2learn

The decision role

What it is

The decision role is choosing what the team works on next and being able to say why, against a goal the business has agreed. In practice the artefact is an ordered list with a reason attached to the top of it, and a goal that can be met or missed.

Why it matters

A team without this role still makes decisions, but they are made implicitly — by whoever is most persuasive, most senior, or most recent to complain. Consequences arrive months later attached to no one. Naming a decision-maker also gives everyone else a legitimate way to stop arguing: they can disagree with the decision, but they do not have to keep relitigating it.

Core ideas

Write the goal before the list

The goal is a change in the world, stated so it can be judged. Everything on the list is a bet about how to cause it.

Goal: cut the time from order to first shipment from 4 days to 2,
      measured weekly, by the end of Q3.

Bets:  automation of the packing slip, a same-day courier option,
       removing the manual stock check.

Without the goal, the list is a wish list and any ordering is defensible.

Order the list; do not just collect it

An unordered backlog is not a plan. The order is the product of the role’s judgement and is the thing other people can challenge.

Own the outcome, not the feature

A product manager who promises a feature has promised an output; if the goal does not move, the feature still shipped. Say which outcome you expect the work to change and how you will know.

Ask for the decision’s cost

Every yes is a no to something else. Write the next-best alternative beside the decision so the trade is visible when it is reviewed.

Decision   Ship refunds before saved payment methods.
Foregone   Saved payment methods, which support expects to cut 30 calls/week.
Reason     Refunds block the Q3 goal; payment methods do not.

Revisit on evidence, not on pressure

Change the order when the evidence changes, and say which evidence. Re-ordering because someone escalated is how the list stops meaning anything.

Practice

Write one goal and order a list against it

State a goal with a measure and a date, then order ten backlog items by how directly they serve it, writing the reason beside the top five.

Done when: every item in the top five has a reason that names the goal, and you can name what you are deliberately not doing.

Record one decision’s cost

Take your most recent yes and write down the next-best alternative you gave up.

Done when: the entry names the alternative, the goal it loses to, and the date it should be reviewed.

Common mistakes

  • Collecting without ordering — the team picks by loudness; fix: keep one ordered list and own the order.
  • No stated goal — any ordering is defensible and none is checkable; fix: write the outcome and its measure first.
  • Promising features rather than outcomes — success is measured by shipping; fix: name the change you expect and how you will know.
  • Relitigating settled decisions — the team spends its time on arguments already decided; fix: record the decision and the trade, and revisit only on new evidence.
  • Changing the order under escalation — the list stops meaning anything; fix: require the evidence that justifies a change.

Go deeper

Worked examples

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