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Choice · Choose

SAFE — suitability, acceptability, feasibility

Screens a shortlist of options against the three ways one actually dies, with the criteria fixed before anyone falls in love with a favourite.

The printable canvas and the handoff into Claude Code are part of a paid plan. See what a plan includes. It needs the Claude desktop app on this machine, and your team and the prompt library already installed in that project — we cannot see your disk, so open it there.

Stage
03 Choose
Works at
Corporate, Business
Maturity
Scaling → Large organisation
Time
Two hours, once options exist

What it is

A test applied after option generation and before commitment: does the option fit the position you diagnosed, would it be acceptable to the people who must approve and live with it, and can you actually resource it. All three have to hold; an option that fails one is not a live option, however attractive it looks on the other two.

Suitability
Does the option address the issues you actually diagnosed, and build on a genuine strength rather than a hoped-for one. An option can be exciting and still not answer the question you asked.
Acceptability
Would the people who must approve it — the board, the bank, the workforce, the market — actually accept the risk, the return and the change involved. Tested against stated risk appetite, not against enthusiasm in the room.
Feasibility
Can you resource it: the money, the capability, the time and the management attention it needs, at the same time as everything else already committed.
Fixed criteria
What suitability, acceptability and feasibility mean for this decision, written down before any option is scored against them. A team can otherwise invent criteria that happen to flatter the option it already prefers.
The kill
An option that fails any one of the three is out, regardless of how well it scores on the other two. SAFE is a filter, not an average.
The mistake people makeScoring the options against criteria invented after seeing them, so the favourite always wins. Fix the criteria first and date them, and be honest when a well-liked option fails on acceptability or feasibility rather than quietly softening the test.
What it’s forYou have a shortlist of real options and need a defensible way to choose between them, not a way to justify the one you already like.
What it’s not forYou have not generated real options yet. SAFE screens a shortlist; it does not produce one.

How you run it

  1. Fix the three tests before scoring anythingWrite what suitability, acceptability and feasibility mean for this specific decision, and date it. This is what stops the criteria bending to fit a favourite.
  2. List every option, including the uncomfortable onesA shortlist with one obvious winner and two strawmen is not a real screen. Include the option nobody wants to say out loud.
  3. Score suitability firstDoes each option actually address the diagnosed issue and build on a real strength. Options that fail here do not proceed to the other two tests.
  4. Score acceptability against stated risk appetiteNot against enthusiasm in the room. Name who must approve and what they have said they will not accept.
  5. Score feasibility and record every failure with its reasonMoney, capability, time, management attention. Record why a failed option failed — that record is what makes the final choice defensible later.

The prompt

Two ways to run it

Run this tool in your own Claude

The short prompt starts your partner against the library on your disk. The long one carries everything with it and needs nothing installed.

🔒 Prompt locked

Everything above is free — what this tool is, what it is for, what it is not for, and how to run it as a workshop. Three tool prompts a month are free with an account; beyond three, and for the printable canvas, it is the paid part.

See plans — from £19 a month

Your playbook

It lands in the earliest stage this tool suits. Move it on the Playbook page.

You’ll need

  • A shortlist of genuine options, not one option and a strawman
  • The strategic position and constraints the options must fit
  • Who has to approve the choice, and what they will not accept

You’ll end up with

  • Every option scored against suitability, acceptability and feasibility
  • The one or two that survive all three, named
  • A written reason for every option that failed, so the choice is defensible later

Runs well with

Acquisition screen and synergy thesisAI opportunity mapAssumption mappingBoard paper