Startup Decision-Making: How CEOs Decide Faster
Speed is a startup’s main advantage, and slow decisions waste it. Most decisions can be made quickly by the person closest to the work. A few deserve the CEO’s time and care. Telling them apart is the skill.
How should a startup CEO make decisions?
Sort decisions by how hard they are to undo. Easy-to-reverse decisions, such as a pricing test, a tool or a campaign, should be made fast by whoever owns the area. Hard-to-reverse decisions, such as a key hire, a market, a large contract or raising money, deserve more input and the CEO’s time. Then name one decider, set a deadline and write the decision down. The money decisions are in cash, burn and runway.
| Easy to reverse | Hard to reverse | |
|---|---|---|
| Examples | Tool, campaign, small feature, test | Key hire, new market, big contract, a raise |
| Who decides | The owner of the area | CEO, with input |
| Speed | Hours or days | Days or weeks, with a deadline |
| Input | Optional | Gather views and dissent first |
Who should decide what?
Write it down: the CEO decides strategy, leadership hires and fundraising; leaders decide within their areas and budgets; anyone can decide easy-to-reverse things in their own work. When two leaders disagree, the CEO decides quickly. Hiring leaders you can delegate to is covered in building a leadership team.
Why keep a decision log?
A short written record of each important decision: what was decided, why, who decided and when to review it. It stops the same debate from returning every few weeks, helps new hires understand history and makes it easy to learn from mistakes.
| Decision | Decider | Review |
|---|---|---|
| No enterprise RFPs this quarter | CEO | Jan 15 |
| Switch to annual billing by default | Head of Sales | Dec 1 |
| Hire VP Sales before Head of Marketing | CEO | Q1 plan |
How do you handle disagreement?
Ask for dissent before deciding, then ask everyone to commit once the decision is made. People can disagree and still commit if they were heard. Revisit only when new evidence arrives, at the review date in the log. The co-founder version of this is covered in co-founder relationships.
Most decisions aren’t yours to make.
The CEO’s job is to make the few hard ones well and make sure everyone else can decide the rest.
What should you change this month?
- List decisions waiting on you and hand back the easy-to-reverse ones.
- Write down who decides what.
- Start a one-page decision log.
- Set a deadline for every open hard decision.
- Review last quarter’s big decisions and what you learned.
Bring decisions to the weekly meeting in the operating cadence.
Frequently asked questions
How do startup CEOs make decisions faster?
By letting owners make easy-to-reverse decisions and saving CEO time for hard-to-reverse ones.
What is a reversible decision?
One that is easy and cheap to undo, such as a tool, a campaign or a test.
What is a decision log?
A short record of important decisions, the reasons, the decider and a review date.
How do you avoid the CEO becoming a bottleneck?
Write down who decides what, hand back easy decisions and set deadlines for hard ones.
What does disagree and commit mean?
Voicing disagreement before a decision, then fully supporting it once it is made.
When should a decision be revisited?
When new evidence arrives or at the review date set when it was made.