Decisions, outcomes and your track record

What it is

Your decisions is the screen that remembers every decision you save from an answer, and how it worked out. When an answer helps you decide, you save the decision: what you chose, how confident you are, your check-in date (the date you'll know how it worked out) and, if you like, whether you followed each advisor who answered or went against them. On your check-in date, your board asks how it worked out. Answer with one tap or click, and that outcome helps make every answer after it better and more personal to you. Your board then answers later questions with your most relevant past decisions and how they worked out, up to six at a time, with the note you wrote about each.

Every decision you record is kept on one screen, Your decisions, one short line each: the question, what you decided, and how it went or its check-in date. Open decisions are at the top. Past decisions stay listed below them. Open any decision to see all of it: how confident you were, who you asked, your check-in date, the answer you gave it and any note you added, the question, each advisor's answer and your Chair's summing-up. A decision saved from a board meeting or strategy session also shows the whole meeting, in order. Once you have saved a decision, Your board shows your record so far in one line, with a link to Your decisions. When you ask about something like a decision you have already checked in on, the answer can say how those decisions went and how sure you were, counted from your own decisions only.

Why it matters

Advice is only worth what it does for you. Most people never find out which advice actually worked, because nobody writes down what they decided or goes back to check. Your decisions keeps both: what you decided, and how it went.

Remembering every decision also keeps your advisors honest. Each advisor's track record is counted from your own answers on the decisions that advisor was asked about, so you can see whose advice has worked for you and whose has not. Once you have checked in on 5 decisions, your track record also shows how your own calls worked out: by how confident you were, when an advisor was confident, and when you went against an advisor, how many went well.

How it works

1. On an answer, "Save this decision" asks what you decided. When the answer opens on a call, the call is filled in for you to change.
2. Say how confident you are, from 1 to 5.
3. Choose your check-in date: 3, 7, 14 or 30 days away. For your first decision 3 days is picked for you, so you see how it went within your first week; after that a week is picked.
4. Choose Save decision.
5. On your check-in date, the decision's line on Your decisions shows How did it go?, which opens the decision to ask how it went. Write what happened in the box if you like: one line helps your board learn. Under it, Roughly how much did this save you? (optional) takes hours and dollars, your own rough numbers; Advicity never estimates them for you. Then choose Went well, Mixed, Didn't go well or Didn't follow it, and your note and numbers are saved with your answer. The check-in email's answer links open the note box. Not yet? Pick a new date and your board asks then: in a week, two weeks, a month, or a date you choose. The decision stays open. You can move a decision's check-in date, earlier or later, any time before it arrives.
6. Once your answer is saved, you can mark each advisor who answered Followed or Went against, one tap or click each. The marks are optional. If you left the note out, you can add it now, or later on the decision's own page, where you can also change the note and your numbers. After Mixed, Didn't go well or Didn't follow it, you can also take it back to your board: Ask my board opens a follow-up on that decision, with what you decided, how it went and your note already written in. The decision then shows the day you took it back.
7. The decision moves to Past, with your answer. If you see it differently later, open it and choose Change your answer. The new answer is added, and the earlier one stays.
8. After your first check-in, Your track record shows under your decisions, in one card: how many decisions you have checked in on and how they went, then one line for each advisor you asked, the most-asked first. After 5 check-ins it also shows patterns, one short line each: by how confident you were, when you followed or went against an advisor, and when each advisor was confident, how many of those decisions went well. "Didn't follow it" is left out of the patterns.

Which plans include it

Decisions and the track record are included on the Paper plan, the Ink plan and the Brass plan. The Paper plan holds up to 3 open decisions, and Your decisions shows how many of the 3 are in use. Check in on one and you can start another. The Ink plan and the Brass plan have no limit on open decisions.

Privacy and what the board keeps

Your board remembers every decision you record and every answer and note you add. Your notes and the numbers you give stay on your board: no other member's advisor learns from them. A changed answer is added beside the earlier one, which is never overwritten. Only the people on your board can read your decisions. A viewer on your board can read them but cannot record a decision or an answer. Your decisions and their answers are part of the download of everything in Settings.

Related features

• Getting started with Advicity
• Your board and the built-in advisors
• Plans and switching plans