Managing up

Recommendation, options, risk

Recommend while showing the alternatives were considered.

Recommending a course of action upward.

Message · Application framework · No. 132

The shape

Recommendation
Options
Trade offs
Risk
Decision

A worked example

I recommend extending the current vendor contract. The alternatives are renegotiating or switching. Switching gives a lower price and creates transition risk. Given the deadline, I recommend the extension.

Built from

An application framework is a package. These are the reusable shapes inside it.

47Position, rationale, trade off
68Decision brief

Mostly serves Message, and reaches into Intent.

A framework tells you what shape the answer takes. It cannot tell you whether shape is what you are short of, and for most people it is not. Which one is yours, and whether a framework is the right instrument at all, is what a Discovery Call is for.

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