The Curse of Knowledge is a cognitive bias in which people with expertise find it difficult to imagine what it is like to lack that expertise. Once you know something, it's very hard to remember what it was like not to know it. This creates systematic failures in communication: experts design products, write documentation, and give presentations that are incomprehensible to novices because they cannot accurately model the novice's perspective.
Hanlon's Razor is the heuristic "never attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by ignorance, incompetence, or error." It is a practical application of Occam's Razor to attributions of human intent — directing us to prefer the simpler explanation (mistake) over the more loaded one (bad faith) when both are plausible. Named after Robert J. Hanlon, it counteracts the Fundamental Attribution Error in interpersonal and organisational contexts.
The Ladder of Inference is a model developed by Chris Argyris and popularised by Peter Senge that describes the rapid, mostly unconscious process by which we move from raw observation to action through a series of inference steps. We select data, add meaning, make assumptions, draw conclusions, form beliefs, and take action — typically without awareness of the intermediate steps. The result: people in the same situation construct dramatically different realities and act on them with certainty, without realising how much interpretation shaped what they 'saw.'
A structured preparation framework for high-stakes negotiations using BATNA, Steel Manning, and Anchoring Bias awareness. Covers salary negotiations, deal negotiations, partnership terms, and conflict resolution conversations. Preparation is where most negotiations are won or lost — this framework shows you how to do it properly.
A step-by-step framework for managers and team leads navigating interpersonal conflict at work — using Hanlon's Razor, the Ladder of Inference, and Nonviolent Communication. Covers both individual conflict resolution conversations and persistent team dynamic problems. The goal is not just to end the conflict but to address its actual source.
Storyboarding is a visual narrative technique originally developed at Walt Disney Studios in the 1930s that uses sequential images (with optional annotations) to map out a story, experience, or process before it is built. In product design and service design, storyboarding makes abstract user journeys concrete, reveals friction and delight points, communicates vision across teams, and identifies failure modes early. It is one of the most powerful tools for aligning cross-functional teams around a shared understanding of experience design.