7 Steps to De-Risking Big Business Decisions Before They Backfire When the stakes are high, these seven steps can help you avoid costly mistakes, eliminate bias and make smarter decisions that actually scale.
By Adam Horlock Edited by Maria Bailey
Key Takeaways
- High-stakes decisions often fail not from bad ideas, but from skipped steps — bias, blind spots and broken systems sabotage growth before it starts.
- These seven proven strategies help leaders de-risk big moves by focusing on data, real customer insight, and scalable systems.
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When the pressure is on — a new market, product launch or high-stakes pivot — it's easy to rush past the steps that could have saved you from failure. Despite the volumes of books and case studies on how to make better decisions, many leaders still repeat the same mistakes. These seven steps are designed to cut through the noise and help you de-risk big decisions, no matter your industry.
1. Remove bias before it wrecks your strategy
Even the most innovative companies make irrational calls because they skip the hard part: eliminating bias. Groupthink, overconfidence and confirmation bias quietly sabotage good ideas — and major decisions get made based on ego instead of insight.
The only real antidote? Data. And lots of it. Whether you're restructuring your team or launching a new product, let data challenge your assumptions. Use tools like the AEM-Cube for internal shifts and lean on Design Thinking for customer-facing initiatives. Bias isn't always obvious — but its costs always are.
Related: The 5 Step Process To Identify Risk and Improve Decision-Making
2. Get closer to the right customer with the right research
Too many decisions are made in boardrooms, far removed from the people they affect. Metrics and dashboards are useful, but they don't replace real customer insight.
Most companies think they know their customers. Few actually do. Build detailed personas, map the full customer journey, and invest in ethnographic research. For internal decisions, your "customer" might be your team. If your employees don't feel heard, seen or aligned with your mission, even the best strategies will collapse under cultural resistance.
3. Test fast before you go big
Once you have a strategy, pilot it quickly and learn faster. Build small experiments, run A/B tests, define your offering clearly, and measure everything — from product fit to pricing, UX to delivery.
Let real customer behavior — not internal assumptions — guide your next steps. Pilots aren't about proving you're right. They're about learning what works.
4. Tie decisions to real incentives
Too many change initiatives fail because they ignore human motivation. If you're not aligning incentives with your new direction, don't expect people to get on board.
Start with clear internal communication. Then build in feedback loops, transparent compensation structures and tie your mission to purpose-driven rewards. Change without buy-in creates friction. Buy-in without incentives creates apathy.
5. Make sure your capacity can keep up
The right idea in the wrong structure is a guaranteed failure. If your systems, people, or tech can't handle the growth or change you're aiming for, capacity will break before the strategy does.
Run stress tests. Evaluate your infrastructure, team readiness and internal workflows. Ask: Can we execute this at scale, or are we just excited by the concept?
6. Stick to a customer-centric strategy
Even great decisions go off the rails without early warning signs and course-correction plans. Identify the signals that indicate a pivot is needed — and stay close to your customers post-launch.
UX research doesn't end once the product ships. Keep mapping how real users engage with your offering, and adjust accordingly. Consistency with your core personas is your best safeguard against drift.
Related: 7 Tips for Making Quality Business Decisions
7. Disrupt yourself before someone else does
If your strategy works, expect competitors to follow. They'll try to copy your product — or poach your people.
Stay ahead by regularly asking:
- How would someone disrupt us?
- What would it take to replicate our edge?
- Where are we most vulnerable?
Then take small steps to disrupt yourself before anyone else does. Build a culture of reinvention, not complacency.
Final thought
Smart leaders don't wait for a crisis to think clearly. They build decision-making processes that are bias-proof, customer-led, and test-driven. Whether you're launching a product or reshaping your org, these seven steps help ensure your bold moves aren't blind ones.
