What I noticed, again and again
I started paying closer attention. Across different businesses, different teams, different situations, the stuck decisions looked different on the surface. But underneath, they shared the same mechanics:
- Nobody had clearly named what actually needed deciding
- The inputs were messy, contradictory, or incomplete
- Stakeholders were working from different assumptions
- Incentives quietly pulled people in opposite directions
- Ownership was fuzzy and everyone thought someone else was driving
- Risk was managed through delay, because indecision felt safer than a wrong call
A quick example
A security leadership team I worked with spent six weeks circling a £200k decision on how to handle endpoint protection and incident response. Six weeks.
The conversation kept looping on:
“Do we standardise on one platform or bolt together best-of-breed tools?”
When we finally sat down properly, it took about twenty minutes to realise the real question had not been asked.
The
real
question was:
“What matters more right now, reducing risk through consistent coverage and simpler operations, or maximising capability and control even if it adds complexity?”
Once that trade-off was on the table, the decision landed within 24 hours. They were not stuck on the tools. They were stuck on the trade-off they had not named.
Most teams try to solve this kind of friction by adding more discussion. More slides. More pre reads.
More meetings. More alignment.
But friction does not disappear just because you talk about it longer. It disappears when you make
the decision clean.
What I learned in the trenches
My career has sat close to the sharp edge of business. Enterprise customers. Technical complexity. High stakes.
Escalations where you cannot hide behind process. Situations where the wrong call can cost real money, real time, and real trust.
In that world, you learn quickly that clarity beats heroics.
The best outcomes rarely come from the smartest person in the room.
They come from a team that can:
- Name the decision properly
- Separate facts from assumptions
- Surface trade offs without ego
- Get the right voices in the room
- Commit, then execute
That became the work I found myself naturally drawn to. Not being right. Helping teams get to the call, calmly.
Why The Exec Memo exists
The Exec Memo is my attempt to take that work and turn it into something repeatable. Something
simple.
Here is the idea:
When a decision is stuck, you should be able to run a short, structured process that
produces a decision ready brief. Not a long, dusty report. A crisp memo that makes the decision easy to land and hard to unpick.
That is what I create.
Sometimes the issue is speed. The decision is stuck and just needs structure to break free.
Sometimes the issue is buy in. The decision needs stakeholder alignment before it can move. Either way, the goal is the same: remove decision friction and get the team moving.
Why I am doing this now
This part matters to me.
I am building The Exec Memo because it is the most ‘me’ work I have ever done. It sits right at the intersection of:
- Pattern recognition
- Calm facilitation under pressure
- Turning complexity into clarity
- Caring about outcomes, not theatre
And I want to do it properly. Not as a side project I squeeze into evenings and hope for the best, but as something I invest in deliberately. Because I have learned that the work you choose changes the quality of what you deliver.
Needing the work vs choosing it
Here is the honest bit.
There is a difference between doing work because you have to, and doing work because you want to. When you are taking a paycheck inside a company, you can care a lot. Most people do. But you are still constrained by internal incentives, politics, shifting priorities, and how much time you are allowed to spend on a problem.
With The Exec Memo, the incentives are clean. My whole model is based on one thing: did we land the decision and create forward movement?
That makes me better at this job, not worse. Because I am invested in the outcome, not the optics. I do not want to keep a project alive. I want to finish it. I do not want ongoing meetings. I want a clean decision and clear next steps.
That is better for me, and it is better for clients.
What this looks like in practice
The Exec Memo has two ways to work with me:
Decision Sprint
When the decision is stuck but solvable quickly. A short working session, a decision ready memo within 48 hours, then a call to lock the decision and actions.
Alignment Sprint
When the decision needs buy in. Stakeholder input, the real friction surfaced, a facilitated decision meeting, commitments captured.
The deliverable is always the same at the core: clarity, trade offs, ownership, and a decision that sticks.
Why I am sharing all this?
Because I know how expensive stuck decisions are. Not just in money. In energy. In morale. In wasted weeks where smart people are doing work about the work.
If you are a leader in a growing B2B SaaS business and you have a decision that keeps looping,
I would love to hear about it. Even if we never work together, I will tell you what I see and what I would do next.
That is the whole point of building something like this. It is not just a service. It is a way of working that I think more teams deserve.
If this resonates
If you have a decision that feels stuck,
send me a message with:
- What the decision is
- Who is involved
- What happens if it slips another month
I will reply within 48 hours with a quick diagnosis and whether a Sprint would help. No long proposal. Just honest input.
Justin
Founder, The Exec
Memo
