Evaluate the Options

The structured practice of systematically comparing decision options against explicit criteria before choosing—rather than defaulting to the first plausible option or the most emotionally appealing one. Effective option evaluation requires: (1) Generating MULTIPLE options (at least 3—to avoid the 'whether or not' trap of binary framing). (2) Defining evaluation CRITERIA before examining options (to prevent criteria from being reverse-engineered to justify a preferred option). (3) Assessing each option against each criterion independently. (4) Considering second-order effects and reversibility. As a mental model: the quality of any decision is bounded by the quality of the options considered and the rigor of the evaluation process.

When to use it

When decisions need structured comparison rather than intuitive selection; when the 'whether or not' trap needs to be escaped through option generation; when evaluation criteria should precede rather than follow option assessment; when decision quality depends on evaluation rigor.

How it can help

Before any significant decision: generate at least 3 distinct options and evaluate them against pre-defined criteria. The practice: (1) Define 'what would success look like?' BEFORE generating options. (2) Generate options that are genuinely different (not minor variations of the same approach). (3) Evaluate each against criteria using a simple matrix. (4) For each option: identify what would have to be true for this to be the best choice. (5) Assign a DRI for implementing the chosen option. For entrepreneurs: the 'whether or not' trap (should we do X or not?) is the most common decision error—always generate alternatives to X.