The big idea
⚖️
Decide what matters before you know which option wins
Criteria invented afterwards will reliably favour the option you already preferred.
Problem Solving & Decision Making · Lesson 6
Evaluating Possible Solutions
beginner⏱ 17 min · 7 cards
Try it
Score It
“Criteria and weights written down before options were scored.”
Is this a genuine comparison or a justification?
Tell genuine comparison from justification after the fact.
Compare
Which door is this?
Two-way
Cheaply reversed
Tap.
tap for example ↻
One-way
You live with it
Tap.
tap for example ↻
Most decisions are two-way doors treated as one-way. That is a major source of organisational slowness.
Key term
The cheaper question
Which option is best?
tap to reveal ↻
Wrong question
Ask instead: what is the cheapest way to find out? A week’s pilot produces evidence where a month’s analysis produces an estimate.
Nuance
Two missing rows
Think like a Maester
Add "do nothing" and "the smallest useful version" to every matrix. They cost a minute and regularly change the answer.
Quick check
What three components make something a problem?
You did it
Nice work
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