SC E09 — One-Way or Two-Way Doors

Summary

Short piece on Amazon’s decision-making framework: distinguish between one-way doors (irreversible decisions deserving careful deliberation) and two-way doors (reversible decisions where speed matters more). References Benn Stancil’s argument that analytics success should be measured by “the speed of decisions made, not the outcome” and Tristan Handy’s expansion introducing the reversibility qualification.

Conclusion: most organizational decisions are two-way doors. Emphasize velocity.

Key Arguments

• Before deciding how carefully to deliberate, first assess reversibility
• Most decisions are two-way doors — move faster on these
• Speed of decisions is a better metric than outcome of decisions for analytics teams
• Reserve careful deliberation for truly irreversible commitments

Writing Style Notes

Brief and punchy. Synthesizes others’ ideas (Stancil, Handy, Amazon) into a clear takeaway. More curator than creator in this piece, which is a valid mode.

Connections

• 01-projects/newsletter/index — early Sanity Check, decision frameworks
• 06-reference/2026-04-03-the-great-game-of-business — organizational decision velocity