Method
What a Decision Architect does.
He sets what gets built before anything is built. And he holds what has been decided while the building goes on.
Plan
A Decision Architect says which plan applies.
A business has many trades: team, sales, marketing, software, service providers. Each works to its own plan, and usually each works properly. When the plans contradict each other, whoever builds first decides in the end. That costs money, time and what the business has built up over years. My job is to set beforehand which plan applies, and afterwards to make sure everyone builds to it.
Picture
Like on a building site.
The client is the owner. He signs. The trades are team, sales, marketing, agency, software and service providers. Each works to its plan, and usually each works well. The architect lays no pipe. He sets where the door goes, and leads the build so everyone builds to it.
The story behind it: The pipe in the wall.
Direction
Direction comes before the build.
One area doesn’t run as expected, costs rise, processes get heavy. The fix starts where the problem is visible. The cause usually sits one level deeper: in decisions that were sensible one by one and no longer fit together as a whole. That is why I read the whole business before anything gets built anywhere.
Every big decision rests on an earlier one: how the business earns its money, where it wants to go and what it will stop doing for that. That is the prior decision. It usually gets made without anyone noticing. Then everyone builds to their own plan.
So I settle the questions that come before all the others: What does the business really earn its money with? What do its customers pay for? Where is the whole thing heading, and will the model carry it that far? Where is money flowing out without anyone looking? Who fills the key positions?
And above all: What can simply go?
A positioning is built too. Usually someone just screws another little lamp on at the top. I check the foundation.
Three positions to read:
When a service provider proposes the next project, check it with four questions: Does it fit what has been decided? What does it cost to leave it? Who carries it? What does it change elsewhere?
Benefit
Why deciding beforehand is easier for you.
Nobody builds a house without an architect. The tradespeople are good. It just takes someone who holds the plan and builds nothing in himself.
Before an expensive decision, what is usually missing is someone with no stake in the build. The agency earns from the relaunch, the vendor from the licence, every department from its budget. Everyone recommends what they are good at, and usually for good reason.
My judgement doesn’t depend on who builds afterwards. I say what holds, what can go and what comes first, before anyone starts.
For you this means: you sign a decision whose reasons fit on one sheet. For your agency it means: a brief it can be measured against, and fewer loops.
Comparison
Management consultant, agency or Decision Architect?
Each of these roles has its place. The question is when each one fits.
| Role | Delivers | Right when | Limits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Decide yourself, in the leadership team | Decisions without outside costs | the question is small and nobody has a stake in the outcome | Whoever is involved drags it out. |
| Management consulting | Analysis, concept, recommendation | a big change is coming and there are people to implement the concept | Implementation usually lands with you afterwards. |
| Agency | Implementation in its own trade | it is settled what gets built | It optimises its own area. It doesn’t decide about other trades. |
| Specialist freelancer | Depth in one discipline | a task is clearly defined | They see one trade. The whole stays out of view. |
| Coach, facilitator | Help so the team decides for itself | the answer lies in the team and only someone to guide the conversation is missing | They don’t judge. |
| Interim manager | Leadership for a set period | a position is vacant | They run the business the way it is built. |
| Advisory board | Advice and, depending on the articles, oversight in fixed meetings | the owner wants a lasting mirror, often before the succession | It advises a few times a year. It doesn’t judge a single measure in between. |
| Decision Architect | a judgement before the measure, in writing, and then he leads the build | plans contradict each other or money is being lost and nobody knows where | He doesn’t build himself and doesn’t decide for you. |
A Decision Architect replaces none of them. He says who builds what.
For Google Ads and Microsoft Ads I am both: I judge, and I build the account myself.
More on each role: What does a management consultant do? · What does a management consultant cost? · What does an interim manager do? · What is an advisory board? · What does a business coach do?
Signs
How you notice that you need one.
- Two good plans contradict each other, and nobody says which applies.
- The budget is rising, and the enquiries don’t match the business that is meant to grow.
- A decision has been stuck for weeks, and everything else is waiting.
- You’ve had consultants before. Nothing changed.
