Decision one-pager

How to use it well

• →List every option you seriously weighed, including the one you didn't pick, with its real trade-off - a memo that only shows the winning option reads as a decision already made, not one being reviewed.
• →Say what was ruled out and why in the same breath as the recommendation - it's usually the first question a stakeholder asks, and answering it up front heads off the memo becoming a re-litigation thread.
• →A sign-off line only works if someone's name actually goes on it. A recommendation nobody is asked to approve tends to sit as a nice document rather than become a decision.

Part by part

# Decision: {{question}}

The title is the question, not the topic. It forces the document to be about something answerable rather than about an area.

## Recommendation

A stated position. A document presenting options without a recommendation moves the analysis to the reader, which is the work it was meant to do.

## Ruled out

Options considered and rejected, with reasons. It is what stops the same alternatives being raised in the meeting the document was supposed to shorten.

## Sign-off

Who decides and by when. Without it, a decision document is a discussion document and the decision is deferred by default.

Common mistakes

• Presenting options with no recommendation.

  Reads as balanced and is an abdication — you have done the analysis and the reader has not. Neutral option papers reliably produce another meeting rather than a decision.

• A title naming a topic rather than a question.

  Database strategy is a discussion; should we move billing to Postgres by Q3 is a decision. The title determines which meeting you get.

• Omitting who signs off.

  Everyone assumes someone else will decide, and the document circulates until it is stale. Naming the decider and the date is what converts it into an event.

Questions