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Case studies

A situation. A decision. A reason why.

Every case is a real situation someone faced, with the constraints they had and the numbers they could see. There is no answer key — you are scored on your reasoning.

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The whole brief, exactly as a learner sees it. Only the outcome stays locked until you commit to an answer.

Engineering 14 minProfessional

The Migration Decision

A newly promoted team lead has to move a payments service off a database that is six months from end-of-life. The fast path ships in three weeks and carries a known failure mode under peak load. The safe path takes eleven weeks and slips a quarter the whole company has committed to. Leadership is in the room, and the error budget is on the screen.

Which path do you take, and what do you tell the room that makes it defensible?

The team took the fast path and hit the failure mode in week two, during a sale. What made the decision defensible anyway was the rollback plan they wrote before shipping, and the single number they agreed in advance would trigger it.

The outcome unlocks when you submit your answer
Scored on reasoning, not on a keyUnlock this case
How every case runs
01

Read the brief

The context, the constraints and the numbers you actually get. No hints, and nothing highlighted for you.

02

Take a position

Commit to one path and write the reasoning behind it. You cannot see anyone else's answer first.

03

Defend it

Scored on the quality of your reasoning and the trade-offs you named, not on matching an answer key.

04

See what really happened

The decision the real team made, what it cost them, and where your reasoning diverged from theirs.

The library

More cases, every track

New cases land every month across engineering, business, design, leadership and data.

Track
Engineering 14 minProfessional

The Migration Decision

A newly promoted team lead has to move a payments service off a database that is six months from end-of-life. The fast path ships in three weeks and carries a known failure mode under peak load. The safe path takes eleven weeks and slips a quarter the whole company has committed to. Leadership is in the room, and the error budget is on the screen.

Which path do you take, and what do you tell the room that makes it defensible?
Scored on reasoning, not on a keyUnlock this case
Business 11 minUndergraduate

The Price Nobody Liked

A study-tools startup has 40,000 free users and 900 paying ones. Sales wants a lower price to grow volume. Finance wants a higher one to reach breakeven before the next raise. Both have a spreadsheet. Both spreadsheets are internally consistent, and they disagree by a factor of three.

Whose model is wrong, and what would you measure to prove it before anyone changes the price?
Scored on reasoning, not on a keyUnlock this case
Design 9 minUndergraduate

The Feature 20% Will Hate

Research is unambiguous: a redesigned dashboard makes new users 30% faster to their first useful action. It also makes the workflow slower for the 20% of power users who generate most of the revenue. The launch is in nine days and both groups will notice on day one.

Do you ship it, hold it, or split it — and what do you give up in each case?
Scored on reasoning, not on a keyUnlock this case
Leadership 12 minProfessional

The Quiet Resignation

Your strongest engineer has stopped volunteering for anything. Output is unchanged, code review comments have gone from paragraphs to one word, and they have declined the last three optional sessions. Nothing has been said out loud, and their next review is in a fortnight.

What is your first move, and what would make it the wrong one?
Scored on reasoning, not on a keyUnlock this case
Data 10 minSchool

The Metric That Went Up

A school's new reading programme reports a 22% jump in average test scores in one term. The number is real and correctly calculated. Attendance in the same term fell by 15%, and the students who stopped attending were not a random sample of the class.

Did the programme work? Say what you would need to see before you would answer.
Scored on reasoning, not on a keyUnlock this case
Business 13 minPostgraduate

The Supplier Who Missed Twice

A supplier has missed two deadlines in a row on a component you cannot easily source elsewhere. Switching costs eight weeks and a redesign. Staying costs credibility with a customer who has already noticed. The supplier has asked for one more chance and offered a discount.

Stay or switch? Name the condition that would change your answer.
Scored on reasoning, not on a keyUnlock this case

Showing 6 of 6 published cases. Buying the course a case belongs to unlocks it and its full outcome.

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Make the call.
Then find out.

Submit your answer to see the decision the real team made, what it cost them, and where your reasoning diverged.