skill-decision-support

Decision Support & Options Presentation

Overview

Structured approach to presenting options and alternatives with clear trade-offs, enabling informed decision-making.

Core principle: Understand context → Generate options → Analyze trade-offs → Present clearly → Support choice.

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When to Use

Use this skill when user:

• Asks for options or alternatives
• Says "fix or provide options"
• Needs help deciding between approaches
• Wants to see different ways to solve a problem
• Is uncertain about best path forward

Do NOT use for:

• General research ("what is X?") → use flow-probe
• Implementation work → use flow-tangle
• Simple yes/no questions
• Already-decided approaches

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The Process

Phase 1: Context Understanding

Step 1: Understand the Decision Point

**Decision Context:**

What needs to be decided: [the core question]
Why it matters: [impact of this decision]
Constraints: [time, resources, compatibility, etc.]
Current state: [what exists now]

Step 2: Gather Requirements

Use AskUserQuestion if needed to understand:

• Must-have requirements
• Nice-to-have features
• Deal-breakers
• Timeline constraints
• Budget/resource constraints

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Phase 2: Generate Options

Step 1: Identify Viable Approaches

Generate 2-4 distinct options (not just variations):

Option Type	When to Include
Conservative	Low risk, proven approach
Moderate	Balanced risk/reward
Innovative	Higher risk, potentially better outcome
Minimal	Simplest possible solution

Don't generate options that:

• Violate stated constraints
• Are clearly inferior to others
• Are essentially the same with minor tweaks

Step 2: Research Each Option

For each option, understand:

• How it works
• What it requires
• What the outcome looks like
• What could go wrong

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Phase 3: Trade-off Analysis

For each option, analyze:

### Option N: [Name]

**Description:**
[1-2 sentence description]

**Pros:**
- ✅ [Advantage 1]
- ✅ [Advantage 2]
- ✅ [Advantage 3]

**Cons:**
- ❌ [Disadvantage 1]
- ❌ [Disadvantage 2]
- ❌ [Disadvantage 3]

**Effort:** [Low/Medium/High]
**Risk:** [Low/Medium/High]
**Reversibility:** [Easy/Moderate/Difficult to undo]

**Best for:** [when this option makes sense]