Before the answer.
The solution to most problems: a lot of decisions fail in consulting projects, internal change management that your boss wants to do. Decisions don't fail because the answer is insufficient; they fail upstream, the questions that are poorly defined, the supporting structure that wasn't really considered, a conversation not had.
By the time there are two options on the table, the expensive, time consuming mistakes are usually already made.
The thing I enjoy the most is trying to figure out all the things before you get to the answer.
Frame
Frame
Start with what's actually being decided. Not the question someone walked in with, the real one underneath it. Who owns the outcome. What would count as success. What's genuinely fixed, and what only looks fixed. Get this wrong and everything downstream is precise and useless.
Map
Map
Then map the system, not the problem. Dependencies, incentives, what breaks two steps out when the obvious fix lands. This is where most solutions die. They're locally correct and globally expensive.
Quantify
Quantify
Put numbers on the trade-offs, then hold them loosely. A model isn't there to be right. It's there to make cost, risk, and timing comparable, so a judgment call stops being a vibe.
Choose
Choose
Two or three options, never one. A single recommendation makes the trade-off for you and hides that it did. I'd rather hand you the choice with the costs attached and let you own it.
Commit
Commit
Stage it so being wrong is cheap and early instead of expensive and late. Owners. A short horizon. A couple of things worth measuring. And a defined point where you'd change your mind.