Spectrums of Delusion: How Mapping Misalignment Makes Decisions Easier
Misaligned perceptions and maturity often stall decisions, but making them visible through simple spectra can transform chaos into clarity.
In product meetings, the bottleneck is rarely decision-making. It’s misalignment—quiet, unacknowledged, and often disguised as polite disagreement.
I’ve found that most decisions stall not because the team lacks answers, but because they’re answering different questions. One person sees a raw idea full of potential; another sees a half-baked feature they were told to launch next week. One is excited, the other uneasy. And both think they’re on the same page.
This isn’t a problem of disagreement. It’s a problem of hidden variables—perceptions and feelings that go unnamed but shape every reaction in the room.
To expose these variables, I started using a dead-simple tool: two spectra.
Perceived Maturity: Where does this idea sit—half-formed concept or pixel-perfect launch candidate?
Feelings Toward It: Are people excited, skeptical, indifferent?
Plot people on the map. That’s it. That’s the move.
Suddenly, what looked like disagreement becomes geometry. You see that the engineer is excited but thinks the idea is vaporware. The designer thinks it’s fully baked but worries no one wants it. Now the real work begins—not deciding, but aligning.
This framework turns ambiguity into alignment. I’ve watched debates dissolve once people realize they weren’t disagreeing—they were responding to different phases of the same feature. A polished feature that sparks fear? Address the risk. An idea that excites but lacks legs? Develop it further. The map doesn’t decide for you; it tells you why you can’t decide yet.
Most teams aren’t bad at choosing. They’re just misaligned about what they’re choosing. And most frameworks are too heavy to help when you need them. This one fits on a napkin.
You could say this reveals weak leadership. Sure. But leadership is often about building alignment where none exists—not just calling the shots when everyone’s confused.
Alignment isn’t a soft skill. It’s the precondition for velocity. And sometimes, drawing a map is faster than giving another speech.