Practice, Productize, Teach Loop
Turn proven execution into repeatable teaching and organizational knowledge.
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~ongoing to results
- Steps
- 6
- Confidence
- 97%
At DigitalMarketer, Marcus encountered a non-negotiable rule: employees would not teach methods they had not personally used. Practitioners first performed the work, identified what produced results, converted it into a standard operating procedure, and then taught the process to the wider community. Teaching was therefore downstream of execution rather than a substitute for it. This loop strengthens credibility, makes expertise transferable, and exposes gaps that remain hidden when knowledge stays intuitive. Each cycle also produces a better operational asset: practical application generates evidence, productization creates a repeatable method, teaching tests whether others can understand it, and learner outcomes reveal where the SOP needs refinement.
Origin
Extracted from The Jasmine Star Show through Marcus Murphy's description of DigitalMarketer's practitioner-led education model.
Core principles
- 01Teach only what you have applied in practice.
- 02Convert successful work into a repeatable process.
- 03Teaching forces practitioners to clarify what works.
- 04Credibility grows from evidence rather than theory.
- 05Organizational knowledge should compound instead of staying implicit.
How to run it
- 1
Select a live problem
Choose a meaningful problem that you or your team must solve in real operations. Define what a successful result would look like.
Pro tip Prefer recurring problems because a reusable method will create more value.
Watch out Do not begin by designing a course around an untested opinion.
- 2
Perform the work
Execute the solution in the field and document decisions, actions, failures, and results. Distinguish what happened from what you expected to happen.
Pro tip Capture artifacts such as scripts, templates, metrics, and decision notes as you work.
Watch out One successful result may be situational rather than repeatable.
- 3
Extract the method
Identify the sequence, rules, and tools that materially influenced the result. Remove incidental details that others do not need.
Pro tip Test whether each step has a clear input, action, and output.
Watch out Do not turn correlation or hindsight into a false causal claim.
- 4
Productize the process
Write the method as an SOP, checklist, template, or other usable product. Make assumptions and prerequisites explicit.
Pro tip Have another practitioner follow the documentation without verbal assistance.
Watch out Documentation that depends on the creator's intuition is not yet productized.
- 5
Teach from evidence
Explain the method using actual decisions, results, and limitations from the work. Demonstrate the process rather than presenting theory alone.
Pro tip Show failed attempts as well as the successful path so learners understand the boundaries.
Watch out Do not imply that one context guarantees universal results.
- 6
Refine through use
Observe where learners struggle and whether they reproduce the intended result. Update the SOP using that evidence and repeat the cycle.
Pro tip Track questions that repeatedly arise; they often reveal missing steps.
Watch out Do not preserve a polished lesson after practice shows that it is outdated.
In the wild
Marcus described learning and applying LinkedIn methods while serving on its board. Because DigitalMarketer required practitioners to productize and teach what they did, he translated his working knowledge into instruction for the company's global community rather than teaching unsupported theory.
→ His operational experience became transferable education and expanded his role from executive to educator.
A consultant tests a customer-onboarding sequence with three clients, records the messages and timing that reduce drop-off, and turns the recurring pattern into a checklist. She teaches the checklist to her team, observes where they misapply it, and revises the decision rules before publishing a workshop.
→ The team gains a repeatable onboarding process and the workshop rests on tested evidence.
Common mistakes
Teaching before doing
Theory may sound compelling while hiding constraints and implementation failures that only practice reveals.
Documenting only the happy path
An SOP without exceptions, warnings, or failed approaches leaves learners unable to handle real conditions.
Never closing the feedback loop
Teaching without checking learner outcomes prevents the method from improving through use.
Is it for you?
Best for
It is best for operators, consultants, educators, and teams that want instruction grounded in demonstrated results.
Not ideal for
It is not ideal for subjects that cannot be tested responsibly or for teams unwilling to document and share their work.
From the transcript
“we would never teach something we don't do.”
“So it's a requirement that if you're in the company, you're part of the product, so you productize and create an SOP and you teach…”
“I am very much anti. This is what I feel and think. Yeah, it's like, no, no, no, what'd you do? Right? And are you…”
From the episode
What Pursuing a Big Dream Really Looks Like with Marcus Murphy