RESULT OBTAINED
Canonical method
Strategic options: building genuinely comparable alternatives
What must be established
A useful analysis keeps its controls visible.
- 01
Build three to five options with the same scope and the same horizon, including the active status quo.
- 02
Distinguish the value mechanism, the irreversible commitment and the renunciation specific to each option.
- 03
Set before the choice the minimum evidence, the stop signal and the next review date.
Decision reference
Make the next choice more explicit.
DECISION SUPPORTED
How can several credible choices be produced without comparing mere variants of budget or timing?
DELIVERABLE TO KEEP
A compact portfolio of distinct, comparable options, each with exit rules.
NEXT ELEMENT TO EXAMINE
Strategic choiceExplore →Option or variant
Two proposals that differ only in amount, speed or channel often remain the same option. An option changes the playing field, the value mechanism or the commitment system.
- Same decision question
- Same comparison horizon
- Genuinely different mechanisms
Make the renunciation visible
Each option must name what will not be funded, served or built if it is chosen. This exclusion makes the opportunity cost debatable before the commitment.
- Scarce resource mobilised
- Activity abandoned or deferred
- Dependency created
Prepare the review
A defensible option has an expected piece of evidence and an exit threshold. Without these two elements, the decision tends to outlive the disappearance of its assumptions.
- Observable signal
- Continue-or-stop threshold
- Owner and review date
DECISION ASSET
Options canvas at the same decision level
Each option is described with the same structure so as to separate genuine alternatives from execution variants.
Playing field
- Input
- Market, segment, use
- Control
- Does the scope change?
- Output
- Where to play
Mechanism
- Input
- Value created and captured
- Control
- Does the engine differ?
- Output
- How to win
Commitment
- Input
- Capabilities and resources
- Control
- What becomes irreversible?
- Output
- Option cost
Exit
- Input
- Evidence and threshold
- Control
- When to stop?
- Output
- Review rule
- Alternative strategies: a systematic approach to generate strategy options (opens in a new tab)Framework for the systematic generation of strategic alternatives.
- Making Strategic Trade-offs, Harvard Business School (opens in a new tab)Foundation of the role of trade-offs and renunciation in a strategy.
MOVE FROM ANALYSIS TO YOUR DECISION
Produce a testable decision mandate
MOVE FROM ANALYSIS TO YOUR DECISION
Produce a testable decision mandate
RETURN TO THE DECISION SYSTEM
See the canonical definition of marketing strategy→