37signals on How to Make Decisions

18 Sep 2024ideas

Background

Here’s a useful list of questions on decision-making by the software company 37signals.

Questions to ask

  • Why are we deciding anything at all? Does a decision actually need to be made here?
  • Is the right person making this decision? Not the right role, but the right person with the right information, context, and insight? Who’s merely chiming in?
  • If we remove the immediate impact, how do we think we’ll feel about this decision a year from now?
  • Why hasn’t this decision been made already? Why didn’t we decide before?
  • What’s taking so long to make this decision? Why are we hesitating? What does that reveal?
  • Why would someone else make a different decision? What’s the other side — or two or three — look like?
  • Can we make this decision smaller? Can we take one big decision and turn it into three smaller ones?
  • How easily can we reverse the decision?
  • What was our first instinct on this decision? Are we now just walking around in circles trying to justify that gut reaction with data?
  • What would happen if we just didn’t make the decision?
  • What happened the last time we made a decision like this?
  • What are we looking forward to after the decision is made? What are we afraid of?
  • How can we make this decision easier? What parts can we eliminate from consideration?
  • Is there even a wrong decision?
  • Do we anticipate making a different decision if we wait until tomorrow morning to make it?
  • Is any decision better than no decision, or is no decision better than any decision?
  • What other decisions will be impacted by this decision?
  • Will this decision eliminate the need to make other decisions, or will it create the necessity to make even more decisions?
  • What missing information would lead to making a different decision?
  • Will this decision make more work for people that don’t have extra time for that work? Or will it eliminate work?
  • Could this decision be a good one for someone else to practice making?
  • When do we have to decide?
  • Will this be a one-and-done decision, or will this be a repeating decision?
  • Is anyone outside the company depending on this, or is this a decision of our own making?
  • How does this decision impact customers vs. impact us?
  • Is this primarily a data-based decision, or an intuition, gut-based decision?
  • Would another opinion help or hinder?
  • If we were forced to make a decision right this second, what would it be?
  • Where do we think we’d be today if we made this decision 90 days ago?
  • Is there anything in this decision we’d regret if we didn’t take X, Y, or Z into consideration?
  • Do you even care which way this goes? If not, why are you involved?
  • When and how will we know whether the decision was the right one, or if it even mattered?
  • When the consequences of our decision appear, are they likely to be visible with the naked eye or do they require a microscope to detect? If the latter, does it even matter?
  • What principles are we bending if we make this decision?
  • Are we asking multiple people to make a decision that one person should be making?
  • Is the return on effort worth it?
  • What gets easier if we make this decision? What gets harder? Will easier remain easier in the long term, or is it short-term easy but long-term hard? And vice versa.
  • In the end, is this about money?

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