PrOACT

Use when

• A decision is large enough to deserve structure but has no obvious method.
• You need to hand your reasoning to someone else and have it survive.
• You keep circling the same choice without progress.

Do not use when

• The decision must be made in the next hour.
• Only one objective matters. Then it is an optimisation, not a trade-off.

Inputs required

• A problem statement you are willing to revise
• Time to write

Procedure

1. 01

   Problem

   State it as a question. Test the boundary by asking why this problem and not the one behind it — then stop deliberately at one level up, not five.

2. 02

   Objectives

   List what you want, in your own words, before looking at any option. Separate fundamental objectives from means to them: “be near good schools” is a means; “the children do well” is fundamental.

3. 03

   Alternatives

   Generate options that serve the objectives. Anything that serves none is not an alternative, it is a distraction.

4. 04

   Consequences

   Build a table: alternatives down the side, objectives across the top. Fill each cell with what actually happens, in the natural unit — pounds, minutes, risk of failure — not a score out of ten.

5. 05

   Trade-offs

   Now reduce. Delete any alternative beaten on every objective. Then trade objectives against each other until one option stands.