Study guide
Problem Solving & Decision Making study guide
Life presents problems that rarely have obvious answers. Effective problem solving requires more than intelligence — it requires a repeatable process.
- Modules
- 7 modules
- Lessons
- 48 lessons
- Estimated time
- ~12-16 hours
- Key terms
- 105 key terms
How to work through it
- 1. Follow the order below. The modules build on each other — start at the top and work down.
- 2. Recall before you re-read. After each lesson, try to explain the idea from memory, then check yourself with the flashcards.
- 3. Test at the end of each module. The quizzes below show what stuck and what to review.
Full lesson outline
Module 1. Understanding Problems
Module 2. Making Better Decisions
Module 3. Tackling Complex Problems
Module 4. Sharper Judgment
Module 5. The Problem-Solving Mind
Module 6. Great Problem Solvers
Module 7. Solving Problems Together
Practise & review
- Glossary105 terms defined in plain language
- FlashcardsDrill the vocabulary with active recall
- Understanding Problems quiz13 questions, graded instantly
- Making Better Decisions quiz14 questions, graded instantly
- Tackling Complex Problems quiz14 questions, graded instantly
- Sharper Judgment quiz14 questions, graded instantly
- The Problem-Solving Mind quiz14 questions, graded instantly
- Great Problem Solvers quiz14 questions, graded instantly
- Solving Problems Together quiz14 questions, graded instantly
Key terms
The vocabulary you’ll meet, each linked to its full definition in the glossary.
- A/B testing
- Analogical transfer
- Anchoring
- Balancing loop
- Bias blind spot
- Blameless post-mortem
- Blameless review
- Bottleneck
- Brainwriting
- Build-measure-learn
- Cause-and-effect diagram
- Checklist
- Chunking
- Codebreaking
- Collective intelligence
- Constraint
- Constraint relaxation
- Contributing cause
- Convergent thinking
- Countermeasure
- Decision journal
- Decision matrix
- Decision rights
- Decision tree
- Decomposition
- Delay
- Design thinking
- Devil’s advocate
- Disagree and commit
- Divergent thinking
- Downside
- Epidemiological reasoning
- Evaluation criteria
- Expected value
- Feedback loop
- Five Whys
- Functional fixedness
- Groupthink
- Heuristic
- Hindsight bias
- Hypothesis-driven analysis
- Ill-structured problem
- Improvisation under constraints
- Incubation
- Insight
- Intelligent failure
- Issue tree
- Iteration
- Leverage point
- Means-end analysis
- MECE
- Mental set
- Minimum viable product
- Nash equilibrium
- Near miss
- Nominal group
- Objective
- One-way door
- One-way door decision
- Opportunity cost
- Outside view
- PDCA
- Pilot
- Planning fallacy
- Pólya's method
- Post-mortem
- Pre-mortem
- Premortem
- Prepared mind
- Prisoner’s dilemma
- Problem
- Problem framing
- Problem space
- Problem statement
- Production blocking
- Prototype
- Psychological safety
- Recognition-primed decision
- Reframing
- Reinforcing loop
- Resulting
- Reversibility
- Root cause
- Ruin
- Satisficing
- Second-order consequence
- Second-order thinking
- Serendipity
- Shared information bias
- Small batch
- Solution in disguise
- Standard work
- Sunk cost
- Symptom
- System
- Tame problem
- Trade-off
- Two-way door
- Two-way door decision
- Unintended consequence
- Unintended consequences
- Well-defined problem
- Wicked problem
- Wisdom of crowds
- Working backwards