The hottest Decision-making Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
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Top Business Topics

Scenario Planning: Strategy, Steps and Practical Examples

Product Mindset's Newsletter • 11 implied HN points • 28 Jan 24
💼 Business Decision-making
  1. Scenario planning helps organizations prepare for a range of possibilities in an uncertain future.
  2. The scenario planning process involves steps like predicting future drivers, understanding impacts, and gauging effects of scenarios.
  3. Best practices for scenario planning include focusing on key uncertainties, keeping it simple, and fostering a culture of resilience.

Should you take on a turnaround?

Probable Wisdom • 1 HN point • 18 Mar 24
💼 Business Decision-making
  1. Consider the level of commitment and urgency in a turnaround opportunity, as they shape the conditions and leadership needed.
  2. Evaluate if the turnaround opportunity aligns with your personal goals and capabilities to ensure a good fit.
  3. Different types of turnarounds require different leadership archetypes like Prophets, Heroes, Pathbreakers, and Maestros, based on varying levels of commitment and urgency.

The Crisis Decision-Making Quadrant

DruGroup • 19 implied HN points • 05 Oct 21
🚌 Education Decision-making
  1. Diagrams can help make complex ideas easier to understand. They are simple, visual tools that stick with us and can be very effective for communication.
  2. In a crisis, leaders must balance what they want to do with what they need to do. Using a decision-making quadrant can help clarify priorities and actions in challenging times.
  3. There are different types of diagrams for different purposes, like synergy diagrams for exploring complex relationships or process diagrams for visualizing steps. Leaders can use these tools to enhance their decision-making skills.

Week 80 - E8 - 🤖 AI Integration for Faster, Better Product Development

The Product Channel By Sid Saladi • 10 implied HN points • 25 Feb 24
🕹 Technology Decision-making
  1. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a pivotal force in reshaping industries, offering product managers opportunities to enhance their development lifecycle.
  2. Integrating AI into product development leads to reduced time-to-market, increased efficiency, and better resonance with users.
  3. AI helps in enhancing ideation by analyzing customer feedback, conducting market research, and generating innovative concepts to uncover promising opportunities.
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Strong Opinions, Loosely Held

Fish Food for Thought • 18 implied HN points • 29 Mar 23
💼 Business Decision-making
  1. Senior leaders should have strong opinions but be open to changing their minds based on new information
  2. Confirmation bias can make it difficult to stay open to new ideas, but it's important for growth
  3. The Dunning-Kruger effect highlights how people with low knowledge tend to overestimate their abilities, while knowledgeable individuals may underestimate themselves

Trifectas go all the way up

The Engineering Manager • 10 implied HN points • 27 Jan 24
💼 Business Decision-making
  1. Trifectas, consisting of engineering, product, and UX, are powerful for creating scalable and beautiful products.
  2. Trifectas should be present at all levels of an organization to prevent siloing and ensure cross-functional collaboration.
  3. Having trifectas all the way up the org chart leads to clear accountability, balanced decision-making, quick issue resolution, and a structured roadmap.

Planning based on where the puck is gonna be

Joshua Gans' Newsletter • 19 implied HN points • 22 Feb 21
🚌 Education Decision-making
  1. Universities should plan for a Fall reopening based on forecasts of the pandemic and vaccination progress.
  2. It is reasonable to expect that Canada will reach its Summer vaccine goals, indicating potential for substantial improvement in the situation.
  3. Planning for a Fall reopening offers benefits of being prepared for a favorable outlook and maintaining option value, as opposed to planning to remain closed.

The goal of a “strategy” is to change our own team’s behavior

amivora • 7 implied HN points • 13 Mar 24
💼 Business Decision-making
  1. For a strategy to be useful, it should change the behavior of our team to create better outcomes for customers.
  2. A strong strategy should help every team member to make better decisions daily by understanding the vision, goals, and their role within the larger picture.
  3. Setting up a strategy involves asking specific questions upfront to build conviction, provide clarity on changes needed, and ensure it translates into practical guidance for day-to-day work.

Reassessing the Confirmation Bias

Optimally Irrational • 11 implied HN points • 14 Jun 23
🚌 Education Decision-making
  1. Confirmation bias is a widely acknowledged cognitive bias where we tend to seek information that supports our existing beliefs.
  2. In today's world of political polarization, confirmation bias contributes to escalating tensions as people isolate themselves in echo chambers.
  3. Seeking confirmatory information aligns with an optimal information acquisition strategy, especially when considering costs and efficiency.

Habits/Abitudini

Promontories • 7 implied HN points • 19 Jan 24
📚 Literature Decision-making
  1. Revision and editing of writing can be a tedious and complicated process, but ultimately focusing on clarity and meaning is most important.
  2. Responsibility and decision-making, whether in writing or in historical events like WWII, can be daunting, but individuals can adapt and overcome challenges.
  3. Facing difficult situations and making tough decisions, whether in writing, leadership, or personal adversity, often requires resilience and the ability to adjust to new circumstances.

Smart people cooperate

Klement on Investing • 3 implied HN points • 08 Nov 24
💼 Business Decision-making
  1. Smarter people tend to learn and adjust their behavior more quickly when playing strategic games, which often leads to better outcomes for them.
  2. High IQ individuals are more likely to cooperate with others they perceive to be intelligent, benefiting both parties in the long run.
  3. Cooperation is generally more effective than competition in most situations, as working together often leads to better results for everyone involved.

Maybe You're Not Actually Trying to Solve Your Problems?

