Most organisations I have worked with fall into a few familiar categories when it comes to documentation: Do what you want. This is how we document. This is where we document. Just put it in the Google folder.
You probably recognised one—or several—of these.
We all agree documentation matters. But in practice, we want it to be brief and unobtrusive. Unless it is describing a Boeing part. Then suddenly detail, precision, and traceability matter a lot.
There is no single correct way to document. Different teams and situations require different levels of detail. The real problem is not how teams document, but what never gets documented at all.
Where Decisions Go
In most organisations, decisions are made in meetings, chats, calls, and slide decks. They are discussed, agreed on, and then quietly disappear.
Weeks or months later, someone asks:
- Why did we do it this way?
- Why didn't we choose the alternative?
- Was this intentional or just what happened?
At that point, the answer usually lives in someone's head. Or nowhere.
I have a soft spot for the "put it in the Google folder" approach. It feels fast and flexible. It works—until the person with the context is unavailable, or another team needs to understand a decision they were not part of.
What is missing is not files. It is shared context.
Decisions Are Made. Context Is Lost.
What is remarkable is not that decisions are made—it is how rarely they are treated as first-class organisational assets.
Product decisions. Pricing decisions. Hiring decisions. Process decisions. Brand decisions. Tooling decisions.
These choices shape how an organisation operates, yet the reasoning behind them is rarely easy to find. As teams grow, change, or work across functions, the lack of decision context slows communication and creates friction.
People end up re-litigating old discussions, or working around decisions they do not fully understand.
What It Means to Document a Decision
Documenting a decision does not mean writing a long document. It means capturing enough context so that someone else can understand the reasoning later.
- What decision was made.
- Why it was made at the time.
- What alternatives were considered.
- What assumptions existed.
Nothing more than necessary. Nothing essential missing.
When decisions are documented this way, teams communicate more clearly. Other teams can understand intent without needing a meeting. New people can get context without reverse-engineering the past.
Decision Records as Organisational Memory
Over time, documented decisions form a shared memory for the organisation. They explain not just what exists today, but how and why it came to be.
This is not about control or governance. It is about ensuring the next person has context, and that other teams have easier access to your team's decisions. That is what enables communication and collaboration to scale.
This line of thinking led to DecisionRecords.org.
DecisionRecords.org exists to give organisations a simple, shared place to capture important decisions with context, so that decision memory does not disappear as teams evolve.
Not more documentation. Just better memory.