The vanishing-options test
Remove every option currently on the table and ask what you would do then, which forces the set to widen in about two minutes.
- Time cost
- 10 min
- Output
- A widened option list.
- Steps
- 5
Use when
- You are choosing between exactly two things.
- The word “whether” appears in your problem statement.
- Every option feels like a compromise, which usually means the good one is missing.
Do not use when
- The option set is genuinely fixed by someone else.
- You have already widened twice and are now avoiding the choice.
Inputs required
- The current options, written down
Procedure
- 01
List what you have
Write the options you are actually weighing. Usually there are two.
- 02
Delete them all
State it plainly: none of these is available. What do you do now? Give yourself five minutes and write whatever comes.
- 03
Take the answers seriously
The first two will be poor. The third or fourth is often better than anything on the original list, because it was generated without the original frame.
- 04
Look for the and
Check whether two options can be run together, in sequence, or in small doses. “Both, in this order” is an option the binary hid.
- 05
Restore and compare
Put the original options back and rank the full set. If nothing new survives, you have at least confirmed the set was complete.
Characteristic failure mode
Worked example
Someone is deciding whether to accept a job offer or stay put.
- 01Options deleted. What now?
- 02Ask the current employer to match the scope, not the salary.
- 03Take the offer with a three-month review clause written in.
- 04Take neither and spend six weeks looking, having learned what the market pays.
Result
Four options instead of two. Two are strictly better than “stay”, which was previously half the decision.
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