What Should a Decision Log Template Include?

A tidy decision archive will not unblock the next unanswered question. Review the pending queue before admiring the history.

Missing decisions

Needs a decision

What does assisted onboarding include?

CS cannot confirm implementation scope until the commercial terms are settled.

Driver

Customer Success lead

Decision authority

Authorized commercial owner

Working assumption

Do not promise unapproved assistance

The unanswered question is visible before it becomes a completed decision record.

What fields belong in a decision log template?

Use one row per decision in a spreadsheet, document, or existing workspace. The template does not require new software. If the question contains several unrelated choices, split it into separate entries.

Field	What to record
ID and question	Stable reference and one answerable question
Status	Needed, gathering evidence, made, deferred, or superseded
Work waiting	Which work or commitment depends on the answer
Driver	Person responsible for getting the decision ready
Decision maker	One person with authority to make the call
Contributors	People whose knowledge or obligations affect the choice
Latest useful date	When the answer is needed, with the consequence of waiting
Options and evidence	Feasible choices, source links, and known unknowns
Working assumption	What teams will do until the decision is made
Decision and rationale	Chosen option, reason, and effective date
Follow-through	Action owner, due date, and evidence of implementation
People to inform	Functions or roles affected by the decision
Revisit condition	Date or new evidence that would reopen the decision

The driver and decision maker can be the same person. Keep the roles separate in the record because coordinating evidence does not automatically confer authority. Atlassian's DACI decision framework makes a similar distinction between driving and approving a decision.

For a compact working view, use these columns:

ID | Question | Status | Driver | Decision maker | Needed by
Work waiting | Working assumption | Evidence | Decision and reason
Action owner and due date | Inform | Revisit condition

How do you track a pending decision before it is made?

Suppose Customer Success cannot finalize an onboarding plan because a temporary implementation service has no approved commercial terms.

Field	Decision record
Question	Can Sales offer assisted migration under the current package?
Status	Needed
Work waiting	Customer Success cannot confirm the implementation scope
Driver	Customer Success lead
Decision maker	COO, under this company's delegated authority
Needed by	Thursday, before the customer scope review
Options	Include limited assistance; sell it separately; exclude it
Working assumption	Do not promise assistance until terms are approved
Evidence	Proposed scope, delivery estimate, existing customer obligations
Next action	Finance and CS provide option constraints by Wednesday

“Pricing is blocked” is too broad. This entry asks a question someone can answer. It also protects the team from accidentally treating an assumption as permission.

If the COO does not actually hold that authority, the record must name the person who does. A title in a template cannot create a company's approval policy.

How do you record a decision and its follow-through?

If a reporting export competes with onboarding fixes, the record should show which takes precedence and what changes as a result.

Field	Decision record
Question	Does the new export ship before onboarding fixes?
Status	Made
Decision maker	Product lead, within the agreed roadmap authority
Decision and reason	Defer the export because onboarding fixes take precedence
Effective date	Start of the next planning cycle
Follow-through	Product removes the export from release scope; Sales reviews open promises
People to inform	Engineering, Sales, Customer Success, and Marketing
Revisit condition	Onboarding acceptance criteria are met, or an existing obligation changes the tradeoff

Keep the original entry if the decision changes. Mark it superseded and link to the new decision. Quietly replacing the answer erases the context someone may need to understand an earlier commitment.

Review the queue before admiring the archive.

Before the weekly leadership meeting, filter for decisions approaching their latest useful date, decisions with no authorized owner, and decisions whose implementation has not been checked. Those deserve different responses.

Missing evidence calls for an investigation. Unclear authority calls for a named decision maker. An unimplemented decision calls for the action owner to show what changed. Calling all three “open actions” saves a column and loses the next move.

Don't log every small, reversible choice. Start with decisions that cross team boundaries, change a priority, affect a customer commitment, or repeatedly return to leadership. Let functional teams retain authority over choices within their remit.

Don't build a second task system.

The log explains the choice and the reason. The task system holds the work needed to implement it. Link them so people can move from “we decided to defer the export” to the actual scope change without duplicating every task.

A useful closure test is: has the decision reached the affected people, and does their current work reflect it? A completed entry in the log cannot answer that on its own. Ask for the revised scope, approved message, or changed commitment.

What is Decided?

Decided is an AI operating alignment layer for fast-moving SaaS companies. Clara runs recurring private 1:1 AI voice check-ins about priorities, blockers, decisions, and commitments. Decided compares the answers and prepares an alignment map, a weekly leadership brief, and context for follow-up.

The unanswered question is visible before it becomes a completed decision record.

People review the context and make the decisions. Before rollout, explain what is captured, who sees the output, how it is used, and whether participants can review notes. Private 1:1 describes the format, not anonymity. Decided is not hidden monitoring, employee scoring, or an automated employment decision system.

Explore Decided for CEOs and COOs. Try a live voice check-in to see how it works.

Sources.

Atlassian's DACI play distinguishes the driver, approver, contributors, and informed parties in a decision.