Any phase · Craft
Make good decisions quickly
Most product decisions can be reversed, so they should be made quickly. A few cannot, and deserve care. Knowing the difference speeds teams up.
About 1-2 hoursEvergreenLast reviewed 5 November 2026
Who this applies to
- Skills it builds
- Prioritisation and roadmappingLeadership and coaching
- PM types
- All
- Product types
- All
- Starting points
- All
- Ways of working
- All
- Experience
- Intermediate (1 to 4 years)Experienced (5+ years)
- Size of organisation
- All
Steps, by experience
Beginner (under 1 year)
- Ask if the decision can be undone.
- If yes, decide quickly.
- If not, take more care.
- Write down what you decided and why.
- Check later if it worked.
Intermediate (1 to 4 years)
- Sort decisions into reversible and hard to reverse.
- Decide reversible ones quickly, with the people closest to the work.
- For hard ones, gather evidence, consult and agree a single approver.
- Record decisions and review outcomes.
Experienced (5+ years)
- Look for ways to make one-way decisions reversible, such as pilots.
- Push decisions down to teams.
- Review decision quality, not just outcomes.
Who can do this
Owner: Product manager
Reviewed by: Tech Lead
Tool examples
- Confluence
- Use a DACI page for hard-to-reverse decisions.
- Notion
- Keep a decision log with date, decision, reason and review date.
Definition of done
- Decisions sorted by reversibility
- Hard decisions have one approver
- Decisions recorded and reviewed
Common pitfalls
- Treating every decision as permanent
- Waiting for perfect information
- Judging decisions only by outcomes