[HN Gopher] Driving Complex Decisions
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       Driving Complex Decisions
        
       Author : garrettdbates
       Score  : 22 points
       Date   : 2025-09-21 17:51 UTC (3 days ago)
        
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       | munchbunny wrote:
       | The point about how the expected decision timeline is often a
       | small part of the total decision timeline really resonates with
       | me. Often (in my big tech experience) we say we can get a design
       | done in a week, and then we spend three more weeks running the
       | design up and down the leadership chain and through stakeholders
       | elsewhere in the company, at which point you're three weeks past
       | the date everyone expected and you finally have a plan.
       | 
       | It really helps to front-load the controversial questions. That
       | way, if the team/organization/leadership gets mired down in that
       | discussion, it's (1) determining constraints to reduce your
       | search space early, and (2) it isn't setting false expectations
       | about how long the decision will take because the design work
       | hasn't even started!
       | 
       | One thing I miss about working in a startup is that you didn't
       | have that many stakeholders to go through, so there wasn't nearly
       | as much communication/stakeholder overhead to work through.
        
         | chrisweekly wrote:
         | Great points. Related: "design" is an ongoing process, which is
         | constantly entered and exited along the way to software
         | delivery. I have a great diagram about this from a little
         | yellow MIT press book but sadly no time to dig it up rt now.
        
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       (page generated 2025-09-24 23:00 UTC)