deciding-trade-space

Map design trade-offs across dimensions when choosing between approaches. Use when: (1) asked to compare approaches, identify trade-offs, weigh pros and cons, or clarify what would be sacrificed by a choice, (2) recommending an approach based on a single criterion without acknowledging what it sacrifices, (3) presenting multiple options but only listing features rather than explaining what each optimizes for and costs, (4) deep in implementation details before establishing what qualities actually matter for the decision, (5) a solution reveals significant downsides that trade-off analysis should have predicted, (6) treating design choices as objectively right or wrong rather than as positions in a trade-space