Decision-making, in the interview
The 10/10/10 rule: three time horizons for one decision
The 10/10/10 rule asks how a decision will feel in 10 minutes, in 10 months and in 10 years. It separates the pain of the moment from the consequences that last. In an interview it is the natural structure for any question that sets a quick gain against a slow cost, or an awkward conversation against lasting trust.
How does 10/10/10 work?
- 10 minutes: what are the immediate consequences, and the immediate feelings?
- 10 months: what will this look like once the first reaction has passed?
- 10 years: will it matter, and how?
- Decide on the horizon that matters most for this choice, and say why.
When does 10/10/10 fit an interview question?
It fits saving now against losing later (outsourcing, cutting a budget, a cheap client), and ethical questions where the short-term move is to stay quiet. The structure makes the trade-off visible in three short sentences.
What does a strong answer with 10/10/10 sound like?
Question: your team finds a significant error in a model shown to the board yesterday. The project lead wants to correct it quietly next month.
"In ten minutes, telling the board is uncomfortable. In ten months, if it surfaces some other way, we have lost their trust in every number we show them. In ten years, nobody remembers a corrected model, but they remember a hidden one. So I would check how material it is, correct it now and tell them before they find out."
Common mistakes
- Applying the three horizons mechanically to a decision where only one matters.
- Using it to justify always choosing the long term, even when the short-term cost is real.
- Filling each horizon with feelings and no consequences.
Where does 10/10/10 come from?
The journalist and author Suzy Welch introduced it in her book "10-10-10: A Life-Transforming Idea" (2009), after developing it to handle the conflicts between work and family life.
Practice with this framework
These problems from the free GCA practice set are best answered with 10/10/10. Pick the framework that fits each one, then read the worked answer.
3 questions, one at a time
Pick a pace. The timer stops when you check an answer, and the worked method opens straight away. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.
Keys: 1 to 4 pick an option, Enter checks and moves on.
One question, two answers
A weak answer, why it scores low, and the strong one. Under a minute each.
Outsource support for 40% less?
The error the board already saw
10/10/10: FAQ
Who created the 10/10/10 rule?
Suzy Welch, a journalist and former editor of the Harvard Business Review, in her 2009 book 10-10-10. It was designed for personal decisions and works just as well for business trade-offs.
Why three horizons?
Because a choice often looks different at each one: what hurts now may not matter in a year, and what seems harmless now can compound. Looking at all three stops the most vivid one from deciding for you.
The other decision frameworks
- Reversible vs irreversibleDecide fast when a choice can be undone, and slow down for the ones that cannot (Jeff Bezos' one-way and two-way doors).
- Regret minimizationAsk which you would regret more in the long run: doing it, or not doing it (Jeff Bezos).
- CynefinFirst name the situation: clear, complicated, complex or chaotic. In a crisis, act first; in a complicated case, analyze first (Dave Snowden).
- Expected valueWeigh each outcome by its odds: the chance of a gain times its size, minus the chance of a loss times its size.
- Pre-mortemImagine the plan has already failed, list why, and build the defenses in now (Gary Klein).
- WRAPWiden your options, reality-test your assumptions, attain distance, prepare to be wrong (Chip and Dan Heath).
- The 70% ruleDecide once you have about 70% of the information you wish you had, then adjust as you learn (Jeff Bezos).
- OODA loopObserve, orient, decide, act, and loop again faster than the situation changes (John Boyd).