Write a dated company direction record
Turn competing initiatives into one reviewable direction with explicit assumptions and stopping choices.
- Preparation
- Until the evidence owners, authorised decision owners, independent counsel, and relevant jurisdiction advisers complete their reviews
- Difficulty
- Advanced
- Task
- Set the current company direction
Before you start
Get what you need before you start
- Confirm the company body and people authorised to own this decision.
- This Practice provides an internal evidence workflow. It does not provide legal, financial, tax, investment, or valuation advice.
- Obtain named pre-upload approval for the workspace, plan, account settings, retention settings, and each approved document category.
- Treat privileged, personal, customer, employee, security, and third-party information as prohibited. Keep it out of this workspace and use a separately approved system.
- Verify plan-dependent data controls and retention before use. Test access with a non-owner account before sharing.
- Keep unsupported facts, missing documents, conflicts, and disagreement visible.
- Treat Tool output as an internal draft that a person checks against every cited source.
- Independent counsel and the qualified advisers for each applicable jurisdiction must review every external communication and transaction decision before use.
Steps
Work through the method
Use the listed inputs and tools. Check the evidence when you need to verify a step.
Capture the current and proposed models
Date separate current and proposed canvases. Record the target customer, value, delivery, revenue logic, required capabilities, constraints, sources, and assumptions.
Why it matters: Separate versions show what would change and keep assumptions visible.
- Input
- Current initiatives, customer and business-model evidence, constraints, and authorised decision owners.
- Output
- Two dated models with sourced facts, assumptions, conflicts, and missing evidence.
Tools in this stepChatGPT evidence workspaceEvidence for this step
Strategyzer presents the Business Model Canvas as nine connected business-model blocks and says a completed canvas starts discussion rather than deciding the strategy.
Strategyzer: “Why use the Business Model Canvas?” and “Download the Business Model Canvas”Strategyzer instructs users to distinguish present and future business-model states and to identify assumptions.
Strategyzer: “Define present vs future states” and “Acknowledge assumptions”OpenAI says file availability and limits depend on the plan and account settings, retention varies by use and plan, and deletion can take up to 30 days subject to stated exceptions.
OpenAI: “Availability”, “How do I delete files I upload?”, “How are files vs chats retained?”, and “Will OpenAI use files uploaded to train its models?”; version checked 26 September 2026
State the direction and trade-offs
State one target customer and company direction. List each initiative to continue, defer, or stop, with its owner and affected function.
Why it matters: A direction becomes reviewable when it changes real commitments.
- Input
- The two dated models and verified function-owner comments.
- Output
- A direction draft with explicit priorities, deferred work, stopping choices, and unresolved assumptions.
Tools in this stepChatGPT evidence workspaceEvidence for this step
Buffer’s founder describes revisiting a multi-product vision, defining a target customer, and accepting disruption while changing direction.
Buffer: Discussion before “What’s next”, lines 79–100 in the checked research capture; “What’s next”, lines 101–105
Approve the direction and review trigger
The authorised company body records the choice, reasons, owners, review date, and evidence that would reopen the decision.
Why it matters: The company needs a dated governance record rather than an AI conclusion.
- Input
- The direction draft, source pack, owner reviews, and authority rules.
- Output
- An approved direction record with a named review trigger.
Tools in this stepChatGPT evidence workspaceEvidence for this step
Strategyzer instructs users to distinguish present and future business-model states and to identify assumptions.
Strategyzer: “Define present vs future states” and “Acknowledge assumptions”
Success checks
Check the result before you finish
- Current and proposed models have separate dates, sources, and assumptions.
- Every initiative has a continue, defer, or stop status and an accountable owner.
- The authorised body recorded the direction, reasons, review date, and reopening evidence.
Failure modes
Watch for these problems
- The current and proposed models are blended, so the team cannot see what changes. Split them into dated versions and restore the source for each fact.
- An assumption becomes a fact or a deferred initiative remains active without an owner. Correct the record before approving the direction.
- The direction changes Product, Finance, People, Sales, or Operations work without that owner reviewing the consequence. Stop and route the affected choice to its owner.
Tools
Choose the tools you need
Tool
ChatGPT evidence workspace
A restricted workspace for organising supplied company records into internal tables that authorised people and independent advisers check.
Check fit, limits and pricingSources
Read the sources behind this practice
Check what each source supports and where the advice has limits.
- Buffer: Buffer’s Evolution and ExpansionFirst-hand founder retrospective · Publication date unavailable
- Strategyzer: The Business Model CanvasOfficial framework guidance · Publication date unavailable
- Strategyzer: How to create a crystal-clear Business Model CanvasOfficial framework guidance · Publication date unavailable
- OpenAI: File Uploads FAQOfficial product help · Publication date unavailable