Why most business cases don’t actually help you make better decisions

We’ve all been there: “We need a business case for that.”

Sometimes it’s a formality to unlock budget. Sometimes it’s to reassure leadership. Sometimes it’s just a box to tick before you can move forward.

But how often is a business case actually useful for decision-making?

In my experience, business cases often suffer from three major issues:

1. They’re too static.

   You write them at one point in time – usually when you know the least – and then they sit in a folder while the team gets on with it. Assumptions change, priorities evolve, but the case stays frozen.

   
   

2. They’re too high-level.

   Most cases are too vague to drive decisions. They talk about outcomes like “increase retention” or “improve UX” without tying that to specific product work. They rarely help you answer the question: what should we build now, and why?

   
   

3. They’re too isolated.

   Built in spreadsheets or docs, shared once, then forgotten. They don’t live alongside the roadmap. They’re not connected to delivery. And they’re not built for iteration – which means we rarely revisit whether the outcome actually happened.

   
   

And yet… business impact does matter, a lot.

We need better ways to connect ideas to outcomes, and trade-offs to value – not as a one-off exercise, but as a habit. That’s one of the core things we’re tackling with Product Seed.

We’re rethinking the business case: making it lightweight, dynamic, and embedded in your workflow. It travels with every initiative you create, helps you sense-check assumptions, and tracks your ROI in real time once work is delivered. And with a bit of AI assistance, it’s there to guide you – not just capture your thinking. No more hidden spreadsheets or disconnected docs; just a clearer view of what matters and how it’s performing.

Have you ever worked somewhere where business cases actually helped drive prioritisation?

How did it work for you when it came to tracking success after delivery?