Async Decision Memo Skill
Remote teams keep reinventing this badly: someone posts a doc, twelve people leave drive-by comments over two weeks, nothing resolves, and the decision happens in a meeting anyway — now with resentment. The async decision is a process with a deadline, not a document with comments enabled. This skill runs the whole protocol.
What This Skill Produces
- The decision memo (structured for silent reading, with the recommendation up front)
- The process wrapper: named roles, response windows, comment-resolution rules, escalation
- The kickoff message that opens the window and the closing note that records the outcome
Required Inputs
Ask for (if not already provided):
- The decision — what's being decided, the options, the recommendation and its reasoning (rough notes fine)
- The people: who decides (one name), who must be consulted (their objection could change the answer), who is merely informed
- The clock: when is this decision needed, and what does it block
- The stakes — reversible or one-way-door? (Sets the window length and the bar for escalation)
The Protocol
- Write the memo for a silent first read. Structure: the decision needed (one sentence) · the recommendation (up front — burying it invites a treasure hunt) · context in prose (full sentences force complete thinking; bullets hide gaps) · options considered with real trade-offs (a strawman option list discredits the whole memo) · what would change my mind (the single highest-trust section — name the evidence that would flip the recommendation) · cost of deciding slowly (why the deadline is real). Target ≤2 pages; past that, the memo needs editing, not more patience.
- Assign the three roles by name. The decider (exactly one; "the group decides" is how nothing does) · consulted (listed individually — their silence is treated as consent and they know it) · informed (get the outcome, not a comment invitation). The role list ships in the kickoff, not in anyone's imagination.
- Open a bounded window. Reversible decisions: 2-3 working days. One-way doors: up to a week, never more — an async process longer than a week isn't deliberation, it's drift. The kickoff states the close date/time and timezone, and that silence from consulted = consent.
- Enforce the comment protocol. Comments must be one of: objection (with reasoning — and where possible, what evidence would resolve it) · question (answered by the author within a working day) · improvement (accepted/declined by the author, no debate thread). Preference restatements and drive-bys get one reply: "noted — not an objection." Threads longer than 3 exchanges move to a 15-minute call between those two people only, whose outcome is written back into the thread.
- Close on time, whatever the state. At the deadline the decider: decides (the default) · extends once with a reason and new date · or escalates (only for an unresolved objection on a one-way door). The closing note records: the decision, the dissent as stated by the dissenter, what would reopen it, and who does what by when. Dissent recorded ≠ decision reopened — disagree-and-commit is the exit, and the note says so.
- File it. The memo + closing note land where decisions live (the decision log, the Brain's
decisions/ if one exists) — an async decision that lives in a chat scrollback will be relitigated by someone who "never saw it."
Output Format
Async Decision: [title] — window closes [date, tz]
Roles: Decider: [name] · Consulted: [names] (silence = consent) · Informed: [names]
The memo (structured per the protocol above)
Kickoff message (ready to post): [what's being decided, the recommendation exists — read before commenting, the window, the comment protocol in two lines, silence rule]
Closing note template: Decision: […] · Dissent, as stated: […] · Reopens if: […] · Actions: [who/what/when] · Filed: [where]
Quality Checks
Anti-Patterns
1---2name: async-decision-memo3description: Run a decision asynchronously — the memo, the silent-read window, the comment protocol, and the deadline that makes it land without a meeting. Use when asked to decide something async, replace a decision meeting with a document, run an Amazon-style written decision process, or when a decision keeps stalling in comment threads. Produces the decision memo plus the process wrapper: reader roles, response windows, comment-resolution rules, and the tie-breaker. For the document structure alone use decision-memo; this skill runs the process around it.4---5
6# Async Decision Memo Skill
7
8Remote teams keep reinventing this badly: someone posts a doc, twelve people leave drive-by comments over two weeks, nothing resolves, and the decision happens in a meeting anyway — now with resentment. The async decision is a *process with a deadline*, not a document with comments enabled. This skill runs the whole protocol.
