Stop eating frogs.

A lot of people think strategy happens in boardrooms with flip charts and important people saying momentous things.

In this episode we argue that you're doing strategy when you decide what to do with your next three hours. (It's very strategic of you to spend 22 minutes listening).

We introduce the strategy ladder — or is it a cargo net? — a way to think about how your influence can scale from individual hours to organisational quarters, without you needing to set up shop in a glass-walled war room.

Including-but-not-limited-to

• Why strategy definitions are contradictory and often just marketing
• Why "strategic" often just means "more expensive"
• Hidden hierarchy games and what they mean for influence in the workplace
• The difference between real strategy and expensive to-do lists
• How to be less unstrategic with your next 1-3 hours (and why that matters)
• The two scales that strategy operates on: time and people
• Why you can't set SMART goals on things outside your control
• Environment design vs willpower: the biscuit shelf principle
• Mouse-wiggling surveillance and the intrinsic motivation alternative
• Why other people don't want their behaviour changed (spoiler: it's none of your damn business)

This one's for anyone who's tired of feeling like strategy is happening somewhere else.

If you've got a better metaphor than a cargo net, or great examples of Monday morning strategic thinking, drop us an email: [email protected] (& if you've tried before and got a bounce notification, please try again – we fixed it!)

References

• John Cutler's "1s and 3s" time horizons concept: https://cutlefish.substack.com/p/tbm-1453-1s-and-3s
• Experimental History's Excuse me but why are you eating so many frogs? https://www.experimental-history.com/p/repost-excuse-me-but-why-are-you
• Theory X vs Theory Y management approaches: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_X_and_Theory_Y
• Reddit thread about Eat That Frog: https://www.reddit.com/r/productivity/comments/108tgov/eat_that_frog/

Find out more about us and our work at crownandreach.com

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We've just published the video from our first-ever Multiverse Mapping Live! session, and this podcast episode is the debrief we had straight after we finished recording.

We recorded it while wandering through the woods, complete with a crumbling walkway and the occasional navigational hiccough.

Some stuff we talked about

• Tom was sweating bullets the whole time, but thankfully it didn't come across
• How do we remember to do more of the zooming out? That's when everything clicks!
• How to "close the game" properly (shoutout Dave Gray)
• Why some experiments need an overnight digestion period
• The challenge of delivering insights on a schedule vs. letting them emerge naturally
• How to turn your expertise into live content (even when you're terrified)
• The difference between safe, prefabricated examples and real-world messiness
• Why "interesting things are interesting if you're interested in them" might be our most profound insight yet

This is what strategy work actually looks like - not the polished case studies, but the real, messy, human process of figuring things out together.

AND we're looking for volunteer #2. Could that be you? Drop us a message: [email protected]

• Pragati Sinha (session participant): https://www.linkedin.com/in/pragatisinha/
• Katia Tkachenko 👋 (who suggested Twitch streaming 3 years ago)
• Dave Gray's "Gamestorming" book https://gamestorming.com/
• Rob Snyder's PULL framework https://howtogrow.substack.com/p/the-pull-framework
• Multiverse Mapping method/course https://multiversemapping.com
• Innovation Tactics deck https://collabs.shop/yxzsjg
• Can I ship a new business idea in an hour? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0Kma97f9v4

Contact:

• tentacles@crownandreach.com
• crownandreach.com

Find out more about us and our work at crownandreach.com

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Cover up! It's sunny out.

When uncertainty feels impossible, most teams freeze. In this episode Tom and Corissa unpack a three-phase cycle that's powered by getting it wrong first.

They unpack their "Unpack, Unleash, Unfold" framework through real examples - from a messy logo redesign to a heart rate variability app that nobody could figure out how to use.

We also float across the vision chasm between leadership and teams and realise it isn't a bug, it's a feature.

Plus: how embracing deliberate wrongness can accelerate breakthrough.

