One thing I have found helpful(through my experience), in ensuring that your tradeoffs align with long term goals is to follow a certain framework which has the capability of adaptation to the changing business requirements. Listing some of the most important points which you cannot miss in your approach 1) Always prioritise user experience 2) Understanding non-functional requirements is essential in meeting long term goals. 3) Quantify the tradeoffs as early as possible. Quantifying means analysing the impact of each tradeoffs in business. 4) Modularity and Scalability should be considered in this fast changing world. 5) Use of AI and monitoring tools is super important to analyse all tradeoffs. I hope it summarizes my view point!

Define a North Star Metric: Establish a key metric that represents the project's long-term goal, guiding trade-off decisions. Use a Decision Framework: Develop a framework to evaluate trade-offs, considering factors like scalability, maintainability, and user experience. Consider the 5-Year Horizon: When making trade-offs, ask yourself how the decision will impact the system in 5 years, ensuring alignment with long-term goals. Evaluate Technical Debt: Assess the technical debt associated with each trade-off, ensuring that short-term gains don't compromise long-term sustainability. Regularly Review and Adjust: Periodically review trade-offs and adjust course as needed, ensuring alignment with evolving long-term goals.

1. Define Clear Objectives: Establish quantifiable, long-term goals (e.g., scalability, performance, maintainability). 2. Evaluate Trade-Offs: Assess each decision's impact on goals, considering factors like cost, complexity, and risk. 3. Prioritize: Rank goals and trade-offs, focusing on critical objectives. 4. Model and Simulate: Use models and simulations to predict system behavior and validate trade-offs. 5. Review and Refine: Regularly reassess design decisions and adjust as needed.

1. Actualize the Purpose of the System: Any system's design foundation lies in its purpose. If the trade-offs support the purpose, the long-term goals will align too provided there is clarity. 2. Conduct Stakeholder meetings: Interdisciplinary conversations among decision makers is crucial, the chances of information entropy affecting human decision making loops may reduce. 3. Build self-adjusting feedback mechanisms: Scenario building exercises and using the Horizon Framework are some effective tools for the same. This step will contribute in creating a safety cushion for the system, its forthcoming, and long-term plans.