I read this slowly. Not because of its length, but because I resonated deeply with the intent. I’ve been circling similar thoughts for months around funnels, pirate, flywheel etc. Your write-up brought clarity at multiple levels. Thank you for sharing it.
I work with leaders who are running the pirate model on their own teams without realising it. Every performance review cycle, every OKR cascade, every sprint velocity metric extraction engines dressed up as management practice. The question they never ask is: what is the experience of being led by me?
The user journey framing is more radical than it looks. It asks you to design from the other person's reality, not from what you need to measure. That's a different kind of leadership and a much harder one to fake.
This is a generous and principled reframing, Jurgen.
What I appreciate most is that you didn’t just replace one framework with another. You shifted the intent behind the framework itself. By treating growth as an experience to be navigated rather than a value to be extracted, you give Solo Chiefs a way to manage their work without slowly eroding trust, energy, or attention.
The ten-step journey reads less like a funnel redesign and more like an operating system for creators who care about orientation, dignity, and long-term usefulness. The attention to onboarding and offboarding in particular signals a level of maturity that is still rare in creator and product writing.
This feels like the kind of map that becomes more valuable when others begin comparing notes and layering their own terrain onto it.
I read this slowly. Not because of its length, but because I resonated deeply with the intent. I’ve been circling similar thoughts for months around funnels, pirate, flywheel etc. Your write-up brought clarity at multiple levels. Thank you for sharing it.
Glad you like it!
I work with leaders who are running the pirate model on their own teams without realising it. Every performance review cycle, every OKR cascade, every sprint velocity metric extraction engines dressed up as management practice. The question they never ask is: what is the experience of being led by me?
The user journey framing is more radical than it looks. It asks you to design from the other person's reality, not from what you need to measure. That's a different kind of leadership and a much harder one to fake.
This is a generous and principled reframing, Jurgen.
What I appreciate most is that you didn’t just replace one framework with another. You shifted the intent behind the framework itself. By treating growth as an experience to be navigated rather than a value to be extracted, you give Solo Chiefs a way to manage their work without slowly eroding trust, energy, or attention.
The ten-step journey reads less like a funnel redesign and more like an operating system for creators who care about orientation, dignity, and long-term usefulness. The attention to onboarding and offboarding in particular signals a level of maturity that is still rare in creator and product writing.
This feels like the kind of map that becomes more valuable when others begin comparing notes and layering their own terrain onto it.
Thank you! Glad I'm not the only one who thinks this makes more sense. 🙂
I love this.
Happy to hear!
Lovely. Lovely.
I enjoyed reading this. It made me realise I’ve definitely built a revenue funnel vs a clear user journey. Off to Excalidraw I go…
Understandable. Extraction is the default. Enjoy the redesign!