ReWhy
Helping institutional investment teams remember why they decided — and know when a decision deserves a second look.
- STATUS
- In progress · concept / prototype
- CONTEXT
- Cornell Tech Product Studio, team project
- ROLE
- Product strategy, product design, user research ● To verify
- TEAM
- [Collaborators — to be added] ● To verify
SUBJECTSDecision intelligence · Decision support systems · Knowledge-intensive work
The problem
Professional decisions rest on information, assumptions and discussion that end up scattered across documents, chats and memory. When conditions change, teams struggle to see which past decisions should be revisited — and why.
What we heard
Around 20 early interviews across 5 roles and 8 industries moved us from a broad question about AI in knowledge work to one specific pain: keeping the context behind decisions alive. Interviews inside fixed income are still being added.
Narrowing the user
From all professionals, to freelancers, to institutional fixed-income teams — a setting dense with information, built on assumptions, and constantly changing. A narrower user made a clearer MVP possible.
The product bet
Not another AI knowledge base. The product is built around the life of a decision — from the moment it is made to the moment it needs revisiting.
- 01 Capture Record the decision and its rationale.
- 02 Connect Link it to the assumptions it rests on.
- 03 Monitor Track conditions that could change.
- 04 Identify Flag decisions that may be affected.
- 05 Explore Look at alternative scenarios.
- 06 Review A professional re-evaluates and decides.
● Target workflow — not all steps are built yet.
Options considered
| No. | Direction | Why / why not | Decision |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | General AI work assistant for all professionals | Too broad: workflows differ too much to define one clear core value in the time available. | Rejected |
| 02 | Workflow tool for freelancers | Explored, but the most valuable problem lived in settings that depend on long-term decision context. | Rejected |
| 03 | Knowledge storage or summarisation tool | Helps people find information, but not decide what to re-evaluate when conditions change. | Rejected |
| 04 | Decision-lifecycle tool for fixed-income teams | Clear, high-stakes use case and a smaller MVP. Market demand still needs direct evidence. | Chosen |
Still unproven
Open questions this project still needs to answer.
- Open 01 Will teams keep recording and maintaining the rationale behind decisions?
- Open 02 Does tracking assumptions really cut the time it takes to re-evaluate a decision?
- Open 03 Can AI-suggested dependencies be accurate and explainable enough for professionals to trust?
- Open 04 Will teams or institutions pay for this capability?