Including-but-not-limited-to

• Why your detailed vision might be holding you back
• The logo redesign that's a very simple example of how unpack, unleash, unfold works
• How a month-long breathing challenge took 3 or 4 unfoldings to get to, and is now revealing hidden product insights
• Markets are terrible at knowing what they want but brilliant at reacting to options
• The curse of knowledge that kills every internal product demo
• Building bridges over the vision chasm (or knowing when not to bother)
• Why some people thrive in uncertainty while others need linear processes

Plus: An (another) introduction to "pitch provocations" - their method for being deliberately wrong in exactly the right way.

Perfect for product teams, strategists, and anyone trying to build something meaningful in an uncertain world.

If you have questions, stories to share, or ideas for a better name for "unleash" (maybe "understudy" or "undergo") – drop us an email: [email protected]

• Episode 112: Unpacking, unleashing and unfolding part 1 https://shows.acast.com/tentacles/episodes/685ffe34081ac1df5d8cb371
• Article: Bunny Ducking – part 3 of the vision chasm series https://reach.crownandreach.com/posts/bunny-ducking
• Innovation Tactics by Pip Decks https://pipdecks.com/products/innovation-tactics
• Pitch Provocations card (front | back)
• Episode 007: Pitch Provocations part 1 https://shows.acast.com/triggerstrategy/episodes/663109cbcff31b0012ae9326

Find out more about us and our work at crownandreach.com

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Why do successful projects always end up radically different from how they started? And why do failed projects stick religiously to their original plan?

In this episode, we cast our tentacles over three critical but overlooked manoeuvres: unpacking, unleashing and unfolding. (NB. we only explicitly label unpacking and unfolding in the podcast).

Referencing articles by the brilliant Adam Mastroianni and Henrik Karlsson, we explore how these deeply related but very different movements can transform everything from product development to life decisions.

From buying sheds to breathing apps, in this episode we reveal the meta-pattern behind all our most effective methods.

Including:

• The "university professor test" that reveals career misconceptions in seconds
• Why your brain's shortcuts are both essential and dangerous
• The difference between scripted iteration (polishing toward a known goal) and unfolding iteration (discovering ideas you couldn't have had before)
• Unpacking and unfolding applied to a heart rate variability bio-feedback app (say that fast 10 times)
• Why sitting with stress and strain can ready you for breakthrough ideas
• Why becoming your own customer reveals more than months of analytics
• How dance teaching principles apply to app design and product development
• The data-driven catch-22 that traps many a digital product team
• One simple practice that changes how you see everything

Get in touch and share your stories of unpacking, unleashing and unfolding: [email protected]

• Unpacking: Adam Mastroianni's Face It: you're a crazy person https://www.experimental-history.com/p/face-it-youre-a-crazy-person
• Unfolding: Henrik Karlsson's Everything that turned out well in my life followed the same design process https://www.henrikkarlsson.xyz/p/unfolding
• Jennifer Garvey Berger of Unlocking Leadership Mindtraps https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifer-garvey-berger-7b4a264/
• Ben Jesson of Conversion Rate Experts https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjesson/
• Multiverse Mapping https://multiversemapping.com/
• Signals > Stories > Options https://triggerstrategy.substack.com/p/signals-stories-options

Find out more about us and our work at crownandreach.com

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What do lumpy compost, underwhelming basil, and internal influence have in common?

Tom's Pip Decks deck, Innovation Tactics, contains a popular card called Seeds vs Soil. At time of writing, the concepts of gardening were purely theoretical to him. But now we've dipped our toes into the complex world of home horticulture, we thought we'd revisit the tactic, and share some stories of failure, "fine" soil and fennel.

This became a springboard for a dive into how people—especially those without positional power—can get unstuck and make progress inside complex, boggy organisations. A riff on experimentation, disappointment, and the quiet joy when a seedling pokes its little green head up.

