business-caselisted

# Business Case Turns a proposed investment into the one-page artifact you bring to a funding decision: what it costs to do nothing, the options on the table, an expected-value benefit model, payback and ROI over a stated horizon, the input the verdict hinges on, and a clear fund-or-kill ask. Built for the PM who has to defend a bet to a skeptical exec or finance partner — the model is the argument, not a vibe. This is the **investment-justification** skill, and it's deliberately narrow. It justifies **one bet against its own cost and the do-nothing line.** It does **not** rank a backlog (that's `prioritize`), set a price (that's `pricing`), or choose product direction (that's `product-strategy`). If you're sequencing five features, you want `prioritize`; if you're deciding whether *this one* clears its cost, you're in the right place. **Grounded in:** classic cost-benefit analysis (expected value, payback, ROI) + *Monetizing Innovation* — Ramanujam & Tacke: size the value before you authorize the build. (We borrow only the "quantify value first" discipline, not the willingness-to-pay machinery — that's `pricing`.) **Go deeper (The Product Channel):** [The Product Channel](https://sidsaladi.substack.com) ## When to use this - Leadership asks "is this worth building?" and you need a defensible yes/no with numbers, not a pitch. - You're going into planning or a funding review and must justify why this bet earns headcount/budget. - A big or hard-to-reverse investment (a new