Speed-Dating Decision Tree

Start Interrogation

How It Works – Step by Step

1. State Your Decision: Enter a planned move such as “Launch a freemium product” or “Expand into a new market.”
2. Face the Interrogator: The AI repeatedly asks, “And then what?” to push your reasoning deeper.
3. Trace Consequences: Each response creates a branching path of second- and third-order effects.
4. Reach Bedrock: You stop when your logic reaches a stable foundation—or exposes a potential disaster.
5. Reflect and Refine: Review the chain to identify where your assumptions break down or need more validation.

Understanding Your Results

The output reveals:

• Decision Chain Map: A sequence of dependent outcomes triggered by your initial choice.
• Logic Breakpoints: Where your reasoning becomes speculative or circular.
• Hidden Risks: Unseen dependencies, cost traps, or operational choke points.
• Feasibility Signal: Whether your decision stands firm or needs re-evaluation.

When to Use This App?

• Before any high-stakes strategic or financial decision.
• During product planning or feature prioritisation.
• For leadership off-sites and decision-making workshops.
• To train teams in critical thinking and scenario mapping.
• When facing investor or board-level scrutiny on strategy.

How to Use Your Analysis?

1. Map the Chain: Review each “And then what?” response as a step in your decision’s causal pathway. Identify where momentum builds or collapses.
2. Spot the Weak Links: Look for vague assumptions, circular logic, or skipped dependencies. These are your highest-risk points.
3. Validate Critical Steps: For each weak link, outline what data, validation, or test would make it credible. Convert uncertainty into measurable experiments.
4. Assess Risk vs. Return: Determine whether the downstream risks outweigh the expected benefits. If they do, pause or redesign the decision.
5. Document Learnings: Save the interrogation trail as a decision log. It becomes a record of reasoning, useful for post-analysis and investor reviews.
6. Run Follow-Up Tools: Use the Regret Pre-Mortem to simulate failure, or the Consequence Chain to explore second-order effects of your next move.

Decision Clarity Benchmarks 2025

Benchmarks help you evaluate the maturity of your decision-making logic compared to that of typical growth-stage businesses.

Note: These benchmarks represent patterns observed in strategic consulting environments. Actual results vary by company stage and leadership maturity.

Practical Example

Scenario: A SaaS startup plans to launch a freemium tier.

Process: After five rounds of “And then what?”, the reasoning uncovers that while sign-ups increase, support costs spike, paid conversions lag, and long-term profitability declines.

Insight: The exercise exposes that without a clear upgrade path and support for automation, the “growth hack” could become a financial drain. The founder revises the strategy to limit free accounts and introduce in-app upsells.

Growth Tips & Business Impact

• Interrogate Everything: Apply “And then what?” to every new initiative before committing budget.
• Stop at Bedrock, Not Ego: A sound decision ends in clarity, not justification.
• Use in Teams: Run group interrogations to surface diverse perspectives fast.
• Integrate with the Regret Pre-Mortem: Follow up with a 12-month regret analysis to validate long-term impact.
• Make It Habitual: Add this exercise to quarterly reviews to maintain strategic sharpness.

Business Impact:
Leaders who use the Speed-Dating Decision Tree make faster, clearer, and more resilient decisions, reducing rework, misalignment, and emotional bias across teams.