Decidi for policy analysts

Find the unintended consequence before the policy ships it.

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Have the evidence, the trade-offs and the second-order effects examined by independent models — so the recommendation you submit has already survived a hostile read.

Why policy analysts use it

Surface the unintended consequence and the group the policy quietly harms.
Pressure-test the evidence base — is the data robust, or cherry-picked to fit the conclusion?
Run the opposition’s strongest critique so your recommendation isn’t blindsided in review.
Stress-test the cost-benefit and the assumptions a confident analysis quietly relies on.
Steelman the alternative policy so the choice is honest, not pre-decided.
Map the stakeholder reactions and the implementation reality, not just the theory.

Stress-test before you ship

Unintended consequences and who they fall on
The evidence base — robust or cherry-picked?
The opposition’s strongest critique
Cost-benefit assumptions and trade-offs
The alternative policy, steelmanned
Implementation reality vs. theory

Your council

😈Devil’s Advocate 🔬Data Skeptic 🛡️Steelman 💹Economist 🙋End-User Advocate

Adversarial passes we run

Unintended-consequence sweepEvidence-base auditOpposition-critique runCost-benefit stress testImplementation reality check

A worked example — the briefing that survives the minister’s adviser

Say your policy brief recommends a congestion charge, goes to the committee Monday, and will be read by an adviser whose job is finding the weak paragraph. Your evidence is genuinely good — from three cities that are genuinely not yours.

The Economist stress-tests the transferability problem first: which mechanisms from the three cited cities depend on conditions your city lacks — transit capacity, enforcement infrastructure, political geography — and which genuinely carry across. The Data Skeptic audits the headline numbers for what they measured versus what the brief implies, while the End-User Advocate maps who actually pays: the distributional table the committee will demand and the draft currently buries. The Steelman writes the strongest version of the opposition’s case — not the op-ed version, the serious version — and the Devil’s Advocate finds the paragraph the adviser will quote out of context. You get the brief re-ranked: claims to keep, claims to soften, the counter-case answered on its merits, and the one figure to verify before Monday.

Ready-made briefs that fit

Argument / Essay Critique

Pressure-test an argument for logic, evidence and the strongest objection.

Research Literature Synthesis

Synthesise a body of research into what is known and contested.

Pros & Cons Council

Turn a fuzzy choice into a structured, debated pros-and-cons call.

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