flywheel

name	flywheel
description	Build and optimize self-reinforcing growth loops using Jim Collins's Flywheel Effect. Use when feeling stuck despite being busy, aligning teams around strategy, prioritizing initiatives, diagnosing why growth isn't compounding, or communicating strategy simply. Interactive and output-focused - produces flywheel maps, momentum diagnostics, and prioritization frameworks.

Flywheel Effect Skill

Help builders identify and accelerate the self-reinforcing loop that drives their business.

Core Idea

Sustainable success comes from consistently pushing a flywheel - a sequence of activities where each step powers the next. Momentum compounds over time. The alternative is the "doom loop" - lurching between strategies, never building cumulative advantage.

Key insight: There's no single big push. It's the cumulative effect of many aligned efforts in a consistent direction.

Workflows

1. Flywheel Discovery

Use when: "What's our flywheel?" or "How do our activities connect?"

Approach: Guide the user through identifying their core loop by examining what drives their best outcomes.

Questions to ask:

1. "What does your business/product do? Who is it for?"
2. "Think of your best period of growth. What was happening?"
3. "When things go well, what causes more good things to happen?"
4. "What's the one thing that, if it improved, would improve everything else?"
5. "How do your customers/users create value for other customers/users?"

Discovery prompts:

• "If you had to describe your success as a loop, what are the steps?"
• "What inputs create outputs that become new inputs?"
• "Where does momentum come from in your business?"

Output: Draft flywheel with 4-6 components in a reinforcing loop.

Component A → Component B → Component C → Component D → (back to A)

2. Flywheel Mapping

Use when: "Help me visualize our flywheel" or "I need to communicate our strategy"

Approach: Structure and refine the flywheel into a clear, communicable diagram.

For detailed guidance, read references/flywheel-fundamentals.md

A good flywheel has:

• 4-6 components - Simple enough to remember, complete enough to capture the loop
• Clear causation - Each step clearly causes the next
• Self-reinforcing - The loop accelerates itself over time
• Unique to you - Reflects your specific competitive advantage

Mapping questions:

1. "Walk me through each step. How does A cause B?"
2. "Is anything missing? What else enables this loop?"
3. "Is anything extra? What doesn't truly drive the next step?"
4. "Where does the loop start for a new customer?"
5. "What would break this loop if it stopped?"

Output: Refined flywheel diagram with:

• Component names (verb + noun format: "Attract creators")
• Causal arrows with explanations
• Entry point marked

See assets/templates/flywheel-canvas.md for the template.

3. Momentum Diagnosis

Use when: "Why aren't we growing faster?" or "Where is our flywheel stuck?"

Approach: Identify which component is the bottleneck slowing the entire loop.

Key insight: The flywheel is only as fast as its slowest component. Strengthening a strong component while ignoring a weak one wastes effort.

Diagnostic questions:

1. "Walk me through each component. How is it performing?"
2. "Which step feels hardest right now?"
3. "Where do you lose people/momentum in the loop?"
4. "If you could magically fix one component, which would have the biggest impact?"
5. "What's changed recently? Where did you used to be stronger?"

For each component, assess:

• Strength: How well is this working? (1-10)
• Trend: Improving, stable, or declining?
• Evidence: What data/signals tell you this?

Output: Momentum diagnostic with:

• Bottleneck identification
• Root cause analysis
• Recommended focus area

For detailed diagnostic framework, read references/flywheel-fundamentals.md

4. Initiative Prioritization

Use when: "What should we work on?" or "How do I prioritize our roadmap?"

Approach: Evaluate initiatives by their impact on the flywheel's weakest component.

The principle: Prioritize work that:

1. Strengthens the bottleneck component, OR
2. Strengthens connections between components

Prioritization questions:

1. "What initiatives are you considering?"
2. "Which flywheel component does each initiative impact?"
3. "Does it address the bottleneck or a strong component?"
4. "Does it strengthen a connection or just a single component?"
5. "How directly does it impact the flywheel vs. indirect/hopeful?"

