Making Decisions

This doc is for: Folks needing a quick reminder of how to vote to make group decisions.

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Quick reference guide

Our fist-to-five check-in helps us understand if we need a deeper conversation and to help us focus that conversation. To participate, you hold up a hand showing some number of fingers:

Number of Fingers	What it means
5 fingers	I support the proposal and am willing to be one of the leaders.
4 fingers	I support the proposal and will help implement it.
3 fingers	I’m not in total agreement but am willing to go forward without further discussion.
2 fingers	I still would like to discuss some minor issues.
1 finger	I still need to discuss more major issues and suggest changes to be made.
A fist	I have a fundamental disagreement with the core of the proposal.
Hands clasped	I abstain. I will not help implement this idea but don’t want to stop the group. (This could be due to disagreement or lack of time or energy.)

Quick process description

As a group, we agreed to our own flavor of fist-to-five decision making practices. See the fist-to-five documentation for details

When we need to make a decision or want to suggest a change, we start with a proposal. If it's just a small thing, we just say it or post something informal in Slack asking for a "fist-to-5" on it to see where people are at. If it's something bigger, we make a "formal" proposal:

Creating a formal Proposal

1. Create an issue through this issue template.
2. It will already have a 'proposal' label
3. If it's for a team (not the whole group), give it the 'app' or the 'data' label (whichever makes sense.)
4. Assign it to a project board - project-wide, app team, or data team board. (We can't automate that.)
5. The proposal's title should begin with "PROPOSAL:" (should be prepared for you in the template)
6. Read the contents of the template so you can do everything it describes.
7. In Slack, make a proposal post in the appropriate channel (#clean-slate, #clean-slate-app, or #clean-slate-data). Use the format shown in the detailed doc mentioned earlier or copy other Slack proposals. Include:
   1. A feedback due date at least one week away
   2. A finger chart
   3. A link to the issue.

Pin the post to the channel.

When a Decision is made

For many kinds of decisions, we need to make an issue recording that decision and why it was made. If it started as a Proposal issue, this is how you deal with it:

1. Change the title to reflect the final decision and to start with "DECISION:" instead of "PROPOSAL:"
2. Add a note at the top: "Described proposal accepted" or "Described proposal rejected".
3. Make a comment with the voting results, making sure you record people who voted 5 and have thus agreed to lead the change.
4. Add any updates to the "Proposal History" section that isn't in the comments.
5. Add the decision label
6. Close the issue
7. Deal with the post in the Slack channel
   1. Change the text to read "Decision:" and then the decision that was made.
   2. Unpin the post

Examples

To see examples, you can look at some past proposals.