I am trying to get a word for an approach or characteristic where you have many subjective approaches or biased views but because they are all subjective, the most suitable one can only be measured by the end result and not some other measure of suitability. i.e. out of the 3 subjective approaches the one will be shown to be more effective once you compare the objective results
Examples
The school assignment is to write an essay. Sally has an incredible vocabulary and is sure she will get the best mark because of it. John has an very strong imagination. Sally tells John he can't possibly get a better mark than her because of her advantage. After receiving results John gets the top mark.
John has a [...] approach.
Other examples
Two school football teams play against each other. The one team is favored because their players are much bigger and athletic. However the other team ends up winning because they played more strategically.
and
Researcher A, B,C gets a grant for 1 million USD dollars each to help prevent patients from dying from the HIV virus. Researcher A is an expert in research of preventing the virus from infecting people. Researcher B has the most research in treating patients symptoms once infected. Researcher C has the most research in stopping the virus from spreading in the human body. After 1 year Researcher B's research is found to save the most lives.
and
Doctor A believes his 30 year of prior experience will help him diagnose the patient correctly. Doctor B believes his intuition will help him diagnose the patient accurately. Both disagreed on each others diagnosis. Doctor B was found to be correct. Doctor B is [...]
and
The tortoise and the hare are in a race. The tortoise wins due to a [different] approach
This is not goal orientated as everyone was goal driven. Same argument for go-getter.
Not longshot as although the others might be favored, each person believes their uniqueness to solve the approach is correct.
Not novel approach as it just indicates is is means different where I want to say different and proven correct
Not End result in mind as all had the end result in mind.