Decision Velocity
The Hidden Cost of Unowned Decisions
When decisions lack an owner, teams compensate with activity. The output is motion, not progress. Here’s how unowned decisions create GTM latency—and the operating system to fix it.
Key takeaways
- Unowned decisions create hidden work: alignment cycles, rework, and stalled deals.
- Activity becomes a substitute for authority, and the organization pays the tax in time and margin.
- Assign decision owners, define revisit rules, and tie decisions to execution signals.
The hidden cost of unowned decisions
Unowned decisions are the quiet killer of GTM velocity. When no one is accountable, the organization compensates with activity.
The result looks like “alignment.” In reality, it is latency: revisiting decisions, re-opening trade-offs, and deferring commitment until the problem escalates.
In-market, that latency becomes stalled deals, unclear next steps, and margin pressure.
Where unowned decisions show up
Pricing and discount approval. If approval rules are unclear, deals slow and sales learns to negotiate internally instead of externally.
ICP exceptions. If no one owns “who we are not for,” the team keeps taking the wrong deals and calls it pipeline.
Sales stage and exit criteria. If stages are not owned, each rep invents a system and forecasting becomes fiction.
Cross-functional trade-offs. If Product, Marketing, and Sales do not share a decision architecture, roadmap and GTM drift apart.
Decision ownership is not hierarchy. It is an operating system.
A decision owner is the person accountable for a decision being made, documented, and enforced. They are not necessarily the most senior person in the room.
Define three things for every recurring decision: (1) the owner, (2) the inputs required, and (3) the revisit rule—when the decision can be reopened and what evidence is needed.
The simplest fix: owners + gates + signals
Owners. Assign one accountable owner per decision category (ICP exceptions, pricing exceptions, stage definitions, prioritization).
Gates. Create explicit decision gates (weekly or bi-weekly) so issues do not linger in Slack threads and side meetings.
Signals. Tie decisions to execution signals (conversion, cycle time, win-rate by ICP, discount rate) so the system self-corrects.
What to do next
If this pattern matches your reality, the highest-leverage move is to restore decision ownership and sequencing before adding more initiatives.
Need a structured assessment?
Start with the GTM Diagnostic to truth-lock what is broken, what to stop, and what must sequence.
Already know what’s broken?
Review GTM Execution if your issue is execution debt, stalled deals, or cross-functional drift in-market.
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