Decision memo

---name: decision-memodescription: "Write a one-page decision memo: the decision needed, the real options and their trade-offs, a recommendation, and what would change it."metadata:  title: "Decision memo"  category: writing  tags: [decisions, strategy]--- ## When to use this A choice has to be made -- a vendor, a hire, a design, a price -- and whoeverdecides needs the options laid out fairly on one page. ## How 1. Write the decision as a question with a deadline: "Which payment provider do   we launch with, by 1 March?" If you cannot, ask what is being decided and by   whom.2. Gather the facts -- costs, constraints, data, what was tried before -- and   link every figure to its source.3. Lay out two to four real options, always including doing nothing. For each:   what it is, cost, benefit, main risk, and what it rules out.4. Compare them in one table on the same criteria. When costs differ over time,   add a chart fence.5. Recommendation: one paragraph, with the reason that decides it rather   than every reason.6. What would change this: the fact that would flip the recommendation if it   were different. It tells the decider where to push.7. Who decides, and what happens once they have.8. One page. Background goes in a link or an appendix. Present every option fairly even when you have a view -- a memo that argues forone in disguise gets a decision made without the facts. Post it as a documentand leave the call to the person.