FutureIQ • 1 implied HN point • 30 May 25
📖 Philosophy Decision-making
  1. We often give better advice to others than we take for ourselves. When faced with our own problems, we might ignore good solutions we would recommend to a friend.
  2. People can solve issues at work but struggle with personal challenges. Sometimes, if we applied the same skills from one area of our life to another, we'd find better outcomes.
  3. Our mindset can get stuck in a low point, causing us to miss out on solutions. It's important to remember that our capacity for action can change over time, and we should revisit problems with a fresh perspective.

A New Playbook?

Fish Food for Thought • 6 implied HN points • 13 Dec 23
💼 Business Decision-making
  1. Scaling: Top-down decision-making can slow down progress and hinder scaling as a company grows.
  2. Morale: Taking away autonomy can lead to morale issues within a team, impacting motivation and productivity.
  3. Innovation: Autonomy and empowerment drive innovation, and a top-down approach may stifle creativity and hinder progress.

Julie Timm Weighs In on the Future of the Puget Sound Region.

Exasperated Infrastructures • 7 implied HN points • 21 Jul 23
💼 Business Decision-making
  1. Julie Timm, CEO of Sound Transit, emphasizes the importance of regional equity and building new services for all riders.
  2. Strong partnerships between different agencies in Seattle improve transit connectivity and service access.
  3. Ensuring fair, living wages for transit workers is vital for maintaining reliable service and increasing ridership.

#8: voluntary uncertainty

The Uncertainty Mindset (soon to become tbd) • 19 implied HN points • 25 Dec 19
📖 Philosophy Decision-making
  1. People can get overwhelmed by uncertainty, especially when it's continuous, like through events such as Brexit. They might feel a sense of fatigue that makes it hard to deal with new uncertainties.
  2. Practicing 'voluntary uncertainty' means putting yourself in situations where you choose to not know the outcome. This could be trying new things or making changes in life, and it helps you become better at handling real uncertainties.
  3. Organizations and individuals who get used to managing uncertainty can adapt and innovate better. They learn that not knowing everything can be a normal part of life, which helps reduce fear around unexpected changes.

Quitting

Fish Food for Thought • 5 implied HN points • 20 Dec 23
💼 Business Decision-making
  1. Quitting can sometimes be advantageous, even though it's often seen negatively in society.
  2. Knowing when to quit is as important as knowing when to persist, especially in decision-making and project management.
  3. Strategic quitting requires establishing clear criteria, listening to experienced voices, and making rational decisions for better outcomes.

What is a Bias?

Optimally Irrational • 6 implied HN points • 13 Jul 23
🔬 Science Decision-making
  1. The definition of bias relies on the notion of error and comparison to a correct standard.
  2. Rational decisions align with personal plans and goals, not just maximizing satisfaction.
  3. Biases may not always be errors but could be optimal solutions under specific constraints.

I’m Stuck in a Waterfall

How to SWE • 1 HN point • 08 Mar 23
💼 Business Decision-making
  1. The Minimal Viable Product is crucial for testing audience preferences without needing to predict user behavior.
  2. Less planning often results in better software, while excessive planning can lead to an inferior product.
  3. Being 'stuck' in the waterfall development method may have advantages like refining existing software and avoiding code errors.

GRANTED: When to trust your gut and how to get people to embrace change

Granted • 19 implied HN points • 29 Nov 18
💼 Business Decision-making
  1. Hire based on motivation and ability to learn rather than talent or credentials to be future-ready.
  2. Trust your gut only in predictable environments with regular practice and immediate feedback; if not, gather evidence to test your intuition.
  3. Encourage employees to speak up by rewarding them for raising problems, concerns, suggestions, and solutions to foster a positive company culture.

Who Wouldn't Enjoy Torturing Lawyers?

Life Since the Baby Boom • 3 HN points • 05 Feb 24
💼 Business Decision-making
  1. Google had a unique approach to interviewing potential employees, focusing on problem-solving and thinking on one's feet.
  2. The author shares their experience of transitioning from an engineer to a technical advisor in patent litigation, emphasizing the importance of creative thinking in legal roles.
  3. Interview questions for patent lawyers and patent acquisition specialists were tailored to test their ability to analyze, think critically, and make decisions under pressure.

Crime and Punishment

Economic Forces • 4 implied HN points • 24 Aug 23
🚌 Education Decision-making
  1. Economic tools can be applied to both market and non-market activities to analyze decision-making involving costs and benefits.
  2. Designing the optimal punishment for crimes involves balancing the deterrence benefit with the enforcement costs.
  3. Consideration of incentives for law enforcement and decision-makers is crucial in designing effective systems to prevent over-enforcement and extortion.

Movie posters

world spirit sock stack • 2 implied HN points • 06 Mar 24
📖 Philosophy Decision-making
  1. Hopes and expectations can bring joy, but disappointment can also follow if they don't meet reality.
  2. Imagining the future is like looking at movie posters: the image is not the same as the actual experience.
  3. It's important to separate desires from actions and to be able to observe thoughts and feelings without feeling obligated to act on them.

When AI Can Do All Jobs

Abstraction • 2 HN points • 22 Jan 24
🕹 Technology Decision-making
  1. In a future with advanced AI, humans might still find meaning in contributing to tasks even if AI can outperform us.
  2. The future influence of AI governance on society depends on whether it is democratic or controlled by a few powerful entities.
  3. As AI capabilities advance, humans will focus on guiding AI to align with human values and priorities.