Decisions determine the success of a company. It’s our responsibility to make the best decision possible given the information we have at that time. As we scale, making decisions will be more and more challenging. We have to find the right balance between speed and perfection.
“The art of decision-making isn’t always about capturing some elusive “best” decision — it’s about making the most of information available, garnering trust across stakeholders, and executing with conviction.”
Principles
The way we make decisions at Strapi is based on a set of principles:
- Our values guide all of our decisions.
- We’re not a democratic company. We rarely use votes, and, when we do, we don’t base our decisions on the number of opinions or personal perspectives. Instead, we clearly define who’s responsible for the decision and who must be consulted. We do not aim for consensus as it is not efficient or effective.
- We embrace the disagree and commit principle.
- Following our Transparency value, important (company-wise, strategic, etc.) decisions (except if confidential) must be public and documented.
- Transparency means every decision (except if confidential) should be public and documented. However, it doesn’t mean everyone should be involved (see “Consulted” in RACI) in every decision.
Process
Our decision-making process is based on four steps, named FAST:
- Formulate: Someone alerts others about a problem, an opportunity, or a need. We always try to back the issue or opportunity with data.
- Ask (optional): Before a proposal, the decision-maker may seek input (survey, benchmark, etc.) to sound out perspectives before proposing action.
- Set(tle): The initiator proposes and seeks advice from those affected or those with expertise. Based on the received feedback, the initiator eventually adjusts the solution.
- Tell: Taking this advice into account, the decision-maker decides on an action and informs those who have given advice.
Our process is based on our values:
- Humility: Asking for advice and listening to others are acts of humility.
- Responsibility: Everyone has the responsibility to share their opinion, and the decision-maker consciously takes full ownership of the decision.
- Care: We ask others’ opinions and eventually adjust the decision accordingly. Everyone can share their opinion before the decision is made.
- Ambition: By asking others, we make better decisions for the company.
- Transparency: We ask others, document, and share the final decision.
RACI
We use the responsibility assignment matrix (RAM), also known as the RACI matrix, to define who and how Strapiers should be involved in decisions.
The RACI acronym stands for:
- Responsible: Those who do the work to complete the task.
- Accountable: The one who is responsible for the consequences. The decision-maker is this person.
- Consulted: The experts and impacted people.
- Informed: Those who are kept up-to-date on progress, often only once the decision is made.
Consulted people can be consulted through different iterations: the person who opens a topic can start by asking a few people and then open the conversation to more people. For example, the People team often asks the founders, the leadership team, the managers, and then the rest of the team.
Being consulted means that a person can express their opinion before the decision is made, but it doesn’t mean the decision-maker will follow their opinion. The consultation format might vary: surveys, Slack messages, etc.
Based on our process, the different steps are:
- Formulate: Involved people are “Responsible” people.
- Ask: Involved people are “Consulted” people.
- Set(tle): Involved people are “Consulted” people.
- Tell: Involved people are “Informed” people.
| Topic/Decision | Responsible | Accountable | Consulted | Informed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Benefits/perks | People team (VP of People) | CEO | Founders, Leadership team (CEO), Managers | Everyone |
Capitalization table | Finance team (VP Finance) | CEO | Founders | Founders |
Culture/Values/Mission | Founders, People team (VP of People) | CEO | Founders | Founders |
Tech choices | Engineering team | CTO | CTO, Engineering team | Engineering team |
Company cadence | People team (VP of People) | CEO | Founders, Leadership team, Managers | Everyone |
Compensation Framework | People team (VP of People) | CEO | Founders, Leadership team, Managers | Everyone |
Company Strategy | Leadership team | CEO | Founders, Leadership team, Managers | Everyone |
Product Strategy | Product team | CPO | Product team | Everyone |
Budget | Finance team | VP of Finance | Leadership team | Leadership team |
Decision Backlog
We track and store decisions in the Decision Backlog in Notion. To make a new decision:
- Create a document in the Decision Backlog (Notion), using the template.
- Fill in the template (both the content and the properties).
- Consult the relevant people.
- Deliberate.
- Once the decision is made, inform the relevant people and move the document accordingly.
Once a decision is made, it should be considered as done, even if it still needs to be implemented. The role of the decision backlog is to store decisions, not their implementation. For example, one decision can be made one quarter but effective or implemented the next quarter.
Limits
- Anonymous insights: for sensitive topics, some of us might prefer to share our opinions anonymously, which is completely understandable (eg. a decision about parental leave while having parental projects). To do so, we could use Slack apps like Anonymous Bot or OpenSay.
Transparency
At Strapi, one of our core values is Default to Transparency. Please note some decisions won’t be public if:
- They include confidential and/or individual (personal, health, salaries, etc.) information or impact only a few people.
- They put someone in an uncomfortable position, which would not be aligned with our Active Care value.
Also, transparency doesn’t mean everyone should be involved in every decision. Instead, it means that:
- The decisions are public and documented.
- Everyone can express themselves (share inputs, feedback, ask questions, etc.) even when the decision is made.
History
In the past, we used GitHub issues through a private repository named “Company”. However, we’ve decided to stop using it because:
- We prefer to limit the number of tools we use.
- It is a technical tool.
- It’s paid (private repository for an organization).
- Only public comments are allowed (not anonymous).
Resources
- https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/leadership/making-decisions
- https://advice-process.playbook.ee/
- https://medium.com/enspiral-tales/use-advice-process-to-work-better-together-4cb127c83a39
- https://thedecider.app/
- https://www.atlassian.com/team-playbook/plays/daci#instructions
- https://review.firstround.com/the-6-decision-making-frameworks-that-help-startup-leaders-tackle-tough-calls
- https://reinventingorganizationswiki.com/en/theory/decision-making/
- https://www.loomio.com/
- https://www.atlassian.com/software/confluence/templates/decision
- https://www.forbes.com/sites/eriklarson/2018/06/20/what-coinbase-mckinsey-teach-us-about-decisions-and-digital-transformation/#3272b01d8839
- https://barmstrong.medium.com/how-we-make-decisions-at-coinbase-cd6c630322e9
- https://yolospace.notion.site/Decision-Making-8fe57f5731a541fe91b0ebde891c0ec6