Even when the product ends, the customer's work remains
2026NowDeadline · Decision window: 30 days until the shutdown notice
Realistic synthesis
The people, events, figures, and technology in this matter are stated assumptions. They are not to be treated as information about real individuals or as observed events. Background documents are separate sources, and symbolic interpretations are recorded as discovery paths.
The question to decide
For a small number of customers it is their only work record tool, but 20% of development capacity is tied up in maintaining it, delaying improvements to new products. Exporting the records has not been verified to produce readable output in other tools. When setting a shutdown date, keeping essential support, or transferring it outside, what burdens should the company and the customers each bear?
Who decidesThe product committee of a software company
What the AI judgments chose
Reading the judgment record…
The options
The order shown is not a ranking of preference.
The situation as it stands
The fictional product has few customers, but for some small organizations it is their only business record-keeping tool. Deadline: Deadline: 30 days until the discontinuation notice.
A 2026 fictional scenario · Discontinuing an old product that a small number of customers rely on for their livelihoods. The people, organizations, figures, and events are a synthetic premise constructed for comparison.
- Premise 1The fictional product has few customers, but for some small organizations it is their only business record-keeping tool.
- Premise 2Maintenance staff make up 20% of total developers, and the promised improvements of a new product are delayed.
- Premise 3Records can be exported, but it has not been tested whether other tools read them in the same way.
Where it holdsEnd of support, migration tools, and the customer transition budget
What is still unknown
- Unknown 1The minimum features customers still need
- Unknown 2The cost of reading and converting data in other tools
- Unknown 3The support responsibility an external operator can take on
Signals to decide again
- Decide what observation, owner, and confirmation channel can verify the «minimum features customers still need», and re-judge if new confirmation changes the tradeoffs of the options.
- Decide what observation, owner, and confirmation channel can verify the «cost of reading and converting data in other tools», and re-judge if new confirmation changes the tradeoffs of the options.
- Decide what observation, owner, and confirmation channel can verify the «support responsibility an external operator can take on», and re-judge if new confirmation changes the tradeoffs of the options.
Where the paths partNot answers — paths that part from the same starting point
Customer organizations offered to pay part of the maintenance cost jointly, but required the record format to be published.
In a migration test, some older attachments would not open in other tools.
Material and rootsThe frame, the values and the background documents
Where is the continuity of a company rooted once its members, customers, and purpose have changed?
An exploratory perspective chosen by the creator. Does not claim supernatural validity or the superiority of any particular option.The benefits and costs of the options accrue to different stakeholders. Which loss to accept remains undecided.
A subject for the decision-maker to argue over; the materials carry no conclusion of their own.- OECD · SMEs and entrepreneurship accessed 2026-09-08
- ICA · Cooperative identity, values and principles accessed 2026-09-08
The record of this question
- Question
FSP-VENTURE-22· version 1.4.0- Content identity, SHA-256
489b720f7aaad068f14b98e21bffeaf5bcd7e6a789723892f1cf93c63204fa58- Input files
- Question input JSON · What followed, JSON