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Decision Weight
Core ConceptHow durable is this decision? How much would it cost to change it?
What is Decision Weight?
Decision weight is a human signal about how durable a concluded decision should be. It answers the question: "How expensive would it be to revisit this?"
This is not calculated automatically. You set it when concluding a decision based on your understanding of the blast radius.
The Four Levels
Anchor
Company-defining choices
These are decisions that define who you are as a company or team. Changing them would require extraordinary circumstances.
Examples:
- Company mission and values
- Core technology platform (e.g., "We are a Python shop")
- Fundamental architecture (e.g., "Monolith vs. microservices")
- Data residency decisions (e.g., "EU data stays in EU")
Committed
High-impact operational decisions
Significant decisions that should remain stable. Reopen only with strong new evidence or changed circumstances.
Examples:
- Database choice (PostgreSQL, MySQL, etc.)
- Frontend framework (React, Vue, etc.)
- Authentication architecture
- API versioning strategy
- Deployment platform
Standard
Default decision weight
The default weight for most decisions. These matter but can evolve as the team learns more.
Examples:
- Roadmap priorities
- Internal process decisions
- Component library choice
- Coding style guidelines
- Team structure decisions
Tentative
Experiments and early explorations
Use this for working theories, MVPs, and decisions you're willing to change quickly based on new information.
Examples:
- Feature experiments
- Tool trials (trying a new library)
- Process experiments
- MVP architecture shortcuts
- "Let's try this and see" decisions
How to Choose
Ask yourself these questions:
- How expensive is it to revisit?
A database migration is expensive (Committed/Anchor). Changing a lint rule is cheap (Tentative/Standard).
- Who needs to be informed if it changes?
If the whole company needs to know, it's likely Anchor. If only your team, probably Standard.
- What breaks if this changes?
Check the graph. Decisions with many dependents are more important.
- How confident are you?
Uncertain? Use Tentative. Very confident? Consider Committed.
Rule of thumb:
- • Anchor: 1-3 per company
- • Committed: 10-20 per team
- • Standard: Most decisions
- • Tentative: Active experiments
Data Model
type DecisionImportanceLevel =
| "anchor" // Company-defining, extremely hard to change
| "committed" // High-impact, should remain stable (displayed as "Committed")
| "standard" // Default decision weight
| "tentative" // Experimental or easy to revisit