Reverse-engineering focuses strategic options

When considering strategic options, a team may benefit from reverse-engineering the options they are considering.^[1]

1. Frame the choice – Convert issues into at least two mutually independent options that might resolve the problem.
2. Generate strategic possibilities – Broaden the list to ensure consideration of an inclusive list of possibilities.
3. Specify conditions – For each possibility, specify which conditions must hold true for it to be strategically sound.
4. Identify barriers to choice – Determine which conditions you feel least confident are true.
5. Design valid tests – For each key barrier, design a valid test sufficient for generating commitment.
6. Conduct tests – Conduct hypothesis-driven analysis, testing the conditions with the lowest confidence first.
7. Choose – Compare test results to key conditions, and make informed choices.

#strategic #innovation

See also:

• Changing things happens in the opposite direction

• Backcasting works backward from a desired outcome

• Specifying conditions reverse engineers a possibility

• Reframing shifts perspective to see things in a new way

• Frame creation begins with investigation