Assumptions and success criteria
A decision rests on assumptions, and it's made to achieve something. Writing both down while deciding, and checking them later, shows whether the reasoning held up, and when a decision needs another look.
Writing them
On a decision's Reasoning tab, choose + at the right of the Assumptions or Success criteria heading:
- An assumption is what has to be true for the decision to make sense: "Most customers will move to the new plan within six months."
- A success criterion is how you'll tell it worked, ideally something you can check, such as a number or a date: "Support tickets about billing drop by a third by the end of the year."
Contributors, approvers and admins can add, edit and remove them until the decision is approved, rejected or archived. Then they're locked along with the options: see Frozen decisions and superseding.
Recording how they turned out
Once the decision has been in force for a while, usually at its revisit, choose Record result next to each one:
- an assumption held, didn't hold, or it's unclear;
- a criterion was met, partly met or not met.
Add a note on what you saw and where others can check it. Each section then sums it up, for example "1 of 2 assumptions held · 1 not checked yet", and each decision on a goal's page in Strategy does the same for both.
Results are recorded on approved decisions, and on superseded or archived ones that had been in force. The decision's owner, approvers and admins record them, and can change or clear a result later. An assumption that didn't hold is a good reason to revisit the decision, or to supersede it: decisions in force with one are listed on the dashboard, under Assumptions that didn't hold.
History
Adding, changing and removing them, and every result, are recorded in the decision's timeline.