architect Authority. Deploy 6-page memos and Steel-manning protocols at scale.
Tier 4Peak
Titan
Install Performance Culture. Pioneer team-wide 'Linear Method' and neural record systems.
Glossary
01
Messy Middle
The long, ambiguous phase between the ideal strategy and the final launch.
02
Zeigarnik Effect
The brain's tendency to remember uncompleted tasks better than completed ones, creating mental tension.
03
Generation Effect
The phenomenon where information is better retained if actively generated (written) by the mind.
04
Transparency Paradox
The counter-intuitive fact that increasing observability can reduce performance and experiment-taking.
Protocol Playbooks
Curated sequences of habits designed to be practiced together. Click a playbook to see its cards in the deck below.
6 cards
The Strategy Sprint
Go from ambiguous idea to iron-clad 6-page narrative in record time.
Draft a Shitty First Version
Write Before Booking Meetings
Write Assertion Headers Only
+3 more habits
7 cards
The Messy Middle Management
Stabilize the loop and protect team focus during high-friction execution phases.
Run a Shutdown Ritual
Offload Tasks to Markdown
Tag Tasks by Leverage (LNO)
+4 more habits
7 cards
High-Authority Artifact Creation
Design low-context, high-impact documentation that scales across the organization.
Audit Every Internal Acronym
Format Requirements as Issues
Audit for Low-Context Phrases
+4 more habits
8 cards
Resilient Alignment Routine
Drill the rituals that foster deep trust and uncover unspoken project risks.
Ask for Public Help
Send Friday Gratitude Notes
Run Pre-Mortem Simulations
+5 more habits
Quests
Challenges to accelerate your transformation. Click a quest to see its target cards.
Initiation
The Architect's Blueprint
Establish the foundational rituals of written clarity and mental offloading to stabilize your daily executive function.
"The transition from performer to architect begins with the ink. Lay the cornerstone of your narrative authority."
FOUNDATION tier streak for 7 days
6 cards
View Quest Cards
System Mastery
The Precision Protocol
Master the architecture of logic by purging ambiguity and enforcing structural rigor across every organizational artifact.
"Ambiguity is the enemy of execution. Sharpen your words until they cut through the noise of the messy middle."
Complete Structural Clarity system
8 cards
View Quest Cards
Titan Trial
The Cultural Re-Architect
Dismantle the slide-deck culture and install a high-context narrative operating system for your entire team.
"True authority isn't just writing your own memos; it's redesigning the way the system itself processes reality."
Complete TITAN tier
1 cards
View Quest Cards
The Full Deck
32 habits across 4 core systems
Systems:
Playbooks:
foundation
foundationWrite Before Booking Meetings
Draft a one-page context document before sending any calendar invites to ensure preparedness.
⏱ 10m⚡ mental
Generative Writing
foundationWrite Assertion Headers Only
Replace generic headers with full assertions to ensure skimmers capture your primary narrative arc.
⏱ 2m⚡ mental
Structural Clarity
foundationAudit Every Internal Acronym
Define acronyms on first use to maintain low-context accessibility for all team members.
⏱ 5m⚡ tactical
Structural Clarity
foundationRun a Shutdown Ritual
Write three priorities and close all browser tabs to signal cognitive closure to your brain.
⏱ 2m⚡ tactical
Cognitive Offloading
foundationOffload Tasks to Markdown
Dump every mental 'open loop' into a single markdown file to clear working memory.
⏱ 1m⚡ tactical
Cognitive Offloading
foundationAsk for Public Help
Post blockers in public channels to model authentic vulnerability and invite collaborative problem-solving.
⏱ 2m⚡ tactical
Authentic Leverage
foundationSend Friday Gratitude Notes
Send one specific thank-you note to a teammate to build social capital and trust.
⏱ 2m⚡ tactical
Authentic Leverage
growthUse Interstitial Journaling
Write a sentence on your transition between tasks to clear emotional residue and reset memory.
