ENDE

Pros and cons: decide when a list isn’t enough

Weigh benefits, drawbacks, and consequences instead of merely counting arguments.

  • Weigh the arguments
  • Trace the consequences
  • Involve stakeholders

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Also helps with:Annual planningA reorganization

Pros and cons in 5 steps

Compare realistic options, their consequences, and opportunity costs. The weight of an argument matters more than the number of points.

  1. Define the options

    State at least two clearly distinct alternatives.

  2. Capture the advantages

    List the short- and long-term benefits.

  3. Examine the disadvantages

    Check risks, downstream effects, hidden costs, and forgone alternatives.

  4. Test strategic fit

    Compare each option with goals, priorities, and constraints.

  5. Involve stakeholders

    Identify who provides facts, decides, or must support implementation.

When this method helps

Use this analysis for directional decisions with long-term effects or uncertainty that is hard to explain.

Key benefits

  • Surfaces hidden costs and benefits
  • Tests long-term consequences and priorities
  • Records the reasoning for later review

Limits and when to pause

A list alone does not show probability, importance, or dependencies. Use another method for weighted comparisons or highly uncertain evidence.

Pros and cons examples

The five steps stay the same whatever you decide. What changes is the kind of decision: build or buy, how teams are organized, or whether a product continues. Each example shows the steps separately and then how you could sum up the result for the people who decide with you.

Build or buy

Decide whether to build a capability yourself or license a product.

Illustrative scenario

Define the options
Build an internal reporting platform, or license a SaaS product.
Capture the advantages
An internal build offers full control over the data model and features. SaaS could be running within eight weeks, and the vendor handles maintenance.
Examine the disadvantages
Building ties up two engineers for nine months and pushes the onboarding project into next year. SaaS costs about €48,000 a year, limits customization, and creates vendor dependency.
Test strategic fit
This year's goal is faster customer activation, which favors SaaS. An internal build fits the long-term aim of platform independence better, but that aim has no date yet.
Involve stakeholders
Engineering validates the effort, Security and Legal review data handling, Customer Success confirms the needs, and Finance checks the budget.
How you could sum it up
I recommend licensing the SaaS product. The decisive argument: building ties up two engineers for nine months and pushes the onboarding project into next year, while faster activation is our goal for this year. We give up control and accept vendor dependency at about €48,000 a year. One assumption is still open: Security and Legal have to approve the data handling before we sign.

Change the team structure

Decide how to organize teams when the current setup slows delivery.

Illustrative scenario

Define the options
Keep the four component teams and add a delivery coordinator, or regroup the 28 engineers into three product teams: onboarding, billing, and reporting.
Capture the advantages
The coordinator can start next month and changes nothing for the teams. Product teams could ship most features without waiting for other teams. Today a typical feature needs three teams and takes seven weeks.
Examine the disadvantages
A coordinator adds a handoff instead of removing one. Regrouping costs about one quarter of slower delivery while people change teams, and the four mobile engineers would be spread across three teams.
Test strategic fit
The company goal for the next two years is faster releases in exactly these three customer journeys. Product teams map directly onto that goal; the coordinator treats the symptom.
Involve stakeholders
The four team leads and the engineers themselves get a say in how the teams are cut. HR reviews the changed reporting lines, and the head of product has to accept a slower quarter.
How you could sum it up
I propose working in three product teams from the start of Q3. Today a typical feature needs three teams and takes seven weeks, and our goal for the next two years is faster releases in exactly these three customer journeys. The price is about one quarter of slower delivery and thin mobile coverage. Before I decide, I want the team leads and engineers to comment on how the teams are cut.

Retire a product

Decide whether to keep investing in a product or wind it down.

Illustrative scenario

Define the options
Keep the desktop app in maintenance, or retire it over twelve months and move its 1,200 customers to the web app.
Capture the advantages
Keeping it protects about €900,000 in annual revenue and avoids upsetting long-standing customers. Retiring it frees three of the fifteen engineers and ends a second, separate release process.
Examine the disadvantages
Keeping it ties up a fifth of the engineering team for 6% of revenue, and the gap to the web app keeps growing. Retiring it risks losing customers who rely on offline mode, which the web app lacks.
Test strategic fit
The strategy puts the web platform first. Retiring the app fits that direction, but only if offline mode or a workaround is ready before the switch.
Involve stakeholders
Sales and Customer Success estimate how many customers would leave. Finance models the revenue risk, and the three engineers on the desktop app get a say in where they move next.
How you could sum it up
I recommend retiring the desktop app over twelve months. It ties up three of our fifteen engineers for 6% of revenue, and our strategy puts the web platform first. The biggest risk is customers who depend on offline mode, so the decision depends on a workaround being ready before the switch. By the end of the month, Sales and Customer Success will estimate how many customers we could lose.

Each summary names one decisive argument, the price you accept, and what is still open. Keep the full lists in your notes for when questions come. The analysis does not choose a winner for you; you still decide.

Bullet point or consequence?

A short bullet point looks like one argument among many. Written out as a consequence, with what it costs and when it happens, it shows how much it weighs.

  • Bullet point“SaaS: less control.”

