Thinking in Four Directions
A practical framework for moving from a simple idea to a second-order system.
The other day, a product manager I was walking with asked me a fantastic question: “How can I be sure I’m thinking in terms of second-order problems?” They had read my post on The Leap to Second-Order Thinking and wanted to make sure that the ideas they had were big enough.
This isn’t the first time I’d been asked this question. In fact, it’s a concern I hear a lot. We’re told to “think big,” but the practical steps to get there can sometimes feel mysterious. The good news is that it’s not magic; it’s a muscle you can develop. Big ideas rarely arrive fully formed. They often start as simple seeds and are nurtured through exploration.
But before you can explore an idea, you have to let yourself have one.
First, Let the Ideas Flow
The single biggest mistake I see people make when trying to find a “big” idea is that they self-censor too early. They dismiss a thought because it feels too small, too simple, or too silly.
This is the fastest way to kill innovation.
Step one isn’t about quality; it’s about quantity. Get all the ideas out. Write them down. Toss them around in your head. The most powerful second-order systems I’ve ever worked on all began as basic, almost naive, starting points. Your mind needs to be a safe space where no idea is a bad idea.
Once you have a seed - any seed - the real work begins. It’s time to test it, stretch it, and see what it’s really made of.
A Framework for Thinking in Four Directions
When a new idea strikes, I push it in four different directions to understand its true potential. This helps me map its boundaries and discover the larger system it might belong to.
Go Deeper: How can you enrich the *core* of this idea? What are the essential features that make the central thesis of your product ten times better? This involves fleshing out the core user journey and adding features that deepen the product to make it richer, more powerful and, ideally, more sticky.
Look Backward: What comes *before* this idea? What is the user doing right before they would need this product? What’s the spark of inspiration or the moment of frustration that leads them here? Solving for this direction means you’re not just building a tool; you’re capturing intent.
Look Forward: What comes *after* this idea? Once the user has successfully used your product, what do they want to do next? What is the logical conclusion of their journey? Building for this turns a single-use tool into an end-to-end workflow.
Pop Up: What is the underlying *pattern* of this idea? Can you abstract the core of your idea to a higher level that applies to more use cases? Is your idea for an app (e.g. that allows you to easily “write a book”) actually a pattern that could also work for “organizing a project” or “planning an event”? Popping up is how a niche product idea can sometimes reveal its potential to become a broader platform.
Let’s Try It: From Voice Memos to a Storytelling Engine
Let’s use a simple, hypothetical idea: an app that lets me capture voice notes and turns them into a book. It’s a nice little idea, but it doesn’t feel huge. Now, let’s apply the framework.
Going Deeper: We start by fleshing out the core. Once I’ve captured a bunch of my voice memos, how are chapters formed? Can AI suggest an outline? How do I edit the text, add images, and add content to it over time? This makes the initial idea more robust.
Looking Backward: What happens before I have a book idea? I’m looking for inspiration. Maybe the app could offer creative prompts, help me brainstorm themes, or pull in articles and images to get the juices flowing. Now the app isn’t just for writing; it’s for finding the story in the first place.
Looking Forward: What happens after the book is written? Is it just a text document? Of course not. The next step is to share the story. Can the app help me turn it into an illustrated novel, a screenplay, a comic strip, or even an animated short? Suddenly, it’s a multi-format creation studio.
Popping Up: What if this isn’t about books at all? The core pattern is about capturing scattered thoughts and organizing them into a coherent narrative. Could this be used to plan a wedding? Design a vacation itinerary? Redecorate a living room? Map out a new product strategy?
By pushing in these four directions, our simple voice-to-book app has transformed into a system for developing the narrative arc of any idea. That feels a lot bigger.
From Vision to Version One
This exercise is powerful, but it comes with a critical warning: don’t let the pull of second-order thinking paralyze you from starting to build. The goal is to define the full potential, not to build it all at once.
You still have to find the smallest, most valuable starting point - your Minimum Viable Product (MVP).
My team recently launched Pomelli, a tool that helps small and medium-sized businesses create on-brand marketing content.
That’s the wedge. That’s V1.
But the foundational step - the true core of the product - is what happens first. When an SMB enters their website, Pomelli automatically analyzes their business to create a business DNA (or bDNA as we call it).
That bDNA is the key to our second-order vision: an AI operating system for the modern business. We believe AI will enable small teams to build massively successful companies, but to do that, the AI needs to understand them on a fundamental level. The bDNA provides that understanding. It’s the first step toward building more features and services that help SMBs grow and scale.
As Forbes put it, “This isn’t just about helping SMBs post on Instagram. It’s perhaps a step towards owning the new interface where AI meets business utility.”
The V1 is the tool that generates creatives. The second-order thinking leads to the idea of an entire operating system for SMBs. In order to build the latter, we started with the former.
See the Whole Picture
Second-order thinking isn’t about waiting for a monumental idea to strike you. It’s a process of interrogation. It’s about taking a simple, promising seed and having the discipline to explore its full potential.
Look backward, look forward, go deeper, and pop up.
You’ll be surprised at how big your “small” ideas can become.