Criteria for the decisions a small business gets wrong
I overthink decisions so you don't have to.
Business software, scored against real criteria. The gates, the weights, and what the list missed.
Start here
Three stops, ten minutes, and you'll know whether this is your way of deciding.
Newest decisions
All decisionsThe Payroll Software Buyer's Playbook
Six gates. Four weighted criteria. Five platforms. Canada and USA editions.
The AI Tool Buyer's Playbook
Six gates. Four weighted criteria. Five tools. One room.
The CRM Buyer's Playbook
Six gates. Four weighted criteria. Five CRMs. One room.
The method
The list is not the decision.
It is how you find the one or two things that are. Here is the whole system, in six rules, so you can run it on any purchase your business makes.
Name the criteria before you look at options
Write them down before the first demo or free trial. Options rewrite criteria if you let them.
Weight them, out of five, and argue about it
The weights are the decision in disguise. They are the thing to fight over in the room, not the options.
Score every option against the same set
Or the totals mean nothing. Circle 1 to 5 in the moment, before the sales call talks you round.
Read the gap, not the number
Two or three points is noise. Ten is telling you something. Find what it is telling you.
If the winner is the one you hate, the list is wrong
Not your gut. Go back and find the criterion you underweighted. It is usually the boring one.
Run the gates before you score anything
Ceiling, exit, integrations, the things that cannot be traded off. An option that fails one is out, however well it scores.
The dispatch
One email a month. Just what we're working on.
A short note each month with every new criterion we've added. No promotions, no pitches, just a heads-up on what's in progress.
