Decision Rights Matrix kit.
The single artifact that separates companies that scale from companies that calcify. Twenty-row template, R-A-C-I, named owners — uncomfortable on purpose.
The matrix — twenty decisions in.
| Decision | CEO | Head of Ops | Function lead | Board |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hire VP / department head | A | R | C | I |
| Open a new ICP segment | R | A | C | I |
| Increase paid spend > $50K/mo | R | A | C | I |
| Approve new portfolio-wide policy | A | C | R | I |
| Terminate underperforming vendor | R | A | I | |
| Approve $250K-plus capex | C | A | R | I |
| Adjust pricing tier | R | C | A | I |
How it actually goes in.
List the top twenty decisions.
Walk the last 90 days. Pull the twenty most-material decisions — investment, hiring, scope, partnership, pricing. The list itself is half the work.
Assign R / A / C / I per decision.
For each decision, name one R (recommender), one A (accountable), the Cs (consulted), and the Is (informed). One name per role. No committees.
Surface the disagreements.
Half the value of the matrix is the conversations it forces. Where the leadership team disagrees about who actually decides, you've found the bottleneck.
Ratify v1 in writing.
Every leader signs the matrix. Bind it to a date — "valid through next quarterly review." Re-litigate then, not in between. Posted somewhere everyone can see.
Run it for a quarter, then revise.
The matrix is wrong in places — that's expected. Track the misses for a quarter. Revise v2 at the next quarterly. Don't tinker mid-quarter.
What good looks like, ninety days in.
Median across 14 founder-led companies, 90 days post-install. The founder gets their calendar back.
From days/weeks of escalation to hours. The matrix doesn't make decisions — it tells you who is.
When a decision gets challenged, the response is "check the matrix" not "let's have another meeting."
Sibling kits in the Operating Blueprint bundle
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