We give new upper bounds for the diameters of finite groups which do not depend on a choice of generating set. Our method exploits the commutator structure of certain profinite groups, in a fashion analogous to the Solovay–Kitaev procedure from quantum computation. We obtain polylogarithmic upper bounds for the diameters of finite quotients of groups with an analytic structure over a pro-p domain (with exponent depending on the dimension); Chevalley groups over a pro-p domain (with exponent independent of the dimension) and the Nottingham group of a finite field. We also discuss some consequences of our results for random walks on groups.