Making decisions

Decision-making can be difficult, especially for complex problems (where one decision in an area affects other decisions elsewhere), ambiguous problems (where it's hard to know what exactly is being address or what the priorities are), or where multiple competing solutions might present themselves.

A problem or decision well-posed is a one half-solved (well, at least in terms of picking a direction), so here is a little structure you can copy into a standalone decision document or embed within a larger framework.

• TL;DR. If you can have a three-sentence summary of the overview, top criteria and recommendation, that can help future readers save some time.
• Overview. What decision are you trying to make? What problem are you trying to solve?
• Details. If the problem warrants it, you might want to include additional background, details and references.
• Stakeholders. Who cares about what this decision? This may be specific people or a broader external group whose interests you might need to take into consideration.
• Success criteria. What does a successful decision/solution look like? What needs must it meet? Can you rank these in importance?
• Failure criteria. What would immediately disqualify a decision/solution?
• Options. Here you can make a list of what options/solutions you might have for your decision/problem.
• Recommendation. Given the analysis above, what option should be pursued?

In terms of communicating this, TL;DR and Overview are good sections for prose, stakeholders and criteria are good for bulleted lists. Summarizing the options in a table is very useful (with criteria in columns for example, options in rows, and cells with a yes/no or A-F grade letter; flip of course depending on whether you have more criteria or options).

Finally, options probably warrants a little paragraph each, but you might be able to condense it into a list if the text is short enough.

Happy decision-making!

Tags:  management

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