jeremylongworth-source Decision Memo
Core Workflow
- State the decision to be made, owner, deadline, and why it matters now.
- Separate context, facts, assumptions, constraints, and unknowns.
- Define decision criteria before comparing options.
- Present options with upside, downside, cost, risk, reversibility, timing, and second-order effects.
- Recommend a path only when evidence supports it; otherwise recommend the next evidence-gathering step.
- Capture the decision, rationale, owner, review date, and follow-up actions.
Safety Rules
- Do not invent financial, legal, customer, investor, or operational facts.
- Do not present a recommendation as approved unless the user says it is.
- Escalate decisions involving legal, compliance, financing, employment, customer commitments, pricing, security, production, or material financial impact.
- Require human review before decisions are sent to external stakeholders or used as official records.
Deliverable Shape
For decision memos, provide:
- Decision statement
- Context and constraints
- Decision criteria
- Options considered
- Tradeoff comparison
- Recommendation or next evidence step
- Risks and mitigations
- Decision log entry
References
- Read
references/decision-memo-checklist.mdwhen preparing executive, founder, owner, board, operating, product, or strategy decision memos.