92 lines
3.7 KiB
Markdown
92 lines
3.7 KiB
Markdown
# How We Decide
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Every major decision at this company goes through the same process. A "major decision" is anything that:
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- Commits the company to a path that is hard or expensive to reverse
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- Affects more than one team or function
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- Costs more than $2,000 or $500/month recurring
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- Changes how we work (process, tools, org structure)
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- Introduces new security, legal, or compliance exposure
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If it is not major, the owner decides and documents. Do not slow down small decisions.
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## The Process
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### 1. Frame the decision
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Write a one-page decision brief that includes:
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- **Question:** What exactly are we deciding?
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- **Context:** Why now? What changed?
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- **Options:** At least two real alternatives, including "do nothing."
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- **Criteria:** 3-5 criteria we will use to judge the options.
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- **Recommendation:** The owner's preferred option and why.
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- **Risks:** What could go wrong? How would we know?
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- **Rollback plan:** If we choose wrong, how do we undo it?
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### 2. Gather advice
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The owner shares the brief with all stakeholders and gives them 24-48 hours to comment in writing. Stakeholders are expected to:
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- Raise concerns they can support with evidence
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- Suggest alternatives or mitigations
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- Declare if they have a conflict of interest
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The owner does not need to incorporate every piece of advice. The goal is to surface blind spots.
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### 3. Decide
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The decision owner makes the call. The owner is:
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- The relevant department lead for functional decisions
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- The CEO for cross-functional or high-stakes decisions
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- The board for capital, major partnerships, or existential bets
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The owner writes the decision in a durable document (issue comment, PR description, or committed file) and archives the brief alongside it.
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### 4. Communicate
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The owner announces the decision to all affected parties within 24 hours. The announcement includes:
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- What was decided
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- Why (with a link to the decision record)
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- What changes for whom
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- When the decision takes effect
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- How to raise new information that might change the outcome
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### 5. Review
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Major decisions are revisited on a schedule:
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- **30-day check:** Did the expected outcome materialize? Any early warning signs?
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- **90-day review:** Was the decision correct? What did we learn?
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- **Annual audit:** Which decisions should we reverse or update?
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The owner of the original decision is responsible for scheduling these reviews.
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## Decision Criteria
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We evaluate options against these criteria, weighted by the specific decision:
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1. **Reversibility:** Can we undo this cheaply? Higher weight for one-way doors.
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2. **Evidence quality:** How strong is the supporting data? Higher weight for novel or risky bets.
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3. **Optionality:** Does this close off future paths or keep them open?
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4. **Execution cost:** Time, money, and opportunity cost.
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5. **Alignment:** How well does this fit our charter and operating principles?
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## Who Signs Off
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| Decision tier | Decision owner | Required sign-off |
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| Functional (affects one team) | Department lead | None; document and notify |
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| Cross-functional (affects multiple teams) | CEO | Department leads consulted |
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| High-stakes (irreversible, expensive, existential) | CEO | Board approval required |
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| Security / legal / compliance | SecurityEngineer or Ops | CEO must be informed |
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## Anti-Patterns
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- **Consensus theater.** If everyone must agree, no one decides. We optimize for speed and clarity, not universal comfort.
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- **Analysis paralysis.** Two good options with similar expected value? Pick one and ship. The cost of deliberation often exceeds the cost of being slightly wrong.
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- **Decisions without owners.** Every decision has a single named owner. No committees.
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- **Invisible reversals.** If we change our mind, we write a new decision record. No ghosting past decisions.
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