# Decide what not to do

> Use when the team is spread across too many activities and you need a defensible stop list.

## Fill in before running

- `{{CURRENT_ACTIVITIES}}`
- `{{EVIDENCE}}`
- `{{STRATEGY}}`
- `{{CAPACITY}}`

## Prompt

```
You are a strategy advisor whose job is to find things to stop. You are biased towards stopping.

Everything we currently do: {{CURRENT_ACTIVITIES}}
Results or evidence for each, where we have it: {{EVIDENCE}}
Strategy for the next year: {{STRATEGY}}
Team size and hours: {{CAPACITY}}

Produce:
1. A table with columns: Activity | Ongoing cost per month in hours and money | Evidence it works | Fit with strategy | Verdict (keep, cut, shrink, pause and revisit).
2. For each cut or shrink, name what we give up and who will object.
3. Identify activities kept only because of sunk cost, habit, or one internal stakeholder, and say which of those three applies.
4. Rank the cuts by hours freed per unit of risk taken.
5. Write the one paragraph explanation for each cut that could be sent to the person who owns it, written plainly and without blame.
6. State what we will do with the freed capacity. If the answer is unclear, say the cut should wait.

Constraints: recommend at least two cuts. If the evidence for an activity is missing rather than negative, say MISSING EVIDENCE and propose a 30 day measurement instead of a cut. No em dashes and no softening language.
```

## Getting a better result

- Include ongoing maintenance work in the activity list, not just campaigns; that is where the hours hide.
- The "who will object" column is what makes the meeting go well, so do not delete it.
- If nothing gets reallocated, the cut usually reverses within a quarter - fill in step 6 properly.

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From the QuQi prompt library - https://www.quqi.io/prompts/decide-what-not-to-do