Chapters · 7 of 8

About 18 min · Lesson and activity

Chapter 7 of 80 complete

Test Plausible Edge Cases

Build cases from documented failures, near misses, and boundaries; adapt the rules when populations require different evidence.

See the situation

Start with the situation below. Next, we will work through an example together before you try the activity.

Maya · Decision designer

The case

Renewal behaving exactly as renewals behave

Test with plausible edge cases from the stated policy. Bound terms that could otherwise dominate unrelated evidence.

Type: Renewal opportunity
Time in current stage: Months, by design
Renewal cadence: Quarterly
Scored by: The new-business calculation
Result: Deep in the danger zone for doing nothing wrong

Your task

Choose a renewal window and adjust the penalty. Predict the supplier result before revealing it.

Need a little guidance?

You’re done when: Happy paths and boundary cases both resolve to an explicit outcome, review state, or failure.

A decision is not ready because one normal example worked.

Need a reminder? Reopen the worked example

Watch one example first

Before testing, the team predicts that a supplier message should not be classified as buyer intent. It runs that finite case, compares actual with expected, and investigates a mismatch instead of rewriting the expectation.

Why this follows from the evidence

An edge case tests a plausible boundary in the policy. Expected results written first expose defects; expectations edited to match every result cannot do that.

GTM Lab

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Decision workbench

Challenge the formula with a renewal case

Your task: Choose an explicitly stated relevance window, inspect a bounded penalty, and write your expected result before revealing the prepared evaluation.

For this renewal policy, choose a relevance window

Bounded stage-age penalty · -20 points

Effect on two prepared recordsCompare the original state with the proposed change. This preview does not change live records.

Effect on two prepared records
Item	Before	Proposed calculation	Why
New-business deal · base 72	Penalty unbounded in old proposal	Score 52	The slider bounds the example to a 0–100 range.
Renewal · 18 months before date	Scored by the new-business formula	Not in this policy window	90-day window is the stated rule, not a universal renewal standard.
Protected-segment release check	Not evaluated	Hold	A failed predeclared guardrail blocks this proposed release.

New-business deal · base 72: BeforePenalty unbounded in old proposal; Proposed calculationScore 52; WhyThe slider bounds the example to a 0–100 range.
Renewal · 18 months before date: BeforeScored by the new-business formula; Proposed calculationNot in this policy window; Why90-day window is the stated rule, not a universal renewal standard.
Protected-segment release check: BeforeNot evaluated; Proposed calculationHold; WhyA failed predeclared guardrail blocks this proposed release.

Fresh case: a verified supplier message has no buying intent. What do you expect before seeing the check?

Evidence timing in the fresh caseFollow the example events in time order. No live integration runs here.

18 months before renewal
Renewal opportunity opened
Outside the 90-day relevance window, so it is not scored by this policy.
Needs review
Today
New supplier message received
The verified message offers services; source evidence is complete for this intent check.
Supported
After the check
Expected disposition
Not a prospect for this stated buying-intent decision; this does not imply any universal handling for suppliers.
Supported

Practice draft restores when you return.

Case evidence

Renewal behaving exactly as renewals behave

Type: Renewal opportunity
Time in current stage: Months, by design
Renewal cadence: Quarterly
Scored by: The new-business calculation
Result: Deep in the danger zone for doing nothing wrong

In this example, renewals look unhealthy because the team applied a new-business formula without checking whether it fits the renewal lifecycle.

Review or edit the saved decision-design sections

The workbench above is the main practice. These optional sections let you draft the contract directly; each section gives feedback before the chapter check.

Work the case · 0 of 3 sections drafted

Test the boundaries, not only the happy path

Compare these alternatives one section at a time. Check a choice to see its consequence; the draft summary below keeps the proposed changes together.

Step 1 of 3

Renewals are penalized for behaving exactly as renewals behave. What should happen?

Exclude renewals from engagement scoring entirelyAdd an exception that removes the stage penalty for renewalsGive renewals their own calculation, including a relevance window outside which they are not scored

This is a proposed draft until the chapter check runs. Selecting a choice alone does not complete the chapter.

2b · Proposed

Decision design draft

Decision design draft · current draftCompare the original state with the proposed change. This preview does not change live records.

Decision design draft · current draft
Item	Before	Proposed	Why
Renewals are penalized for behaving exactly as renewals behave. What should happen?	No saved change in this exercise draft	Not drafted yet	Choose a proposal to see what it would add to the draft.
An unbounded stage penalty can wipe out a genuinely recent meeting. What is the general rule?	No saved change in this exercise draft	Not drafted yet	Choose a proposal to see what it would add to the draft.
Where should the permanent test cases come from?	No saved change in this exercise draft	Not drafted yet	Choose a proposal to see what it would add to the draft.

Renewals are penalized for behaving exactly as renewals behave. What should happen?: BeforeNo saved change in this exercise draft; ProposedNot drafted yet; WhyChoose a proposal to see what it would add to the draft.
An unbounded stage penalty can wipe out a genuinely recent meeting. What is the general rule?: BeforeNo saved change in this exercise draft; ProposedNot drafted yet; WhyChoose a proposal to see what it would add to the draft.
Where should the permanent test cases come from?: BeforeNo saved change in this exercise draft; ProposedNot drafted yet; WhyChoose a proposal to see what it would add to the draft.

A choice appears here as a proposal, not as evidence that a live system changed.

Your place saves as you go.

Chapter 7 of 80 complete