⏱ 5m⚡ tactical
Generative Writing
growthFootnote Your Secondary Data
Move all non-essential data to footnotes to respect the reader’s focus on the narrative flow.
⏱ 5m⚡ tactical
Generative Writing
growthNarrativize Your Decision Log
Record the context and expected outcomes of major decisions to enable long-term learning.
⏱ 10m⚡ tactical
Generative Writing
growthDelete Every Non-Essential Adverb
Remove words like 'very' and 'hopefully' to increase the precision and authority of your prose.
⏱ 5m⚡ tactical
Structural Clarity
growthFormat Requirements as Issues
Write simple, direct 'Issues' that assume creator competence over performative user story bureaucracy.
⏱ 10m⚡ tactical
Structural Clarity
growthAudit for Low-Context Phrases
Search for 'you know' or 'standard stuff' and replace with explicit context for future hires.
⏱ 10m⚡ tactical
Structural Clarity
growthTag Tasks by Leverage (LNO)
Categorize tasks as Leverage, Neutral, or Overhead to protect your energy for high-impact work.
⏱ 5m⚡ tactical
Cognitive Offloading
growthDefine Strategic Privacy Zones
Shield team drafts and experiments from management gaze to prevent the transparency paradox.
⏱ 15m⚡ tactical
Cognitive Offloading
growthFilter Exploration vs Evaluation
Narrate the transition between mental modes to prevent team conflict and decision paralysis.
⏱ 5m⚡ mental
Cognitive Offloading
growthRun Pre-Mortem Simulations
Imagine the project failed and work backward to uncover hidden risks and structural gaps.
⏱ 15m⚡ tactical
Authentic Leverage
growthDrill the '5 Whys'
Ask 'Why?' five times for every feature request to uncover the root user problem.
⏱ 5m⚡ mental
Authentic Leverage
growthSteel-man Competitor Arguments
Write the strongest possible case for a competitor's product to reveal your actual strategic gaps.
⏱ 10m⚡ mental
Authentic Leverage
masteryGenerate 6-Page Narrative Memos
Construct high-context, silent-read memos to force deep logic and egalitarian decision-making.
⏱ 2h⚡ mental
Generative Writing
masterySystematize Deep Knowledge
Iterate on micro-narratives to build a flywheel of evergreen strategic assets.
⏱ 30m⚡ mental
Generative Writing
masteryApply the 'So What?' Test
Excise every sentence that does not drive a decision or convey new information.
⏱ 15m⚡ mental
Structural Clarity
masteryDesign Multi-Modal Logic Trees
Map decisions as branching narratives to visualize consequences and second-order effects.
⏱ 30m⚡ mental
Structural Clarity
masteryIcebox All Premature Ideas
Capture and freeze explorative ideas in a dedicated archive to protect current execution focus.
⏱ 10m⚡ tactical
Cognitive Offloading
masteryMaintain Interstitial Emotion Logs
Track your emotional state during task switches to audit and minimize context switching costs.
⏱ 5m⚡ mental
Cognitive Offloading
masteryConduct the 'Elephant' Check
Ask about unspoken risks in 1:1s to normalize the discussion of scary truths.
⏱ 10m⚡ mental
Authentic Leverage
masteryMap Constraints Before Solutions
Write down budget, time, and tech constraints before starting to foster creativity within boundaries.
⏱ 15m⚡ mental
Authentic Leverage
titanProduce High-Context Library Docs
Ship strategic artifacts that are fully intelligible to outsiders without oral explanation.
⏱ 1h⚡ mental
Generative Writing
titanPioneer Team-Wide Writing Ops
Install a narrative culture by banning slides for strategic reviews and mandating memos.
⏱ 2h⚡ tactical
Structural Clarity
titanArchitect a Shared Neural Record
Lead the team in creating a unified system for capture, iceboxing, and decision logging.
⏱ 1h⚡ tactical
Cognitive Offloading
titanVoice Raw User Quotes Daily
Share unedited customer pain points daily to prevent abstraction and fuel empathy.
⏱ 10m⚡ tactical
Authentic Leverage
Sources & References
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