Practice : Decision Journals
Purpose and Strategic Importance
Decision Journals record the reasoning behind product choices at the time they are made. They capture context, assumptions, and expected outcomes, enabling teams to learn from both successes and failures.
This practice builds organisational learning by making decisions reviewable.
Without journals, decisions are forgotten, rationale is lost, and teams repeat mistakes.
Description of the Practice
- Each entry includes decision context, alternatives, expected outcomes, and assumptions.
- Entries are revisited periodically to compare predictions with actual results.
- Journals can be individual or team-based.
How to Practise It (Playbook)
1. Getting Started
- Use a simple template: Decision, Date, Context, Assumptions, Expected Outcomes.
- Log significant product decisions (not every backlog item).
- Share entries openly with teams.
2. Scaling and Maturing
- Incorporate journal reviews into retrospectives.
- Use decision reviews to adjust processes and strategy.
- Build a searchable decision archive.
3. Team Behaviours to Encourage
- Humility in recording assumptions.
- Willingness to revisit and admit errors.
- Shared ownership of learning.
4. Watch Out For…
- Journals created but never reviewed.
- Entries becoming overly long and impractical.
- Using journals to assign blame.
5. Signals of Success
- Qualitative: Teams reference past decisions when making new ones.
- Quantitative: Increase in decision quality measured by reduced reversals.