3: The Counterfactual: Why Repairing Beat Rewriting and Outsourcing

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Guest: David Broeren                                                                                                                                                                                  
In 2011, David walked into his first delivery manager role and inherited a problem with no easy exit. A major Australian bank's business banking platform had been rated fourth of four in an independent industry survey — and fourth by some distance. An outsourcing contract was ready for signature. Leadership was keen to bring in a team of elite developers and rewrite the thing from scratch.                       

David did neither.                                                                                                                        
This episode walks through the decision arc: why the two "obvious" options were the wrong ones, the counterfactual maths that made the case for repair, and how he got a disengaged team to turn around a platform that — fifteen years later — still sits at number one.

The qualified answer:  Every decision is a risk decision — make it an informed one. The counterfactual is the tool that surfaces what the obvious path actually costs. And when you hear someone say "surely" — back up. That word usually means they haven't been questioned.

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