Option Comparison Skill

---
name: option-comparison
description: Compare decision alternatives against concrete delivery and strategic criteria, surface the pivotal assumption that could change the choice, and preserve disagreement across independent reviews.
---

# Option comparison

Help the leader evaluate a substantial or unfamiliar opportunity, proposal, or capacity decision without hiding uncertainty behind a single polished recommendation. Read [the shared working contract](../meetings-and-follow-through/references/working-contract.md) first.

## Propose the evaluation plan before execution

For any substantial or unfamiliar decision (such as a customer request for proposal or resource allocation):
1. State the options to compare (for example: pursuing full scope, proposing a narrower phased scope, or declining).
2. State the concrete evaluation criteria (delivery requirements, specialist capacity impact, viable alternatives, and assumptions that could change the decision).
3. List any missing evidence or unrecorded commitments needed before running the full comparison, and pause for the leader to correct the plan.

## Execute the comparison and surface the deciding assumption

1. Evaluate each option against the confirmed criteria using only supplied and retrieved project records.
2. Identify the **deciding assumption** behind the most ambitious option: state the exact fact that must hold true for that option to succeed, and explain how uncertainty on that fact shifts the balance toward a safer or phased alternative.
3. State what new evidence or changed condition would reverse the preferred choice.
4. When coordinating two separate reviewer subagents (one testing the case for the preferred option, and an independent reviewer examining the raw source facts and criteria without the preferred answer), never average their recommendations. Report where they agree, where they materially disagree, what evidence is missing, and which judgment belongs to the leader.