Question
Separate the end from the means used to reach it
'Use AI' is not an objective until you say what it is supposed to improve.
When it fits
- An objective list contains items that are really methods, features or intermediate steps.
When to avoid it
- Means can still be legitimate constraints or strategic commitments; the point is to avoid confusing them with the final value they serve.
A question to ask
Why do we want this? · If we achieved it but not the underlying outcome, would we still call the decision successful? · Could the underlying outcome be reached by another means? · Which objective is fundamental enough to judge the alternatives?
Why it matters
For each stated objective, ask why it matters. If the answer names a more fundamental outcome, the original item is probably a means objective. Keep both when useful, but evaluate alternatives primarily against the ends you actually care about. This prevents a favored method from disguising itself as success.
An example
'Move to a new platform' may be a means; 'reduce failed deployments without slowing necessary change' is closer to the end.
Check your result
Every important means objective points to an explicit underlying outcome that could be achieved another way.
Keep this limit in mind
- Means can still be legitimate constraints or strategic commitments; the point is to avoid confusing them with the final value they serve.
Connected ideas
Useful withWrite the objectives before inventing the options
Evidence and sources
Research on incomplete objectives shows that omitted objectives can change which alternative appears most promising, and value-focused thinking explicitly works to generate a more complete objective set.
A longer objective list is not automatically better; redundant or irrelevant objectives can also distort analysis.
Incomplete Objectives in Decision Making: How Omitting Objectives Affects Identifying the Most Promising Alternative · Value-focused thinking and incomplete objectives