One-Page Decision Memo to Drive a Clear Recommendation
Turns a messy decision into a crisp one-page memo with a clear recommendation and a single ask.
Most decisions stall not because the answer is hard, but because nobody has framed the choice cleanly enough for someone to say yes. A one-page decision memo forces that clarity: it states the question, lays the options side by side, makes a recommendation, and asks for exactly one thing. This prompt has the model act as a chief of staff, the role whose whole job is turning ambiguity into a crisp ask. It works best when you feed it real options with honest tradeoffs rather than a single foregone conclusion dressed up for approval. The output is deliberately short because length signals indecision to busy leaders. The most valuable section is often the assumption flag at the end, which surfaces the one belief that, if wrong, flips the recommendation. Use this before any meeting where you need a decision, or as a written alternative to a meeting entirely. It pairs naturally with the business case prompt when the decision involves spending money.
Act as a chief of staff writing a one-page decision memo for [DECISION OWNER]. The decision to make is: [DECISION QUESTION]. Context: [SITUATION AND WHY NOW]. Options under consideration: [OPTIONS WITH ROUGH TRADEOFFS]. Constraints: [BUDGET, TIMELINE, RISK LIMITS]. Produce a memo with these sections: TL;DR recommendation in two sentences, Background, Options table comparing cost/speed/risk/reversibility, Recommendation with reasoning, Risks and mitigations, and the Single Ask (what approval or resource you need). Keep it under 400 words, decisive, and free of hedging. Flag any assumption that, if wrong, would change the recommendation.
What you can expect back
TL;DR: Buy the vendor integration. It hits our 90-day deadline with the least delivery risk and stays under budget; building in-house cannot ship in time without pulling the team off the roadmap. Background: Our provider's API sunsets in 90 days, forcing a move. Options table: Build (10 eng-weeks, high control, misses deadline, $0 recurring); Buy (2 weeks, 0.5% fee, ~$18k year one, low risk); Extend (delays only, not a real fix). Recommendation: Buy, because speed and certainty outweigh the recurring fee at our volume. Risks and mitigations: Fee scales with growth, so revisit at 3x volume; vendor lock-in, so keep our payment data exportable. Single Ask: Approval to sign the vendor contract this week. Key assumption: that our transaction volume stays under the tier where the fee exceeds in-house cost.
Illustrative example — your results will vary by tool and inputs.
Get sharper results
- 01Give the model genuinely competitive options. If one choice is obviously right, the memo reads as theater and leaders smell it.
- 02Always include a 'do nothing' or status-quo option so the cost of inaction is explicit.
- 03Push the assumption flag harder by asking: 'What single fact, if false, would reverse this?'
- 04Keep it to one page on purpose. If it spills over, the decision probably isn't ripe yet.
Adapt it for your case
Add: 'Classify this decision as reversible or irreversible, and adjust how much certainty I should demand before deciding.'
Append: 'After the recommendation, write a three-sentence pre-mortem imagining this choice failed badly, and what we'd wish we'd checked.'
Ask for a 120-word version formatted for a Slack message so the decision owner can react with an emoji.
Common questions
How is this different from a full business case?
A decision memo is fast and qualitative for any kind of choice; a business case is a deeper financial justification for spending money. Use the memo first, then build the case if the decision involves real investment.
What if I'm not sure of all the options yet?
Tell the model that and ask it to propose additional options you may have missed before writing the memo. It can broaden the choice set, but you should still validate the tradeoffs.
Won't a one-pager oversimplify a complex decision?
The constraint is the point. If the core recommendation can't fit on a page, the decision usually isn't ready; use the memo to expose what's still unresolved.
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