Connecting results to design decisions
When the evidence can support a meaningful result, the Solution Designer helps the business trace it backward using four questions:
- What result occurred? Identify the measured business and operational change.
- What changed in practice? Identify the behavior, process, or system interaction associated with the result.
- Which design decisions supported that change? Connect the changed work to the relevant Workflow, participation, data, integration, access, or experience decisions.
- What does the evidence establish? Determine how those decisions and any dependencies contributed.
Distinguish how decisions contributed
The backward trace may show that individual decisions and dependencies contributed to the result in different ways:
- A value-carrying decision that directly changed the work associated with the result
- An enabling decision that allowed another part of the design to produce the effect
- A decision that contributed less than expected
- A dependency that constrained the result
This gives stakeholders a defensible account of how the delivered design contributed while keeping assumptions, dependencies, and individual contributions visible.
Tip: Capture the trace in one evidence-based statement: "The evidence shows [measured result] after [change in work]. [Value-carrying decision] contributed directly to that change, supported by [enabling decisions]. [Decision or dependency] affected the extent of the result."
The evidence-based trace explains how the design contributed without assigning the entire result to one decision. It also identifies the shortfalls, constraints, or opportunities that may require the attention of the business.
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