# List the questions I must answer before making a decision

The 10 most important questions to answer before you commit, ranked by how much each could change the decision, with how to answer them.

- Topic: Thinking & Decisions
- Framework: Few-Shot
- Level: Standard
- Tags: Fill-in Template
- Source: https://www.thinkwithprompt.com/prompts/list-the-questions-i-must-answer-before-making-a-decision

## Prompt

```text
Help me identify the questions I need to answer before I make this decision.

**The decision:** [e.g. "whether to switch our CRM vendor", "whether to open a second location"]
**Options I'm considering:** [LIST, or "not sure yet"]
**Deadline:** [WHEN I need to decide]
**What I already know:** [FACTS, data, constraints]
**Who is affected:** [teams, customers, partners]
**Is it reversible?** [easy to undo / costly to undo / permanent]

Return:
1. **The 10 questions**, ranked by how much the answer could change the decision. For each:
   - Why it matters.
   - What answer would push me toward or away from each option.
   - How to answer it (data to pull, person to ask, test to run) and rough effort.
2. **Questions I can skip** - things that feel important but wouldn't change the decision.
3. **Questions I probably can't answer in time** - and how to decide sensibly without them (e.g. a pilot, a reversible first step, a decision trigger).
4. **Kill criteria** - what answers would mean I should not go ahead.
5. **A short checklist** I can use in the decision meeting.

Cover the usual blind spots: cost of doing nothing, second-order effects, who could block it, implementation capacity, and how we'd measure success. The decision stays with me; don't make it for me.
```

## What to fill in

- LIST, or "not sure yet"
- WHEN I need to decide
- FACTS, data, constraints
- teams, customers, partners
- easy to undo / costly to undo / permanent

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