    Consequence“With SaaS, we can't change the data model. Two reports Customer Success asked for would need a workaround.”

  • Bullet point“Build: takes longer.”

    Consequence“Building ties up two engineers for nine months and pushes the onboarding project into next year.”

  • Bullet point“Regrouping: disruption.”

    Consequence“Regrouping costs about one quarter of slower delivery while people change teams.”

Written as consequences, the points can be compared: seven small advantages no longer outweigh one decisive risk. You also see which points rest on estimates you still need to check.

Template: sum up your decision

Copy the template and replace each bracket with your own case.

I recommend [option]. The decisive argument: [the one advantage or risk that tips the balance]. We give up [main disadvantage or opportunity cost]. It fits [goal or priority] because [reason]. Before we decide, [person or group] needs to [confirm, check or approve what].

Check before you share it

  • Define the options: Are there at least two, and could you really choose each one?
  • Capture the advantages: Did you note when each benefit arrives, now or in a year?
  • Examine the disadvantages: Did you write down what will not happen because of your choice?
  • Test strategic fit: Did you name a specific goal, not just “the strategy”?
  • Involve stakeholders: Do you know who provides facts, who decides, and who has to carry it out?

Questions Reflacto asks

Pros and cons go back to a 1772 letter in which Benjamin Franklin weighed the reasons for and against a decision. Two questions follow him: the advantages and the disadvantages. Reflacto added the other three: at least two options to compare, the fit with long-term goals, and the stakeholders you need.

Strategic decision

Weigh a decision for your domain or organization with long-term consequences.

  1. 1What are the viable options you're considering?Added by Reflacto
  2. 2What are the key advantages or potential upsides of each option?Franklin's method
  3. 3What are the risks, costs, or downsides of each option?Franklin's method
  4. 4How well does each option align with long-term strategic goals, product direction, or company mission?Added by Reflacto
  5. 5Who are the critical stakeholders for each option, and what input or buy-in do you need from them?Added by Reflacto

After the last question, Reflacto shows a plan for your decision with concrete next steps.

Questions about using pros and cons

Set up the options

How many options should I compare?

At least two that you could really choose; three is often better. Changing nothing is a valid option if it is realistic.

You could say
“Option C: we keep the component teams and change nothing this year.”

If an option exists only to make another look good, drop it. A yes-or-no question, as in Franklin's letter, also works: then the options are doing it and not doing it. Example: change the team structure

What if I've already made up my mind?

Write the strongest opposing case. If that is difficult, you have not examined the alternative seriously.

You could say
“The best argument for building it ourselves is …”

That does not force you to switch. It makes your reasoning hold up better when someone challenges it.

Weigh the arguments

Why don't ordinary pros and cons lists work?

They count arguments and often confirm a preference you already have. Weigh each point and note when it takes effect.

You could say
“This one risk weighs more than the three advantages together.”

Seven weak benefits should not outweigh one decisive risk. Franklin himself struck out reasons of equal weight on both sides until he saw where the balance lay. Bullet points and consequences side by side

How do I account for opportunity cost?

For each option, write what will not happen because capacity is limited. Compare that with the best other use of the same people or budget.

You could say
“If we build it ourselves, the onboarding project moves into next year.”

Opportunity cost rarely shows up in the list on its own, because nobody argues for the project that is not on the table. Example: build or buy

Consequences and uncertainty

What are second-order effects?

They are consequences of consequences: shipping faster now may create debt that slows delivery later. Ask “what happens next?” twice.

You could say
“If we retire the desktop app, offline users lose a feature. What happens next? Some of them move to a competitor.”

Look closely at advantages that arrive quickly. Example: retire a product

What if key facts are still uncertain?

Mark the arguments that rest on estimates and name what would change your view.

You could say
“If more than 200 customers would leave, I'd keep the app for another year.”

Before you decide, check the estimates that could tip the decision, not all of them. If the evidence stays very uncertain, a decision matrix or a small pilot may serve you better. Limitations

About the method

When is pros and cons the wrong method?

When you need to compare many options on the same criteria, or when the decision is small and easy to reverse.

For several options with fixed criteria, a weighted decision matrix is clearer. A quick, reversible choice is better made directly and reviewed later. When to use it

Where does the pros and cons method come from?

It has no single owner. Its documented origin is a 1772 letter in which Benjamin Franklin describes a “moral or prudential algebra.”

Franklin weighed the reasons for and against a single question. Two of Reflacto's five questions follow him; Reflacto added the options, the strategic fit, and the stakeholders. Origin and sources

Origin and Reflacto's adaptation

The method has no single owner. Its documented origin is a 1772 letter from Benjamin Franklin to Joseph Priestley describing “moral or prudential algebra.”

Also known as: pros and cons list, Franklin’s moral algebra

What Reflacto changed

From Franklin's method
From Franklin’s 1772 letter: the reasons for and against, written down side by side before you decide.
Added by Reflacto
Reflacto has you compare at least two distinct options and adds their fit with long-term goals and the stakeholders whose input or buy-in you need.

See every question Reflacto asks

Primary sources and further reading

Editorially reviewed by Daniel Schmeiß

Last substantive review: September 29, 2026

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