The method, by hand.
Eight starting questions, a rule for picking the next question by what it could change, and a map at the end. About ten minutes. No AI, and nothing leaves your browser unless you choose to send it.
See a completed example before you start →
What are you deciding?
Question 1 of 8 · Decider
Who makes the decision?
Name a person or a small group, not a department. The hiring manager, not “HR”.
Question 2 of 8 · Goal
What outcome do they want?
An outcome you could check, not an activity. “Arrive safely by 9 am”, not “drive fast”.
Question 3 of 8 · Facts
What is true right now?
Only what you could show someone today. “Fuel is at 10%. Traffic is heavy. It is raining.”
Question 4 of 8 · Limits
What are the hard limits?
Law, money, time, physics, promises already made. What would break if you crossed it?
Question 5 of 8 · Levers
What can they actually change?
What you can pull: things in the decider’s hands. “Steering, gas, brake”, not “the weather”.
Question 6 of 8 · Causes
What will shift the outcome?
What actually moves the result, whether or not you control it. “Pressing the gas raises speed, which cuts the travel time.”
Question 7 of 8 · Proof
How will you know it worked?
A signal you could see or count. “The GPS says arrived. The clock shows 8:55.”
Question 8 of 8 · Timing
When must they decide?
A date, an event or a warning sign. “When the light turns yellow. When fuel hits reserve.”
Sharpen it · 1 of 3
Why this goal, and not another?
Keep asking why until you reach something solid. Say what kind of answer each one is. When you stop, add to your last answer why it is deep enough and what would make you dig again.
Sharpen it · 2 of 3
Try to break it.
Attack your own picture before you rely on it.
Is this the right question at all? What else could you be deciding instead?
What single fact, if you learned it, would reverse your decision?
Who gains if you are wrong, and could anyone be misleading you, on purpose or not?
Sharpen it · 3 of 3
The move.
Your map
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Pick a time →Your answers are saved in this browser so you can come back to them. “Start over” clears them. This page does not use AI and does not track what you type. The ranking of next questions is a simple rule, not the method's full question engine; that is open source on GitHub.