Growth and control biasesfour days beforeWhen we don’t recognize that growth and control are in tension with…Beyond pros and cons

Among engineers and product managers, a pros and cons document is a fairly common practice. The practice calls for outlining a problem statement that defines the scope of solutions, then lists potential solution options, with two lists for each option: a list of pros and a list of cons. It’s a fairly straightforward and easy to follow pattern.

Build a thing to build the thing2023Sometimes, building a thing to build the thing is clarifying like that.…After observing it in the wild, one thing that I am noticing is that this pattern tends to yield somewhat unsatisfying outcomes. Here are some typical failure cases.

In one failure case, as we add the pros and cons, we somehow lose sight of what’s important: the lists just grow with various things we observe about the options, making comparison of options an increasingly arbitrary process. I have seen several of these exercises stall because the pros and cons list became unwieldy and daunting.

Framing and solving diverge-converge exercises2021There’s this fairly common technique: the diverge-converge exercise. I first heard about…Another failure case comes from the flattening that any list forces on decision-making. Among all options, there is usually one or two that stand out as preferred solutions to anyone familiar with the matter, and the other options are there to make a crowd. It’s kind of like the police lineup. Another variation is where the options listed include solutions that aren’t feasible, however desirable. A police lineup with unicorns, I guess.

Sometimes, options look either too similar or too dissimilar to each other, which deflates the decision making process, and an endless debate emerges. Folks who prefer their option keep beefing up its pros, and diminishing the cons. Instead of being a helpful tool, the list becomes the arena of organizational dysfunction.

Let’s give pros and cons a makeover. I’ve been playing with a rev on the practice and it seems to work more effectively. Here’s what I am doing differently.

A vision and a hallucination2022Lenses, framings, and models2022

The structure of a principle2021We had a bit of weather recently, and while waiting for electricity…First, start with the principles. What are the attributes of the solution that are important to us? What are the desired properties that we want the solution to have? Try to limit the number of principles: three to five is a goldilocks range. This might take a little thinking and wrangling of often-conflicting wishes. If you’re new to the concept of principle-crafting, check out this handy guide I wrote a while back.

Life of a solution2022Looking at the framework in the previous piece, I am noticing that…The process of discerning the principles is useful in itself, since it leads to better understanding of the problem and possible solutions. This might not feel like problem-solving, but it’s actually the bulk of it. Knowing what’s important in a solution is the key to finding it.

Prototype the problem2021I was looking for practices that help expand shared mental model space…Using principles we’ve just devised, imagine the ideal solution. If the principles are sound, it will just pop out. We should be able to articulate what it is we’re looking for. Write it out, draw a mock, etc. Principles and the ideal solution don’t have to be approached sequentially: sometimes I have an intuition for an ideal solution first, and then have to articulate why with principles.

Live as our customer2023This tension grows stronger if the difference between the environments is large.…If we’re lucky, this will be the end of the journey, because the ideal solution is something we can already do. If so, let’s do it!

Jankless2021As we Orient, examining our prediction error and updating our model of…Why will this be hard for us?2021I was working on a strategy and helping review another this week,…If not, we move on to studying headwinds. What makes it hard for us to implement this ideal solution? List each reason as a separate headwind, and note which principle it undermines. These require a high level of candor and may be uncomfortable, especially in team cultures that overvalue being agreeable. For example, it might be that our team does not have the right skills, or that the infrastructure we currently use is not a good fit. It is okay to have weaknesses. Knowing our weaknesses helps us make better decisions.

The gifts of failure2023The stepping stones tactic is one way through which we can maximize…Now, let’s look at the alternatives. This is the familiar step where we generate a list of options. Since we’ve already thought about the headwinds, we can lean on them to come up with better options. Which solutions will be resilient to the headwinds? Which ones will manage to avoid them by compromising on the ideal?

Being Strategic2022It all begins with intention. There’s something in our environment – the…Instead of pros and cons, evaluate how far the solution is from our imagined ideal. Think of it as taking on a “principle debt”: how much are we violating our own principles to solve this problem? The farther the solution is from the ideal, the more work we will have to do to get there in the future. At this step, the key is not to get mired in pros and cons. Instead, play the outcomes of the solution forward and understand its effects. How far from the ideal will they take you?

Pick the option that accumulates the least amount of debt. This will no longer be a daunting task. At this point, we’ve done all the thinking, and will have much better clarity on the matter.

Finally, document the ways in which the solution we’ve chosen would not live up to our principles. Again, blunt candor is preferred here. Each of the items in this list is a bug to be fixed, our “principle debt” payment schedule. Set an intention to fix them over time.

A Solution2022If we are looking at a problem, and as we learned earlier,…Don’t skip this last step. Most solutions are compromises. If we found ourselves at this step, we picked something that deviates from the ideal solution. Knowing the shortcomings of the solution is our roadmap, a path to iterate toward what we actually want.

Fighting Email Spam, Part N+12006Do you have any other ideas? Maybe an improvement on my simplistic…Chances to get it rightfive days afterThis has been rolling around in my head for a while, and…Decision-making mindsetslinks here, 2023Instead, I focus on what’s important and let that guide my thinking.…If you’re up for it, give this method a try. Let me know how it works for you. I would love to learn about ways to improve it.