The Decision-Making Playbook

By Gokul Rajaram

In 2006, I was presenting to Eric Schmidt and Google's senior leadership when a gnarly problem in our display ads business came up. The discussion got heated.

Eric's voice boomed: "Stop. Who's responsible for this decision?"

Three of us raised our hands. I was one of them.

"I'm ending this meeting," Eric said. "I don't want you to return to this room until you figure out who the owner is. Three owners means no owner."

Meeting over. Team dismissed.

That line became the seed of SPADE, the decision framework we built at Square: Setting, People, Alternatives, Decide, Explain. Square alums have since carried it to companies across tech, and every few weeks, I'll hear from someone who's used it to successfully resolve a complex decision.

This playbook breaks down 10 rules for making a consequential decision with SPADE, plus 5 templates to copy. They run from whether a call needs the process at all to getting the losing side to commit. It starts with one real decision document in full, choosing a new leader for a 27-person Trust team, and every rule draws on it.

tl;dr: one name next to Responsible, private input before any group discussion, and a written explanation everyone affected can read.

Inside you will find:

1. Save SPADE for one-way doors. Learn the 2-question test that keeps most decisions out of the process.
2. Write the Setting before anyone names an option. Copy the Setting template that turns the problem into criteria.
3. Put one name next to Responsible. See how 3 roles and a still to consult line stop the three-owner meeting.
4. List options that are really different. Find out why the Trust team weighed 4 paths, including two uncomfortable ones.
5. Let the SPA sit before the D. Learn why Square's docs circulated for days or weeks before anyone decided.
6. Ask every Consultant privately first. See why one senior opinion bends every answer after it.
7. Make the call, and trace it back to the Setting. Use the 3-line test that shows a decision followed its own criteria.
8. Ask the losing side to commit. Find out what to do with the hard questions raised in consultation.
9. Announce with 3 facts and a dated rollout. Copy the Day 1 to Day 8 rollout and the 3-part announcement.
10. Make the executive team write the first SPADEs. Learn why the framework dies when leaders skip it.

To start with, here's an example of a real SPADE document.

SPADE in Practice: Trust team leadership change

The following is an edited example from a real decision document. Names and identifying details have been changed.

S: Setting

Alex Morgan, formerly the leader of the Trust team, is moving into a full product leadership role. Therefore, the Trust team needs strong leadership immediately.

The team already has strong leaders in each area:

• Chris Lee: Operations and customer escalations.
• Jamie Miller: Machine learning.
• Taylor Davis: Product management across customer products, international markets, and applied machine learning.

The team also works closely with Analytics and Data Science, with colleagues from those groups embedded in its work.

The approximately 27-person team is performing well and is critical to the health of Acme. It needs a leader who has time to provide strategic and analytical guidance, coach people across disciplines, and balance operational demands with developing new products as customer needs evolve.

P: People

Responsible / decision maker: Stephanie, Alex's manager. She is responsible for deciding who will take over leadership of the Trust team.

Approver: Michael, Stephanie's manager.

Consulted: Alex Morgan, Chris Lee, Pat Wilson, Sam Harris, David Clark, Jordan Brown

Still to consult: Jamie Miller

A: Alternatives

1. Move an experienced Acme leader into the role.

Pros:

• The team gains a leader who already understands Acme's people, products, and business needs.
• The move brings skills and experience from another part of the company.
• It demonstrates that people can build long careers at Acme by moving into new roles.

Cons:

• A leader from another area may have limited domain expertise and will need to rely heavily on the team initially. Alex will remain available to help.
• An internal move means forgoing an external search that could uncover deeper expertise or new thinking.

2. Open a search for an external leader immediately.

Pros:

• An external hire could bring experience and ideas that challenge the team's assumptions and expand its thinking.

Cons:

• A search will take time, and the team will still need an interim leader.
• Acme's approach differs from that of more traditional companies. Finding someone with the right expertise and cultural fit may be difficult; the wrong hire could slow the team down.

3. Promote Chris Lee immediately.

Pros:

• The promotion demonstrates a clear path for career progression within Acme.

Cons:

• Chris is an excellent operator but has not yet demonstrated the strategic ability the role requires. The promotion would likely come too soon.

4. Move the team under David Clark.

David prefers to focus on building Analytics and strengthening Data Engineering, an area where Acme needs to improve. I agree that this is the right priority for him.

D: Decide

We are choosing Alternative 1. Sam Harris will take on leadership of Trust alongside his existing Finance & Strategy responsibilities.

The team will benefit from combining its domain expertise with Sam's business thinking. The move will connect its work more closely to margins and Acme's financial model, while bringing a fresh perspective to the organization.

E: Explain

Communicate the decision and its rationale above. David and Sam should also work together to support the team's analytics and machine-learning efforts.

Rollout timeline

• Day 1: Michael approves the decision.
• Day 4: Inform direct reports and hold an introductory working session facilitated by Pat.
• Day 5: Make the broader announcement. Sam emails the Trust team.
• Day 8: Hold a team all-hands and meet and greet.

Questions raised during consultation

• Does Sam have the necessary domain expertise, or can he develop it over time?
• Will this move make the team stronger?
• Are we solving for the team, for a particular person, or for Acme as a whole?
• How do we ensure the team continues to innovate?
• How do we coach the new leader and give him the training he needs to succeed? At a minimum, he should be connected with the team's previous advisors.

The rules below walk through how to write each part, using this example.