https://www.shubhro.com/2022/01/03/show-the-case-against/

Show the case against

I often read product and engineering documents that detail reasons
for why the team/org/company should do something- launch a new
product, refactor a system, etc.

The question I wish more authors would answer up-front, though, is:
why shouldn't we do this?

In other words, what's the case against launching the new product,
refactoring the system, etc.? Showing the case against is useful for
a few reasons.

First, it helps the author really think through hard tradeoffs. They
may discover a critical drawback they overlooked or convince
themselves of another approach entirely. Deeper introspection helps
produce a stronger proposal.

Second, it helps the author gain the reader's trust. A
well-constructed case against doing something- coupled with a
thoughtful defense for why the proposal still has merit- suggests
that the author put in some work to think more broadly about the
problem space.

The hardest challenge is to genuinely identify and present the
strongest case against a proposal. It's tempting to present a "straw
man" argument and tear it down, but doing so is a waste of time.

The goal should be to present the "steel man" argument- i.e. the one
that lays out the most compelling reasons for why the proposal should
not be done.

Adequately refuted, such a "case against" makes the "case for" doing
it even stronger.


January 2022

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