Asking for Options With Pros, Cons, and Trade-offs
Unit ID: PAW-M05-U03 Estimated active time: 20-25 minutes
Ask for options before asking for advice
A single recommendation is hard to argue with and easy to accept for the wrong reasons.
Three options with their trade-offs give you something to think with. You can see what was given up, which a recommendation hides.
Options must be genuinely different
The common failure is three variations of the same idea — do it, do it faster, do it more thoroughly.
Name the axis you want them to differ on:
> Give three options that differ in how much they change existing practice: one that changes nothing structural, one moderate, one that redesigns the process.
Now they are comparable and actually distinct.
Trade-offs, not just pros and cons
Pros and cons are lists. A trade-off names what you give up to get something.
> For each option, state what you gain, what you give up, and what becomes harder later.
That third item — what becomes harder later — is the one people most often discover after committing.
The options table
OPTIONS TABLE
Option | What changes | Gains | Gives up | Harder later | Reversible?
-------|--------------|-------|----------|--------------|------------
A | | | | |
B | | | | |
C | | | | |
Then, separately:
- Which option is best if the priority is speed?
- Which if the priority is not being wrong?
- What would have to be true for the cheapest option to be right?The three questions underneath do more work than the table. They surface the assumption behind a preference.
Include the option of doing nothing
Ask for it explicitly, because it is rarely offered:
> Include "change nothing" as one option, with the same columns.
Sometimes it wins. More often, filling in its columns clarifies what the problem actually costs.
Mini practice
Take a decision you are facing.
Ask for three options on a named axis, with the trade-off columns and "change nothing" included.
Then answer the three questions underneath yourself, before reading any recommendation.