We all are making decisions all the time and we want to make better decisions or right decisions. Every decision has an associated outcome. If the outcome aligns to our expectations, we say the decision was right. Else we say the decision making could have been better.
Being in Leadership position is all about decision-making.
Being an Entrepreneur, I am making decisions all the time.
I was making decisions earlier also, but the number of decisions I am making now are much more. And the impact of those decisions has increased a lot now.
And so I was looking for simple yet effective tools to make better decisions.
In fact, I made some not so good decisions and that forced me to look for tools. In this post I am sharing 2 tools that have worked for me.
The process of Decision Making
Any decision making involves 2 steps
- 1. Understanding the present state
- 2. Anticipating the future or Outcome of the decision
And to carry out these 2 steps, we rely on
- 1. Information/Data
- To understand the current situation
- To understand the impact of the decision
- 2. Intuition/Experience
- To make better sense of data
- To judge if the data/information is good enough
The 2 frameworks we discuss in this post are for managing Information/Data part of the decision making process.
We are focusing on the Information/Data part of decision making as Information is accessible to everybody. Whereas the Intuition/Experience is person dependent and improving it is a different ball game.
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| Decision making process |
The significance of the 2 frameworks
The frameworks we discuss in this post help us in
- Organizing the information
- Consciously makes us think from different perspectives
A pre-requisite for Informed Decision making is gathering, filtering and organizing information.
With the context set, lets start out journey...
Significance and Characteristics of Information
The information/data has to cover 2 aspects. It has to be as
- Accurate as possible and
- Generalized as possible.
For example, in deciding what would could a vaccine for the Coronavirus(covid-19),
We want to know the characteristics of the virus as much as possible - this is accuracy.
We want to many different symptoms as possible so that we understand the impact of the virus on the human body. - this is generalization
The vaccine thus developed will help in curing the maximum number of patients. Isn't it.
Lets say we were not able to get the data about all the symptoms and we developed a vaccine. There is a possibility that the patient who had the symptoms which we missed out will not be cured. And in fact, this means we have failed in accurately understanding the virus.
So how do we ensure the information we have is as accurate as possible and is as generalized as possible.
I have found these 2 frameworks to be useful
- 5W-1h + why not approach
- 6 thinking hats
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| Frameworks for better decision making |
5W - 1H
5W and 1H stands for
What
Whom
Why
Where
When
And How
Why not
I added "why not" to this list.
5W-1H approach allows me to focus on the accuracy of the information. The focus of any start-up is to build product/services that the Customer are willing to use and pay for. In product management, we call it the Desirability aspect of the product/service.
The question is how do we know what are customers are willing to use and pay.
How do I use it.
For a given feature/service, I gather all the information that is available to me based on assumptions, surveys, experiments, discussions. And I put it in an excel sheet that consists of column 5W-1H and why not. I added why not to list to bring the Devils advocate aspect to the analysis.
I then use this excel sheet to discuss stuff like the Marketing plan, Sales approach and Development prioritization.
6 thinking hats
With the accuracy part covered, we want to look at the generalization part.
The 6 thinking hats is an approach to broaden the scope of thinking beyond the obvious - good/bad, right/wrong.
|
HAT |
What are we thinking about |
|
BLUE |
"The Big Picture" |
|
WHITE |
"Facts & Information" |
|
RED |
"Feelings & Emotions" |
|
BLACK |
"Critical Judgement" |
|
YELLOW |
"Positive" |
|
GREEN |
"New Ideas" |
How do I use it
For a given feature/service, I consciously wear each hat and think about that feature/service. The purpose here is to think as wide as possible about the feature/service.
Putting this into practice
We have rolled out a Skill Fitment Test service to help job seekers prepare for the future in this lock down. We will use this service as sample to test the 2 frameworks.
Lets start with 5W-1H
Why - to help the job seekers checkout their skills fitment to the market needs
Whom - The Skills Fitment test is meant for the job seekers
When - Job seekers who are looking for job/job change
What - And they want to understand skills gap and plan their learning effort
Where - Online
How - As simple as possible, by entering current skills and registering online for free
Why not - Because the job seekers
- Are not looking for job change or any skills assessment
- Don't know us and so are skeptical about our skills assessment test
Lets think wider using 6 thinking hats
Blue Hat - Focus on the Big picture
We want to help the Job Seekers excel in their Career. And for that, they have to reskill/upskill. The Skill fitment test is a good way to spread awareness about the skills gap. And thus show the significance of our career roadmap service
White Hat - Focus on the Facts and Information
70% of the Indian IT professionals need to be reskilled, and there is less awareness about this fact.
Red Hat - Focus on the Feeling and Emotions
As a team, We are excited about the new service rollout. The development team is also confident about completing it in time. The service is low on complexity scale.
After completing the Skill fitment test, the job seeker will have clear idea of what he/she needs to learn. And thus enjoy Career growth
Black Hat - Focus on critical judgement
Why job seekers might not use our Skill fitment test service.
- The job seekers might be expecting technical questions in an assessment. And we are not asking any technical questions.
- The job seekers might not want to get stressed knowing the skill gap if they are already in a job. And the perceived job loss threat is minimal.
Yellow Hat - Focus on Positive aspects
The proactive folks would be happy to use the service and plan for their Career ahead.
Green Hat - Focus on the New ideas
We can ask the job seeker if he/she is interested in a technical and topic specific assessment. This way, we can link the Role and Technology specific skills test/quiz to the generic skills fitment test.
The key findings from this exercise are the
- answers for the Why not point
- The answers for the Green hat - New Ideas point
How is the discussion carried out
I carry out this exercise with the team and/or with myself depending upon the situation and the need.
The idea is not make everybody learn these frameworks and make it a bureaucratic process.
With the team
During the discussion with the team, I keep these frameworks in my mind. And try to cover all the points of the frameworks so that I get as much as information as possible. And if there is something missing, we know what is missing.
Apart from this, the exercise also helps in making the team feel that they valued. They feel they are a part of the Product journey and their opinion matters. It also helps them see the Product Roadmap. And this makes them understand the impact of their work on the product and the customers.
Hope you have enjoy reading this post...
Do you find decision making challenging, what tools and techniques do you use to make better decisions. Do share your insights. Lets make this a conversational topic and make better decision together.
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