I'm sorry to be the one to tell you this: Chances are your decision-making process is not very good. Why? Because your organization likely consists of human beings.

     Neal Cole makes a persuasive case that folks generally prefer gut instinct to research as the lead tool in making business decisions. They also generally adore what "experts" have to say, especially when those experts endorse their existing biases. A fully informed decision-making process is hellishly hard to implement in an organization of humans. However, such a process - however imperfect - is worth aspiring to.

     One of the most visible unsavory outcomes of our typical decision-support processes is the large number of new-product failures in commerce. And, as Adam Hartung chronicles on Forbes.com, some of these failures are rather well known: Segway, FirePhone, Google Glass. (I'm keeping my own list of likely medical-product commercial failures; I'll share that list after the sad data are in hand.) I'm not fully on board with Hartung's diagnoses and prescriptions, but there can be no question that expensive new-product failures are rampant and usually attributable to a decision-making process that leans more toward gut instinct than rigorous research.

     I've offered my prescription for better new-product screening in the form of the key questions that need to be asked in the course of a sound, pre-commercialization research effort. You can find that presentation here. (Let me know if you want to listen to the Podcast version instead.)