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Decision making

As explained in Think Like a CTO

A decision is a choice among alternatives that commits a person or organization to a course of action.

Decision making is choosing among alternatives and committing a person or organization to a course of action. In executive work, it requires evidence, judgment, and shared responsibility. section 2.1.4

Use three practical disciplines when making or presenting decisions:

  • Lead with data: support hiring proposals with productivity gains and project proposals with measurable financial impact. section 2.1.4
  • Bring the CEO into hard decisions by presenting the consequences of every viable path and sharing responsibility for the outcome. section 2.1.4
  • Think slowly and act quickly: acknowledge requests, create space to consider their implications, then respond without unnecessary delay. section 2.1.4

When every option has a cost

After exploring the alternatives, present a decision with no good path by laying out each consequence and involving the CEO rather than carrying the responsibility alone. section 2.1.4

How Think Like a CTO covers it

How deep it goes
Provides guidance on data-backed recommendations, escalation of hard choices, and delaying immediate answers; it does not detail formal models.
Examples
Uses hiring, project approval, and no-good-path scenarios to expose productivity, financial, and consequence trade-offs.
What it assumes
Assumes business context and access to relevant data while teaching when to pause, investigate, and escalate consequential choices.
What you can do after
Apply it through data-backed proposals, consequence comparisons, CEO involvement, and deliberate response timing.
How it connects
Connects decision making with data, executive partnership, consequences, recommendations, and organizational impact.
Cover of Think Like a CTO
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This explainer was generated by Manning's knowledge graph from the text of Think Like a CTO. The section links point to the parts of the book it draws on.