01
Recommendation
Proceed on conditions
A stated position — proceed, decline, or proceed on conditions — written without hedging so there is no ambiguity about what leadership was advised to do.
Decision Records
A decision your company can still explain a year from now.
A Decision Record preserves the recommendation, the evidence behind it, the confidence held at the time, the unknowns that remained, the rationale applied, and the action that followed. It is the artifact leadership is accountable to — not a report generated after the fact.
Held in the record
- Recommendation
- The position taken
- Evidence
- What supported it
- Confidence
- How complete it was
- Unknowns
- What remained open
- Rationale
- Why it followed
- Next Action
- What happens now
What a Decision Record contains
Six elements, recorded every time.
The structure does not change with the opportunity. The same six elements are captured for every pursuit, which is what makes one decision comparable to the next.
02
Evidence
Traced to source
The specific opportunity, contract, workforce, and market facts the position rests on, each traceable back to where it came from.
03
Confidence
Stated, not implied
How complete the evidence was when the position was taken, stated honestly rather than implied by the tone of the writing.
04
Unknowns
Named and open
The gaps that were still open at the time of the decision, and which of them could have changed the recommendation if resolved differently.
05
Rationale
Reasoning preserved
The executive reasoning that connects the evidence to the recommendation — the part that is normally lost the moment the meeting ends.
06
Next Action
Owner and timing
The step required, the person accountable for it, and the point at which the record is revisited or closed.
Why it matters
Most pursuit decisions are never written down.
They are made in a room, acted on for months, and reconstructed from memory when they are finally questioned. A Decision Record removes the reconstruction.
01
Preserves decision context
Six months on, the conditions that justified a pursuit are rarely remembered accurately. The record holds them as they were, not as they are recalled.
02
Makes assumptions visible
Assumptions that go unwritten are treated as facts. Writing them down keeps them available to be challenged before capital is committed.
03
Supports review and accountability
Leadership can revisit what was recommended and why, and evaluate the reasoning independently of whether the pursuit was ultimately won.
04
Creates continuity across pursuit teams
Capture, delivery, recruiting, and finance work from one shared position rather than four partial versions of it.
05
Keeps conclusions attached to evidence
A recommendation that travels without its evidence eventually becomes an opinion. The record keeps the two together.
Lifecycle
From assembled evidence to a preserved position.
The record is created during the decision, not written up afterward. Each stage adds to it, and nothing is removed once the position is set.
01
Evidence assembled
Opportunity, contract, workforce, and market inputs are gathered against a fixed standard.
02
Analysis completed
Findings are reconciled, gaps are identified, and confidence is established.
03
Recommendation documented
A position is written with its rationale, unknowns, and required next action.
04
Executive reviewed
Leadership examines the reasoning, challenges it, and accepts, amends, or rejects it.
05
Decision preserved
The record is retained intact and remains available when the pursuit is revisited.
Executive judgment
The record documents the decision. The executive still makes it.
A Decision Record does not approve a pursuit, allocate capital, or settle a disagreement between leaders. It establishes a common, written basis for the conversation — then leaves the call where it belongs.
Nothing in the record removes risk from a pursuit. It makes the risk that already exists explicit, attributable, and available for leadership to weigh before the company commits.
See a Decision Record built from a live pursuit.
A demonstration works through one opportunity and produces the record it yields — recommendation, evidence, confidence, unknowns, rationale, and next action.