Scoring framework:

Factor	Score
Directly addresses bottleneck	+3
Strengthens connection between components	+2
Improves strong component	+1
Unclear flywheel connection	0
Distracts from flywheel	-1

Output: Prioritized initiative list with flywheel impact scores.

5. Doom Loop Detection

Use when: "Are we making progress?" or "Why does every year feel like starting over?"

Approach: Diagnose whether the team is in a flywheel (compounding) or doom loop (thrashing).

For detailed framework, read references/doom-loop.md

Doom loop signs:

• Frequent strategy changes
• Chasing competitors' moves
• New initiatives before old ones compound
• "This time will be different" mentality
• Success attributed to single events, not cumulative effort

Flywheel signs:

• Consistent strategy over years
• Initiatives build on each other
• Success feels "inevitable" in retrospect
• Clear "no" to off-strategy opportunities
• Each year builds on the last

Diagnostic questions:

1. "How many major strategy changes in the last 3 years?"
2. "Do your current initiatives build on past ones or replace them?"
3. "Can everyone on the team articulate the same flywheel?"
4. "What opportunities have you said no to? Why?"
5. "Looking back 2 years, can you see cumulative momentum?"

Output: Doom loop vs. flywheel assessment with specific evidence and recommendations.

6. Flywheel Extension

Use when: "How do we accelerate?" or "What's our next phase of growth?"

Approach: Identify ways to add energy to the flywheel or extend it into adjacent loops.

Extension strategies:

1. Reduce friction - Remove obstacles that slow each step
2. Add fuel - Increase inputs that power each step
3. Add loops - Create secondary flywheels that feed the primary
4. Network effects - Make the flywheel stronger as it grows

Extension questions:

1. "What slows down each component? What would remove that friction?"
2. "What inputs could you add to accelerate each step?"
3. "Are there adjacent loops that could feed into this one?"
4. "Does your flywheel get stronger as you grow? How?"

Output: Extension opportunities with prioritized recommendations.

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Quick Reference

Flywheel Anatomy

        ┌─────────────────────┐
        │    Component A      │
        │   (Starting point)  │
        └──────────┬──────────┘
                   │ causes
                   ▼
        ┌─────────────────────┐
        │    Component B      │
        └──────────┬──────────┘
                   │ causes
                   ▼
        ┌─────────────────────┐
        │    Component C      │
        └──────────┬──────────┘
                   │ causes
                   ▼
        ┌─────────────────────┐
        │    Component D      │
        └──────────┬──────────┘
                   │ causes
                   │
                   └──────────► back to A

Good vs. Bad Flywheels

Bad Flywheel	Good Flywheel
8+ components (too complex)	4-6 components (memorable)
Vague causation ("leads to")	Clear causation ("because")
Could apply to any company	Unique to your advantage
Relies on external factors	Self-reinforcing internally
Linear (A→B→C, stops)	Circular (loops back)

Flywheel vs. Doom Loop

Flywheel	Doom Loop
Consistent direction	Frequent pivots
Builds on past work	Abandons past work
Momentum compounds	Every year restarts
Clear shared strategy	Confusion about strategy
Success feels inevitable	Success feels lucky

Common Flywheel Patterns

Business Type	Common Pattern
Marketplace	Sellers → Selection → Buyers → Sellers
SaaS	Users → Data → Product → Users
Content	Creators → Content → Audience → Creators
E-commerce	Traffic → Sales → Reviews → Traffic

For more patterns, see references/common-patterns.md

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Reference Files

• references/flywheel-fundamentals.md - Core concepts and momentum physics
• references/common-patterns.md - Flywheel examples by business type
• references/doom-loop.md - Detecting and escaping the doom loop

Templates

• assets/templates/flywheel-canvas.md - Full flywheel mapping template
• assets/templates/momentum-assessment.md - Bottleneck diagnosis template

Attribution

This framework is based on Jim Collins's work in "Good to Great" (2001) and "Turning the Flywheel" (2019).