Hear us wrestle with:

• When to invest in soil prep—and when to just throw seeds down and see what grows
• Why half-baked experiments are a good way to tune your appetite for risk
• The three routes to career progress: power, influence, and acceptance
• How to gently test ideas at work without stepping on toes (too hard)
• Tromboncino squash, borage porridge, and general botanical misadventures

References:

• Innovation Tactics from Pip Decks https://pipdecks.com/products/innovation-tactics
• Dave Snowden’s Cynefin framework https://cynefin.io/wiki/Cynefin
• Especially the linear construction of Cynefin: https://cynefin.io/wiki/Linear_construction_of_Cynefin
• Episode 103: Competence, control and consequences https://shows.acast.com/triggerstrategy/episodes/103-competence-control-and-consequences (original concept from Scott Berkun's Why Design Is Hard)
• Episode 048: Conceptual Models https://shows.acast.com/triggerstrategy/episodes/048-conceptual-models
• Episode 038: Creativity, innovation and a flawed coffee machine https://shows.acast.com/triggerstrategy/episodes/663109cbcff31b0012ae9307
• Watchful Waiting from Tom's article with John Cutler https://cutlefish.substack.com/p/tbm-274-how-capable-leaders-navigate?open=false#%C2%A7patience-and-self-repair
• Seeds vs Soil (tactic in Pip Decks) [ front | back ]
• Alex Komoroske's viral deck Coordination Headwinds: how organisations are like slime molds https://komoroske.com/slime-mold/
• Alex on Lenny's podcast talking more about gardening: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/unconventional-product-advice-alex-komoroske

Find out more about us and our work at crownandreach.com

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This time on Tentacles, we do something a little messy and dangerous: we put our own method through itself. That’s right: Pitch Provocations is being pitch provoked.

It's one of our experimental working-out-loud conversations, that's sometimes insightful and sometimes ridiculous.

• Can you compress 12 months of strategic learning into 3 weeks?
• Why most “market research” just creates more ideas, not clarity
• The political awkwardness of selling "painkillers not vitamins" in B2B
• Taste vs Tool belts – how do you tell the difference between someone with good "product taste" and an overconfident asshole?
• What AI can (and can’t) do for folks who want to develop their product taste
• How we’re testing ways to explain Pitch Provocations to make it easier to sell
• Why “doing all the things” is seductive but self-defeating
• Why watching someone’s face is better than any survey.

If you’ve ever struggled to explain your work, or wondered if AI is making everything worse—this one’s for you.

As mentioned in the episode, we're currently putting Pitch Provocations through itself, which means we're looking for thoughtful humans to react to a handful of our rough, probably-wrong pitches.

If you're C-suite or C-suite adjacent and you're curious about what we do (or just want a peek behind the scenes), drop us a line at [email protected]. You'll help us learn—and we’ll share the playbook with you so you can steal the method.

References

• Rob Snyder's PULL framework: https://howtogrow.substack.com/p/the-pull-framework
• We talked about "Taste" in https://triggerstrategy.substack.com/p/we-need-to-talk-about-airbnb
• The Reach Newsletter: https://reach.crownandreach.com/
• Lake Wobegon Effect: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Wobegon#The_Lake_Wobegon_effect

Find out more about us and our work at crownandreach.com

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What counts as a “stupid idea”? The "out there" one that makes everyone look at you funny, or the safe, respectable one that slowly kills your business?

We took a break from rebrand logistics and wandered up and down the road talking about how people and teams judge ideas.

Teams often close the filter way too tightly for fear of having no filter at all. We talk about the hidden risks of focus and brainstorms, why coherence matters more than consensus, and how our Pitch Provocations method helps teams safely test the uncomfortable stuff.

You can now reach us at [email protected]. Thanks for walking with us x

In this episode:

• Why “there are no bad ideas!” is a well-meaning lie, and what to do instead
• The coherence trick, and using it to find your boundaries
• How to spot hidden stupidity in apparently safe ideas
• What most orgs get wrong about experimentation
• A practical method for killing pet ideas without hurting feelings

References

• JP Castlin's Strategy in Praxis, home of the article that sparked the episode https://strategyinpraxis.substack.com/
• Andrew Anderson's “You make more money when you’re wrong” idea https://cxl.com/blog/5-tactics-to-changing-how-your-organization-thinks-about-optimization/
• Pitch Provocations – Crown & Reach's lightweight testing method. Also explored way back in episode 07 https://shows.acast.com/triggerstrategy/episodes/663109cbcff31b0012ae9326

Find out more about us and our work at crownandreach.com

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We were going to record a proper episode when we discovered that Coriss'a Otter.ai app had already done the job, while in Corissa’s pocket, mid toddler-wrangling.

