Stop Asking "Whether or Not" Questions

This post is part of a series about making better product decisions.

Recently during lunch, our Director of Sales mentioned that one of our customer's was at risk because we didn't support a specific feature. He asked if we were going to build it. He argued, if it allows us to keep 3-4 customers, why wouldn't we.

I get this all the time. I bet you do too. it makes perfect sense on the surface. You've got customers requesting features. Why wouldn't you build them?

In this particular case, the feature was straight forward, it was inline with what we offer, and it fit within our product vision. Shouldn't it be a no brainer?

Hold on. It's not that simple.

Our Director of Sales is asking a "whether or not" question, whether or not we should build a particular feature. Chip and Dan Heath, authors of the book Decisive, call out "whether or not" questions as particularly problematic when it comes to good decision making. They argue "whether or not" decisions frame the problem too narrowly.

We shouldn't be asking whether or not we should build a particular feature. Instead, we should be asking, what can we build that provides the most value for most of our customers. We need to broaden our view of the problem. This allows us to consider all the possibilities.

Consider Opportunity Cost

"Whether or not" decisions come up every day as we build products. The danger is that they keep us from considering the opportunity cost of building one feature over another.

Opportunity cost comes from the field of economics and represents what we give up when we made a decision. For example, when we choose to spend time watching TV, the opportunity cost is all the other things we could have been doing with that time—hanging out with friends, reading a book, cleaning our house, and so on. Or if we buy a new pair of shoes, the opportunity cost is all the other things we could have spent that money on.

It's far too easy as we go about our busy days to consider each "whether or not" decision as they arise. Should we integrate Facebook Connect? Should we redesign our product emails? Should we build a mobile app? Each of these questions are really a "whether or not" decision in disguise. Answering yes to any of them, means you are answering no to all the things that you could be doing with the needed time and resources.

These questions don't just arise when we are considering features. We also fall into the trap of asking "whether or not" questions when we decide what market segments to go after, what initiatives to put on our roadmaps, what bugs to address.

Keep an eye out for this narrow frame and work to reframe your view of the problem you are tackling. Stop asking "whether or not" questions, and instead ask, what could we do to accomplish our goal questions. When we ask, what else should we consider, we consider multiple options. Multiple options lead to compare and contrast decisions.

For more on "compare and contrast" decisions see: How Compare and Contrast Decisions Lead to Better Outcomes

This post is part of a series about making better product decisions.