An illustrative working canvas, not a real client engagement.
01 / A shared decision canvas
Put the brief where everyone can see it.
Use the four spaces together. A change in the question may change the evidence needed; a
boundary may need revisiting when another source appears.
01 / QUESTION
What are we trying to decide?
Describe the decision in plain language. Keep a symptom, a proposed solution and a desired
outcome distinct so the brief does not assume the answer before the work begins.
02 / BOUNDARY
What belongs in this brief?
Name the work, people and period the question concerns. Record what remains outside the
brief and why. A useful boundary makes the conversation specific without hiding the wider
setting.
03 / EVIDENCE
What would change our view?
Identify information already available and the material still needed. Separate an
observation from an interpretation, and keep the source beside each important statement.
04 / DECISION
Who does what next?
Name the decision owner and the next useful step. A recommendation becomes easier to review
when its reasoning, limits and unresolved questions remain visible.
02 / Around the canvas
Ask for a distinction
before an answer.
These constructed exchanges show how a broad statement can become a question someone can
investigate.
A facilitator need not have an immediate solution. Precise language can reveal where people
are describing different problems with the same word.
A broad statement
“The handover is not working.”
A question to open it
Which handover, what is expected to move with the work, and what has actually been
observed?
A proposed solution
“We need a new tool.”
A question to test it
What would the tool change, and which part of that outcome depends on a working agreement
rather than the tool itself?
Working example / Not client work
Understand the handover before choosing a tool.
The discussion combines two questions: where requests arrive and what information is needed
before someone can act. The first useful step is to examine a bounded set of examples.
Decision in view
Whether to change the intake arrangement, the information requested or both.
Evidence to gather
Selected examples, the roles involved and the context available at each handover.
Assumptions to keep open
That every channel creates the same difficulty, and that one tool would resolve missing
context.
Proposed next step
Agree the examples to examine and name who will bring the observations back for review.
What this memo does not establish
A supplier, a complete implementation plan or proof that the investigation will produce a
particular answer.
A later version should show which observations changed the decision. Keep the earlier
question available so the reasoning can be retraced.
Start with a clear question and leave a record of how the answer develops.