Decisions at the right time
Like doctors on a triage, you need to time your decisions. Fast may not be the best, delay until the last moment necessary so you get all relevant facts.
If it is not obvious why need to make a decision the moment you do, question what makes it important now?
I read long time ago, doctors on triage are trained to maximize the time for decision making, but act before it is too late. The time waiting may be crucial to find new information and change the decision for the better. This can be an art form in itself.
Continuing last week’s example, the decision is, should your notification channel to be implemented be email, sms or push notification? Knowing whichever we choose, we can make it happen in two weeks. Deadline is in two months. So decision can be delayed, maybe to wait for price estimations, or another team to finish a service.
Same situation, but we don’t know how long sms or push notification would take? Break up the problem.
Maybe to figure out sms and push notifications, you need two hours. If nothing else is more important, you can take that time, document findings and pick it up when the decision has been made.
And don’t forget, there is a deadline on the decision, earlier than the deadline for the solution! The difference is called lead time, account for it. Even build in some buffer for unknowns, changes to codebase may make it harder to do later, you may not have the same person making it who researched it.
Have you had a decision that you regret didn’t give a day or two to better see the outcome? And vice versa, when you delayed the decision unnecessarily?