Explore

Accelerating Decisions with Stoplights

Get a decisive read on your proposals and writeups with stoplight indicators!

Stop the cycle of sending something back and forth and get clear signals on what is good to go, needs minor tweaks, or needs a full discussion

⁠

Copy this doc

⁠

to use the template below!

Decisions Decisions!

So you’ve written a proposal, sent around for feedback, and ✨ you got the feedback! Hooray! And now you’ve adjusted the proposal based on the feedback, and you....what? Do you send around again for approval? Do you just move forward?

I had the hardest time telling if a comment or question was a passing thought I could take or leave, a necessary change, or a large issue we needed to resolve. So I was caught in this cycle of making lots of tiny changes and sending back to the leadership since I wasn’t sure if the comments were showstoppers - it was a really inefficient way of working.

I needed a way to get clear signal on how to proceed with a proposal, or pieces of a proposal.

Enter the Stoplight Buttons! 🚥

These three buttons can be placed at the end of a proposal for overall guidance, or copy/pasted after major sections for a more refined look at what is/isn’t working. This allows people to add all the feedback they want, and still tell me that I can move forward and they don’t need to see the proposal again. This suits the people who:

Give big picture feedback (strategy guidance only, couldn’t care less about the details), or

Give nuanced and detailed feedback (add this one step, correct this one spelling error, etc)

Each type of person can leave as much or little questions/comments as they want, and still give me the green light to move forward. And since the buttons tell me who said what, I know exactly where consensus is and make appropriate decisions.

Try it below! Click on each light to see how your perspective is reflected in the buttons:

Green Light

⁠

Proposal is good as written

Yellow Light

⁠

Address questions or concerns, then you can go forward

Red Light

⁠

Hold off, needs more discussion

Notice how the buttons force you to make one decision only? This helps keep things clear - people have to choose green, yellow, or red.

And yellow means that I can just address something, then consider the proposal good to go - a huge time saver instead of checking on the whole proposal over and over.

How to Control Traffic

You can either use stoplight buttons at the end of a write up to get feedback on a proposal overall, or place stoplight buttons at the end of each major section. Its as easy as copy and pasting the lights - they’re smart enough to be copied over and over and give you input on each section. Just copy over all 3 at once, then paste away!

⁠

Screen Capture on 2023-05-09 at 16-53-48.gif

⁠

Ready to get started?

Start by copying this doc, then Highlight, copy, and paste the buttons below to get started! 🟢

⁠

Copy this doc

^✓

⁠

Green Light

⁠

Proposal is good as written

Yellow Light

⁠

Address questions or concerns, then you can go forward

Red Light

⁠

Hold off, needs more discussion

⁠

Decisions Decisions!

Enter the Stoplight Buttons! 🚥

How to Control Traffic

Ready to get started?

Gallery

Want to print your doc?
This is not the way.

Try clicking the ⋯ next to your doc name or using a keyboard shortcut (

CtrlP

) instead.