Startups Don’t Know How to Make Decisions. That’s a Problem.
- Jon Katz
- Jul 18
- 3 min read
Most early-stage startups run on intuition.
And when it comes to making decisions, especially big ones, there’s often no real system. It’s a gut check from the CEO, a few opinions thrown around, and boom: decision made.
Sometimes it works.But most of the time, this lack of structure leads to:
Solving the wrong problem
Missed alternatives
Unclear accountability
Opportunity costs not considered
Wasted time and money
And over time, that becomes a drag on growth, culture, and capital efficiency.
EOS Gave Us IDS - But That’s Not Enough
I’ve used the EOS framework for years, and one of its core tools is IDS: Identify, Discuss, Solve.
The intent is solid: surface issues, talk about them, solve them.
But here’s what actually happens in practice:
Someone brings up an “issue,” often without context, without customer insight, and without knowing if it’s even the real issue.
A solution gets thrown out immediately.
Suddenly it’s raining solutions… to a problem we don’t even understand yet.
The result? You’re not solving problems. You’re solving symptoms.
So we started doing something different and came up with our own framework based on years of experience in the IDS boardroom...
We call it CODE.
The CODE Framework for Better, Faster Decisions
Startups don’t just need decision-making.They need decision velocity without sacrificing decision clarity.
So we developed a 4-part framework to guide how we make high-stakes business decisions.
C – Context
Before anything else: stop and gather real context.
Do the 5 Whys to uncover the root cause.
Pull relevant customer feedback, data, and insights.
Make sure everyone in the room understands the full scope of the problem.
You cannot solve what you don’t fully understand.
O – Options
Startups skip this step constantly. We default to the one solution someone mentions first, without stepping back to ask: “What are all the ways we could solve this?”
So we write them out. All of them. Including:
“Do nothing”
“Try a small experiment first”
“Delay this decision”
And any others, no matter how wild or boring they may seem
When you write them down, you see possibilities you’d miss in a verbal-only brainstorm. And you often start to combine options into a better solution.
D – Decide
Here’s where most teams freeze. Too many options = no decision, or knee-jerk reaction. We use a simple but effective rubric to evaluate and rank options. Rank on a scale of 1-5, with 1 = "bad" and 5 = "good" - For example, a high cost would be a 1, where as a high likelihood of success would be a 5:
Cost
Potential Impact
Likelihood of Success
Time Required
And here’s something important: We also ask, what constraints are we under right now? Cash, time, people, energy, focus. Every decision should be filtered through your constraints.
You might love Option A. But if it takes 8 weeks and $80k, and you’ve got 4 weeks and $20k… then it’s not a real option. Constraints don’t limit creativity, they force it.
E – Execute
Without execution, a decision is just a meeting.
So we always end with:
Who owns it
When it’s due
How we’ll measure success
When we’ll review it
Tie decision-making into your operating system. Make it part of how work gets done, not a separate layer of meetings.
Not Every Decision Needs CODE
Let’s be clear: not all decisions are created equal.
If it’s not a critical decision, speed is your friend.
Don’t table a low-stakes choice for your Monday meeting if someone brought it up on Tuesday. That’s 6 days of lost momentum.
For day-to-day decisions, pick a direction, move forward, and course-correct as needed.
But for the big ones, the strategic ones that move the business forward or could set it back, you need a system.
Clarity. Speed. Accountability.
That’s what CODE gives you.
Because in startups, indecision kills speed. And bad decisions kill companies.
Use your gut. Trust your instincts. But give your team a framework to make better decisions; faster, and with full alignment.
Frameworks won’t slow you down. They’ll stop you from running in the wrong direction.
Want help implementing CODE or building a real operating system in your startup?Let’s talk.