- An expensive measure is coming up: a relaunch, AI, a new hire.
Limits
What not to book me for.
For some things I’m the wrong person. I say so in the fit call too. Here it is in advance.
- You’re looking for someone to build before it is settled what gets built. That is what an agency is for. I only lead the build once a judgement is in place.
- You’re looking for a concept with analysis and recommendation, a mission statement or a facilitated retreat. That is what management consulting is for.
- You’re looking for someone to help you find your own answers. That is what a business coach is for.
- You’re looking for someone to take over and lead a position for a set period. That is what an interim manager is for.
- You’re looking for advice and oversight in fixed meetings. That is what an advisory board is for.
- You’re looking for a website for a small business, built quickly. That is what Presence is for.
- You’re looking for someone to decide for you. That stays your role. I judge, you sign.
Principles
Four principles.
See early what gets expensive later. Before almost every expensive measure there is a decision that has to be made first. When it is made, it usually looks small. I look for it while it still only costs a conversation. More on this
Read first, then build. The cause usually sits one level deeper than the problem: in decisions that were sensible one by one and no longer fit together as a whole. That is why I read the business before anything gets built anywhere.
What can go counts too. The most important question is often the simplest: What can simply go? Every offer, every project, every tool costs money and attention, even when nobody needs it any more.
My decision work ends in a document. What I read becomes a basis on which a decision can be made: what applies, what speaks for it, what follows from it, what has to come first. No workshops. Reading, conversations with each person involved one at a time, and a document you can work with straight away. I don’t send a document without a decision.
Formats
How I work.
The start. The fit call, twenty minutes. Afterwards it is settled which format the situation needs. If you want to check for yourself first: the sheet Before the relaunch.
The judgement. If a known decision is stuck, it is the Consultation, which ends with the Decision Letter. If the loss is known and the cause is not, it is the Forensic, which ends with the Findings.
The consequence. In the Rebuild, the architecture comes first, then I lead the build. In the Direction Mandate I then hold what has been decided and built, in every appointment, followed by the Direction Letter.
I judge. You decide. The architect draws, the client signs.
Questions
Five questions everyone asks.
Isn’t this management consulting?
Management consulting usually delivers analysis and a concept. I deliver a judgement: a decision with its reasoning, in writing. Then I lead the build until what was decided is built.
Do you also implement?
I lead the people who implement: team, agency, service providers. The only thing I build myself is ad accounts, for Google Ads and Microsoft Ads.
What if we already have an agency?
Then it stays. It gets a brief its work can be measured against: what gets built, what doesn’t and in what order.
Who decides in the end?
You. I prepare the decision, the signature stays with you.
What does it cost?
We settle that in the fit call, twenty minutes. Afterwards you know which format fits and what it costs.
Terms
The terms as I use them.
Decision Architect. Sets with the business what money and time are spent on before anything is built, and then holds what has been decided.
Fit call. The first appointment, twenty minutes. At the end you know whether we continue, and with which format.
The prior decision. The decision about the core, direction and shape of the business: how it earns its money, where it wants to go and what it will stop doing for that. Every big decision rests on it.
Decision Letter. The document after the Consultation: the decision, the reasoning, the criteria, the risks, what no longer needs discussing, what happens next.
Findings. The result of the Forensic: where the business holds, where it tears and where it loses money, time, visibility and energy, quantified where the figures allow. Plus the lever: the one decision to be made first. Handed over in writing.
Architecture. The plan for the Rebuild, before anything is built: what gets built, what doesn’t, in what order and by whom. When two parties contradict each other, the architecture applies.
Operating manual. For every system built, the manual the team and service providers run it by.
Direction Mandate. Every appointment ends with the Direction Letter. The mandate continues.
Direction Letter. The document after every appointment in the Direction Mandate. One page: what continues, what gets stopped, what gets decided next.
Field. What gets decided in the business. Five fields: Direction, Responsibility, Offer & margin, Marketing & sales, Processes & systems. Fields are decided.
Zone. What a Forensic reads, its own set for each task. Zones are not departments. They cut across the fields, because money gets lost in between. Zones are read.