By Teresa Torres · producttalk.org · @ttorres on X · LinkedIn
The author describes a lunchtime request from a sales director to build a feature that could keep a few at-risk customers, and argues that the framing of 'should we build it or not' is too narrow. Drawing on Chip and Dan Heath's book Decisive, she claims 'whether or not' questions limit the options a team considers. The essay introduces opportunity cost as the hidden price of every yes, since saying yes to one feature means saying no to everything else the time and resources could buy. It recommends reframing decisions around what would best serve most customers, which leads to comparing multiple options rather than making isolated yes-or-no calls.
01Key takeaways
- Notice when a decision is framed as a yes-or-no question and reframe the problem more broadly.
- Every feature you build carries an opportunity cost in time, money, and attention that should be made explicit.
- Ask 'what could we do to accomplish this goal?' rather than 'should we build this one thing?'
- Use the same reframing for market segments, roadmap items, and bug prioritization, not just features.
- Generate several options and compare them side by side before committing resources.
02Key sections
- A seemingly simple feature request
- A sales leader asks whether to build a feature that could retain a few at-risk customers. The author notes that even an obvious-looking request deserves more scrutiny.
- The problem with 'whether or not' questions
- Citing the Heath brothers, the author explains that yes-or-no framing narrows the problem and hides alternatives.
- Opportunity cost in product decisions
- Borrowing the economics concept, she shows that choosing one item means giving up every other use of the same time and money.
- Where the trap appears
- The 'whether or not' pattern shows up not only in features but also in market segments, roadmap items, and bug triage.
- Reframing toward multiple options
- The fix is to ask what could accomplish the goal and what else should be considered, then compare alternatives.
03From the post
“This post is part of a series about making better product decisions. Recently during lunch, our Director of Sales mentioned that one of our customer's was at risk because we didn't support a specific feature. He asked if we were going to build it. He argued, if it”
04Frameworks mentioned
Summary and takeaways written by PM Atlas; quotes are short excerpts. © the original author.