9
10## What This Skill Produces
11
12- The **decision memo** (structured for silent reading, with the recommendation up front)
13- The **process wrapper**: named roles, response windows, comment-resolution rules, escalation
14- The **kickoff message** that opens the window and the **closing note** that records the outcome
15
16## Required Inputs
17
18Ask for (if not already provided):
19- **The decision** — what's being decided, the options, the recommendation and its reasoning (rough notes fine)
20- **The people**: who *decides* (one name), who must be *consulted* (their objection could change the answer), who is merely *informed*
21- **The clock**: when is this decision needed, and what does it block
22- **The stakes** — reversible or one-way-door? (Sets the window length and the bar for escalation)
23
24## The Protocol
25
261. **Write the memo for a silent first read.** Structure: **the decision needed** (one sentence) · **the recommendation** (up front — burying it invites a treasure hunt) · **context in prose** (full sentences force complete thinking; bullets hide gaps) · **options considered with real trade-offs** (a strawman option list discredits the whole memo) · **what would change my mind** (the single highest-trust section — name the evidence that would flip the recommendation) · **cost of deciding slowly** (why the deadline is real). Target ≤2 pages; past that, the memo needs editing, not more patience.
272. **Assign the three roles by name.** The **decider** (exactly one; "the group decides" is how nothing does) · **consulted** (listed individually — their silence is treated as consent *and they know it*) · **informed** (get the outcome, not a comment invitation). The role list ships in the kickoff, not in anyone's imagination.
283. **Open a bounded window.** Reversible decisions: 2-3 working days. One-way doors: up to a week, never more — an async process longer than a week isn't deliberation, it's drift. The kickoff states the close date/time and timezone, and that *silence from consulted = consent*.
294. **Enforce the comment protocol.** Comments must be one of: **objection** (with reasoning — and where possible, what evidence would resolve it) · **question** (answered by the author within a working day) · **improvement** (accepted/declined by the author, no debate thread). Preference restatements and drive-bys get one reply: "noted — not an objection." Threads longer than 3 exchanges move to a 15-minute call between *those two people only*, whose outcome is written back into the thread.
305. **Close on time, whatever the state.** At the deadline the decider: decides (the default) · extends *once* with a reason and new date · or escalates (only for an unresolved objection on a one-way door). The closing note records: the decision, the dissent *as stated by the dissenter*, what would reopen it, and who does what by when. Dissent recorded ≠ decision reopened — disagree-and-commit is the exit, and the note says so.
316. **File it.** The memo + closing note land where decisions live (the decision log, the [Brain's](../professional-brain/SKILL.md) `decisions/` if one exists) — an async decision that lives in a chat scrollback will be relitigated by someone who "never saw it."
32
33## Output Format
34
35### Async Decision: [title] — window closes [date, tz]
36
37**Roles:** Decider: [name] · Consulted: [names] (silence = consent) · Informed: [names]
38
39**The memo** *(structured per the protocol above)*
40
41**Kickoff message** *(ready to post)*: [what's being decided, the recommendation exists — read before commenting, the window, the comment protocol in two lines, silence rule]
42
43**Closing note template**: Decision: […] · Dissent, as stated: […] · Reopens if: […] · Actions: [who/what/when] · Filed: [where]
44
45## Quality Checks
46
47- [ ] Exactly one named decider; consulted people listed individually
48- [ ] The recommendation appears before the context, not after it
49- [ ] "What would change my mind" names specific evidence, not humility theatre
50- [ ] The window has a date, time, and timezone; the silence rule is stated in the kickoff
51- [ ] The closing note records dissent verbatim and the reopen condition
52
53## Anti-Patterns
54
55- [ ] Do not open comments without the protocol — an unbounded comment section is the meeting you were avoiding, slower
56- [ ] Do not run a memo without a decider — consensus-by-exhaustion is not an outcome
57- [ ] Do not let threads run past 3 exchanges — two people arguing in a doc are holding everyone else hostage
58- [ ] Do not extend the window twice — the second extension means the memo was premature; withdraw and rewrite it
59- [ ] Do not soften recorded dissent into "some concerns were raised" — the dissenter's actual words, or the record is fiction
Mohit Aggarwal