Software Company R&D Black Box: Immediately Reprioritize Product Investment, or First Build Reversible Performance and Portfolio Evidence?
Current product policyLast updated August 25, 2026
Minerva judgment
Establish a time-boxed, stoppable R&D performance and portfolio evidence gate first, requiring each product to submit minimum evidence on strategic role, roadmap, customer outcomes, and spend-to-progress linkage before comparing trade-offs; this path avoids harming effective investments without evidence, or allowing sunk costs to grow unchecked
Decision owner in the teaching simulationChair of the Product and Technology Investment Committee, in an independent educational simulation
Human-controlled next action
The committee chair approves launching a time-boxed evidence gate and assigns each product owner to submit the minimum required evidence (roadmap, customer outcomes, spend-to-progress linkage) within the deadline
What would reverse the recommendation
If, before the gate expires, specific evidence of a time window and resource lock-in is obtained for the product identified in U3 as 'approaching an irreversible commitment,' showing that waiting for the gate to expire would cause substantial irreversible loss, then that product should be immediately reprioritized or stopped, rather than waiting for the full gate mechanism to complete
17 · EY-Parthenon
Watch the actual operation film
Software Company R&D Black Box: Immediately Reprioritize Product Investment, or First Build Reversible Performance and Portfolio Evidence?
The Decision Room interface, case analysis, narration, captions and transcript are in English. The linked official source remains in its original language.
Evidence and endorsement boundary：Independent teaching simulation. The named consulting firm supplied the public source only; it did not use, review, endorse, sponsor, certify or commission Minerva Advisor. This evidence does not claim customer results, ROI or a permanent service-level guarantee.
Inspect the evidence, then test your own decision context.