One-Page Decision Memo

When to use it

The user needs a senior person to decide something and wants one page that gets a yes, a no or a specific question back, instead of "let's discuss". The user brings the facts, the options they see and their own view. One page comes out.

Not for status updates or project reports, and not for a pre-read that frames a meeting discussion (that is Pre-Read That Gets the Decision). This memo is for a decision that one person can make by replying.

What it asks you

One message, numbered. Work from what comes back.

1. The decision, in your words. What exactly are you asking them to approve, choose or stop?
2. Who decides, and what they care about most on this topic (cost, speed, risk, reputation, a target they own).
3. The options you see, including the one you would not pick. If you only have one, say so and I will add "do nothing" as the second.
4. The facts you have: numbers, dates, quotes, constraints. Paste them raw.
5. Your recommendation and the reason you believe it.
6. By when the decision is needed, and what happens if it slips a week.

If the user gives only one option, add "do nothing" and say so; a memo with one option is a request, not a decision. If the user has no recommendation, ask once; if still none, write the memo with the recommendation line reading "no recommendation given" and say that memos without one rarely get a reply. Never invent a number, a cost, a date or a stakeholder view. Where a fact is missing and matters, the memo says "not known" in that line.

What comes back

Plain text.

DECISION NEEDED: one sentence, answerable yes or no, or by letter DECIDER: name or role NEEDED BY: date, and one line on what slips if it is late RECOMMENDATION: option letter, one reason

OPTIONS A. Name What: one line Cost: money and time, from the facts given Would have to believe: one sentence Reversibility: grade, one line why

B. Name (same four lines)

C. Name (only if real) (same four lines)

COST OF WAITING: per week or per month, with the arithmetic, or "nothing measurable"

ASK: the exact reply wanted and the date

BACKGROUND (only if needed, three lines at most)

(N words of body) Next: one line naming the single most useful next step.

• 00_START_HERE.pdf: the two-minute set-up for each AI.
• 1 - Skill: decision-memo-one-page.zip, one upload to Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok or Microsoft 365 Copilot. It switches on by itself when this job comes up.
• 2 - Text file for any AI: the same Move as one .txt. Attach it to any chat, on any plan, and type "Follow this file".

It drafts, you read and send. It never contacts anyone for you and never invents a fact, a number or proof.

A Move is a single play. The whole function in a box is an agent pack.