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Faster Than Normal
Psychology & Behavior

Bright Spots

Model #0891Category: Psychology & BehaviorSource: Chip Heath / Dan HeathDepth to apply:
3 min read

Contents

  1. 1. Core Idea
  2. 2. How to See It
  3. 3. How to Use It
  4. 4. Founders & Leaders
  5. 5. Connected Models
  6. 6. One Key Quote
  7. 7. Summary & Further Reading
Psychology & Behavior
Section 1

Core Idea

Bright spots are the positive outliers — people, teams, or cases that succeed where others fail under similar conditions. Instead of only studying failure or the average, study what's already working. The core idea: look for existing success and spread it; don't assume the solution is always new or top-down.

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Section 2

How to See It

Operations & Scaling
You're seeing Bright Spots when one region or team outperforms on retention, conversion, or quality and the first move is to understand why they're different rather than to roll out a generic fix.
Product & Growth
You're seeing Bright Spots when a segment or cohort has unusually good outcomes and the team mines that segment for behaviour and triggers instead of only optimising the average user.
Section 3

How to Use It

When a metric or outcome is poor overall, find the bright spots — where it's already good. Study what they do differently: context, behaviour, process. Replicate or adapt that before layering new initiatives. Use bright spots to generate hypotheses and to show that success is already possible.
Decision filter
"Before we design a new solution, do we know who's already succeeding and why? If not, find the bright spots first."
As a founder
When something isn't working at scale, ask: who is it working for? Study those bright spots in detail and spread what they do. Use them as proof that the goal is achievable and as a source of scalable practice.
Section 5

Founders & Leaders

Andy GroveCEO, Intel; author, High Output Management
Grove focused on output and on learning from what worked. Founders can apply the bright-spots lens by making "who's already doing this well?" a standard question before big change — and by investing in understanding and replicating those outliers.
Section 7

Connected Models

Reinforces
Positive Deviance
Positive deviance is the practice of finding and scaling behaviour that already works in difficult settings. Bright spots is the same idea: find the positive outlier and learn from it. Use both to avoid solutioneering before learning from success.
Reinforces
Best Practice
Best practice is codifying what works. Bright spots identify where it works; best practice spreads it. Find bright spots first, then codify and share so the practice scales.
Tension
Survivorship Bias
We see winners, not the full set. The tension: bright spots are survivors. Study them for what they did, but check whether the same behaviour failed elsewhere — avoid assuming correlation is causation.
Section 8

One Key Quote

"Find the bright spots. What's working? What's different? Clone the success before you try to fix the rest."
— Chip and Dan Heath, Switch
Section 11

Summary & Further Reading

Bright spots are positive outliers — success under the same conditions as failure. Use them by finding who's already succeeding, understanding why, and replicating before adding new solutions. Study and spread what works; don't only fix what's broken.

Why this matters next

mental modelsSurvivorship Bias

Bright Spots applied the Survivorship Bias mental model

mental modelsScale

Bright Spots applied the Scale mental model

mental modelsQuality

Bright Spots applied the Quality mental model

mental modelsBright Spots

Bright Spots applied the Bright Spots mental model

mental modelsOutliers

Bright Spots applied the Outliers mental model

mental modelsChange

Bright Spots applied the Change mental model

Frequently asked questions

What is Bright Spots?

Bright Spots is a mental model used for better thinking and decision-making.

How do you apply Bright Spots?

To apply Bright Spots, identify situations where this framework is relevant, then use it as a lens to evaluate your options and decisions. The model is most useful when combined with other complementary mental models.

What category does Bright Spots fall under?

Bright Spots falls under the Psychology & Behavior category of mental models. Other models in this category can be found on the Psychology & Behavior hub page.

Why is Bright Spots important?

Bright Spots is important because it provides a structured way to think about problems that would otherwise be approached with intuition alone. Understanding this model helps you avoid common reasoning errors and make better decisions.

Where does Bright Spots come from?

Bright Spots is discussed in the tradition of Chip Heath / Dan Heath.

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