Translate the decision into several search dimensions
Write the customer problem, the action under consideration and the outcome you want to understand. Add constraints such as distribution, resources or timing. These dimensions give you several routes into the archive instead of relying on a single company name.
For an illustrative pricing question, useful searches might concern plan simplification, price increases, customer switching or service costs. Treat these as separate searches and compare what each reveals.
Choose archives by the kind of evidence needed
Use Mistake.Club for failure and setback accounts, Genius.Wiki for practical solutions, Change.Archi for transformations, Creatives.Center for creative work and Startups.Center for startup approaches. These are starting lenses, not guarantees that every case fits your question.
Search a relevant company or topic, read the summary and then inspect the full case and its sources. A title can help discovery but should not be the only basis for including a case in a decision memo.
Expand from vocabulary found in the cases
Keep a short vocabulary log of mechanisms, customer roles and operating constraints that appear in relevant cases. Use these terms to refine the next search. Record which searches produce close comparisons and which only produce superficially similar stories.
Look deliberately for different outcomes and unfamiliar companies. A memorable brand can dominate recall without being the closest match. Apply the same inclusion criteria to a famous case and a less familiar one.
Stop when the decision-relevant gaps are clear
Search is useful when it changes the comparison, reveals a condition or identifies a missing fact. If new cases repeat the same mechanism without changing the decision, summarize the pattern and move to verification or a direct test.
Keep the query log, included cases, exclusions and unresolved questions. In the app, use follow-up questions to compare approaches, then return to the cited sources before adopting an important claim.
Use this worksheet for your decision
Copy this into your notes. Leave unknowns visible instead of filling gaps with guesses.
Decision question: Customer problem terms: Action/mechanism terms: Outcome and constraint terms: Archive choices: Queries tried: Case inclusion/exclusion reasons: Counterexample search: Remaining gap and stopping rule:Download the text worksheet ↓
Find evidence in the archives
Choose a supporting case and a counterexample with a different outcome. Read their sources and check whether their conditions match yours.
Cases to practice with (read and check the underlying sources):
Bring your question to the cases
Search a company or topic in the app, read the cases and ask follow-up questions to compare approaches.