Template A4 · Every role, every level
Decision Record.
One decision, the reasoning behind it, what was traded away, and what would prove it wrong. This is the artefact that separates a professional from someone who ran a campaign.
The decision this template protects
Why this call was made, on what basis, and how you would know if it was the wrong one.
Every role, every level
Base Module · Decision-making, uncertainty and failure
Version 1.0 · 19 August 2026
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Before you start, you need
What has to be true first.
- A decision that is actually yours to make.
- The alternatives you genuinely considered, not the ones you list to look thorough.
- Fifteen minutes, before you act.
What this template will not do for you
Its stated limits.
- It will not improve a decision you have already made and rationalised.
- It does not work retrospectively. A record written after the result is a story.
- It is not documentation for its own sake. If nobody reads it at the review date, stop writing them.
What is in it
6 sections, and what each one makes you write down.
01
The decision
- What was decided
- Date and who was in the room
02
The situation that forced it
- What made this a decision rather than a routine action
- What we knew
- What we did not know and could not find out in time
03
Options considered
- Option
- Case for
- Case against
- Why not chosen
04
What was traded away
- What we gave up by choosing this
- Who bears that cost, and do they know
05
The falsification test
- What we expect to happen, and by when
- What we would see if this was wrong
- The date we will check
06
What actually happened
- Outcome
- Was the reasoning sound, separately from whether the outcome was good?
- What we would do differently, and what we would repeat
Judgment prompts
Questions the template makes you answer.
- Would you be comfortable showing this record to the client, unedited?
- Did you write the falsification test before or after you knew the answer?
- If the outcome was good but the reasoning was weak, are you willing to say so?
The defensible output
What you are left holding.
A dated one-page record, closed out at the review date. A portfolio of ten of these, including the ones where you were wrong, is more persuasive to a serious employer than any campaign screenshot.
Published open. Copy it, adapt it, use it on client work. If you pass it on, keep the attribution line on it.
More from the library
Sixty-five instruments, eighteen published open.
Each one names the decision it protects, states what it will not do, and ends in something you could defend six months later.