This micro-episode is a dramatic reading of the resulting auto-transcript. We think it's a deeply serious and often moving window into the age of AI.

No notes.

Find out more about us and our work at crownandreach.com

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Why is it so hard to start something — whether it’s a blog post, a new product, or a strategic shift?

In this episode of Tentacles, we read out a note from Henrik Karlsson about the fear and freedom and unfolding in first drafts.

We see how this links with journaling, testing app loops, multiverse mapping, design sprints, and what poultry farming can teach us about intuition.

Learning in public, making peace with mess, and pulling the gold back out of garbage.

• Why your first draft should go straight in the bin — and with joy
• How product teams get trapped in “perfect plans” and miss the real work
• What chick sexing can teach us about tacit knowledge and intuition
• How to test your new business idea with words and a Sharpie
• The subtle trap of fear disguised as “planning”
• Why your best intro might be hidden halfway down the page
• A reframe of user testing that makes it feel less like judgment and more like treasure hunting

• Henrik Karlsson https://www.henrikkarlsson.xyz, especially the essay Looking for Alice https://www.henrikkarlsson.xyz/p/looking-for-alice
• Sasha Chapin essay https://sashachapin.substack.com/p/if-you-have-writers-block-maybe-you
• Multiverse Mapping, a visual collaborative process for mapping and stress-testing strategic intent https://multiversemapping.com/
• Design Sprints, originally from Google Ventures, covered in the book Sprint by Jake Knapp
• 750 Words 750words.com, a site for daily stream-of-consciousness journaling
• Design Testing Methods like transcribing live interviews, paper prototyping with Sharpies, copy-first testing
• “Write drunk, edit sober” often misattributed to Hemingway
• Chick sexing, the practice of identifying baby chicken gender, often cited in intuition training
• Hard Test, Easy Life https://triggerstrategy.substack.com/p/stop-polishing-turd-products-with
• Pivot Triggers, Crown & Reach’s approach to structured learning from unexpected results
• Innovation Tactics Pip Deck https://pipdecks.com/products/innovation-tactics

Find out more about our work at crownandreach.com

Find out more about us and our work at crownandreach.com

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How do you know what to build when you're surrounded by opinions, uncertainty, and the seductive chaos of a big idea? In this episode, we tackle a listener’s question about testing product ideas, avoiding overbuild, and learning fast—without fooling yourself. Along the way, we revisit an obscure PlayStation metaphor, share painful lessons from financial services UX, and lay out a practical path to avoid launching yet another bloated Figma-instead-of-Illustrator mistake.

• Why most "customer interviews" are secretly fear-dressed-as-research
• The difference between designing with someone vs for someone
• How to spot when your idea is turning into a Katamari Damacy chaos ball
• The simple mental shift that helps avoid product bloat
• What the “hard test, easy life” mantra looks like in practice
• Why your slick UX might be hiding a terrifying mess
• A 48-hour rule to force real-world contact before you overthink it

References:

• Multiverse Mapping, our framework for co-evolving ideas with real-world signals https://multiversemapping.com/
• David Ogilvy “People don’t think what they feel, don’t say what they think, and don’t do what they say.”
• Katamari Damacy – surreal PlayStation game where you roll a ball that picks up stuff and grows absurdly large [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katamari_Damacy]
• Figma vs Adobe Illustrator, as a metaphor for building lightweight, use-first tools vs bloated, fully featured ones
• Curse of Knowledge, the cognitive bias where experts struggle to imagine what it’s like not to know something
• Noah Kagan’s 48-hour challenge – get a paying customer within 48 hours of an idea. From Million Dollar Weekend https://noahkagan.com/mdwbook/
• Hard Test, Easy Life https://triggerstrategy.substack.com/p/stop-polishing-turd-products-with
• Innovation Tactics Pip Deck https://pipdecks.com/products/innovation-tactics
• Safe-to-fail probes – idea from Dave Snowden https://cynefin.io/wiki/Safe_to_fail_probes

Find out more about our work at crownandreach.com/

Find out more about us and our work at crownandreach.com

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