Taking Fast Decisions

24 Feb

Taking fast decisions is crucial in product development, strategy planning and everyday life.

There are cases in which you have a couple of possible valid solutions, and you can feel that one is slightly better than the other, but you can’t figure out which one it is.

In that cases, taking a decision (and it doesn’t matter which one) it’s the right decision: if both the solutions are ok, it doesn’t matter which decision you take, it’s more important taking a fast decision and acting fast than wasting time to deeply analyze all the possibilities you have hoping to find the very best one.

This is the reason why I have on my desk at funambol a magic 8-ball. It’s often used by colleagues for asking important questions like “Will That Girl Notice Me?“, “Do I Have To Eat Pizza Today?“, “Will I Win The Next Foosball Match?” (yes, we do have a foosball table in our office, and we’re pretty competitive) but it’s there also to remember me to take fast decisions.

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About: funambol, product development

5 Responses for "Taking Fast Decisions"

Jamie Cartes February 28th, 2007 at 2:19 am 1
you little shit - you know damn well that when it comes to decisions like - what to have for supper - should be made quickly…

but those decisions that affect your life on a much larger scale - should be made over time.

and with careful consideration.

and you have a spelling error in the first sentence:

planning -

dead give away.
francesco mapelli February 28th, 2007 at 3:27 am 2
Hi Jamie,

Thanks for pointing out my spelling error, and with such manners

It’s true that some decisions should be made over time.

But it’s also true that some other decisions should be made quickly, or the time spent analyzing the possibilities costs you more than the gain you had from the correct decision.

here’s an example:
You have a deadline, your PRD says you should have A, B, C, D in your product… they give the product nearly the same benefits, but you don’t know exactly which one is the most important. They costs the same (1 week each), you have 3 weeks.

CASE 1)
You spend a week and discover the benefits: A=1.1, B=1, C=0.9, D=0.8
You have two weeks, you choose A and B.
total: 2.1

CASE 2)
You don’t know which one is the best, so you choose fast: B, C, D.
total: 2.7

It’s obvious that taking a fast non-optimal decision is better, in this case, dont’ you agree?
Nic March 1st, 2007 at 9:44 pm 3
I’ve been promoting my ‘universal theory of decisions’ for a while now, and I think it’s the most profound thing I’m ever likely to come up with:
“”" a decision is either easy or it doesn’t matter. If you think it’s not one of these, you’re thinking about the wrong decision.”"”
francesco mapelli March 2nd, 2007 at 12:44 am 4
Nic, it’s fascinating…
I still think that sometimes you have to take time to ponder things carefully, but your theory has on its side a very catchy phrase

Have you written a post about it? Give me the url so I can cite you! (I’m m not joking!)
Nic March 2nd, 2007 at 10:46 pm 5
I haven’t written anything on it yet, but I’ve been debating hitting the blogosphere, so maybe you’ve given me the incentive.

Your comment of ’sometimes you need to ponder’ is the classical illustration of the second part: you’re looking at the wrong decision. The right decision is ‘am I in a position to decide at this stage?” and, of course, the answer is easy: No. I need to investigate/ponder more. That frees you from worrying about not having made the original decision, so you can move on to thinking about the thing that matters.

If I write more about it, I’ll let you know