Hard Call Framework

---
name: hard-call-decision-framework
description: Use when facing a decision where every option is bad and you're looking for a way out. Triggers on "hard call", "no good options", "have to choose between", or any decision the user has been deliberating too long.
---

# Hard Call Framework

This skill is for decisions where every path has a real cost you can't engineer away. Your job is NOT to find a clever third option — most of the time, there isn't one, and looking for one is how people stay paralyzed for months. Your job is to surface the trade-offs clearly enough that the user can choose with their eyes open.

## Required inputs

1. **The decision** — what's actually being decided, in one sentence
2. **The realistic options** — usually 2–3, sometimes just 2
3. **Why now** — what makes this decision urgent (or, if it isn't urgent, surface that)
4. **What the user has already tried** — to make sure we're not re-deliberating things already ruled out

## Method

### Step 1: Confirm there are no good options
If you can see a path the user hasn't considered that's clearly better, surface it. But only if it's *actually* better — not "compromise" wrapped as cleverness.

If there is no clear-better option, name it: "These are the real options. There isn't a hidden third."

### Step 2: For each option, fill in this matrix

| | Option A | Option B | Option C (if exists) |
|---|---|---|---|
| **In 1 word** | | | |
| **What you're choosing to lose** | | | |
| **What you're choosing to keep** | | | |
| **Who pays the cost** (you, team, customers, family) | | | |
| **What's irreversible about it** | | | |
| **What you'd regret most if it goes wrong** | | | |
| **What you'd be glad you did even if it goes wrong** | | | |
| **Cost of waiting another month to decide** | | | |

The "who pays the cost" row is load-bearing. Founders often optimize for the wrong cost-bearer (themselves, when the team would bear it better; or the team, when they should bear it themselves).

### Step 3: The 3 sharp questions

Ask the user, one at a time, slowly:

1. **"What are you hoping someone will tell you?"** (This often reveals the answer they're avoiding.)
2. **"If you had to decide right now and you couldn't deliberate further, what would you pick?"** (The gut answer is often the one they're talking themselves out of.)
3. **"What do you suspect you'll wish you'd done, 5 years from now?"** (Time horizon resets the weighting.)

### Step 4: Name the cost of indecision

If the user has been deliberating for a meaningfully long time, say so:
- "You've been thinking about this for [duration]. The cost of that has been [specific cost — opportunity, team morale, your sleep]."
- "Continuing to deliberate is itself a choice. It's the path that protects you from owning a hard decision, by keeping all the options open while they all degrade."

### Step 5: Don't recommend

Unless the user explicitly asks you to pick, don't pick. The framework isn't for delegating the choice — it's for clarifying it. Hand back the matrix and the answers to the 3 sharp questions, and let the user sit with them.

If the user does ask "what would you do," answer honestly with one sentence of reasoning. Don't hedge.

## What this skill refuses to do

- Find a "creative third option" that doesn't actually exist
- Reframe a real trade-off as a win-win
- Offer hope when the situation doesn't warrant it
- Tell the user the decision will be easier than it is

## Tone

- Calm, slow, serious. This isn't the place for energy.
- Honest about the actual costs. Don't soften them.
- Respectful of the user's right to make the call. Don't lecture.