Six months later, know exactly why the decision was made and what you believed at the time.
OpenCogent is a decision log for engineering, product and strategy teams. Each record captures the options, evidence, assumptions and who disagreed, schedules a revisit, and stays quick enough to fill in.
No account. No card. No sales call.
- Free for one team, with unlimited records
- Revisits scheduled automatically
- Decisions linked so consequences are traceable
The problem
Organisations make important decisions in meetings and chat threads, and the reasoning evaporates.
Six months later nobody remembers which options were considered, what evidence was available, or what would have to be true for the decision to be wrong.
So the same debate is repeated, reversals happen without learning, and new joiners cannot understand why anything is the way it is.
Who it is for
Engineering, product and strategy leaders
Leaders at companies of 50 to 2,000 people who make consequential decisions repeatedly and need the reasoning to outlast the meeting or chat thread.
Consultancies
Firms that make consequential decisions repeatedly and need a clear record of the options, evidence and assumptions behind each one.
Investment committees
Committees that need to know, months later, what was believed at the time, what would have made the decision wrong, and who disagreed.
Could your team explain a decision it made six months ago?
Pick a decision your team made about six months ago, and answer fifteen questions about what you can still find: the options, evidence, assumptions, who disagreed and when to revisit. See what was lost. Runs in your browser. No account, no card, no call.
Method: yes scores a question in full, partly scores half and no scores nothing. Each is weighted from one to three by how much it matters when someone later asks why the decision was made, and the score is the weighted share out of a hundred. Unanswered questions are left out.
Keep the reasoning, not just the decision
Structured decision records that people will actually write: quick to fill in, linked to each other, and there when someone asks why.
The question and the options
Each record captures the question being decided and the options considered, with their genuine trade-offs.
Evidence and assumptions
Record the evidence that was available and how good it was, alongside the assumptions the decision rests on.
Who decided, who disagreed
Every record notes who made the decision and who disagreed with it.
Conditions for a revisit
Set the specific conditions that should trigger a revisit, and the revisit is scheduled automatically.
Decisions linked together
Link decisions to each other, so the consequences of one choice can be traced through the ones that followed.
Fast to fill in
Decision logs usually stop because writing them is tedious. OpenCogent is built to be quick to fill in.
Pricing
Free for one team, permanently, with unlimited records. Pay per user when decision records go organisation-wide.
Team
A decision log for one team.
- Unlimited records
- Structured decision records
- Records shared internally
OrganisationRecommended
Decision records across the whole organisation.
- Organisation-wide search
- Linking between decisions
- Revisit scheduling
- Analytics
Enterprise
Single sign-on and retention controls.
- Single sign-on
- Retention controls
Prices in USD.
How it works
OpenCogent, from the first step to the result.
- 1
Record a real decision
The question, the options, the evidence and the assumptions, in a record that is fast to fill in.
- 2
Note who decided and who disagreed
Along with the conditions that should trigger a revisit.
- 3
Link it to related decisions
So consequences can be traced from one record to the next.
- 4
Revisit when it is due
The revisit is scheduled automatically, and the reasoning is there when someone asks why.
Questions people actually ask
What does a decision record capture?
The question, the options with their genuine trade-offs, the evidence and its quality, the assumptions the decision rests on, who decided and who disagreed, and the specific conditions that should trigger a revisit.
Why would people keep writing records?
Because it is fast to fill in. Decision-log initiatives usually fail because writing records is tedious, so OpenCogent is designed around keeping that effort low.
Is it really free?
Yes. One team can use the decision log free, permanently, with unlimited records.
What does the paid plan add?
At 8 dollars per user per month, it adds organisation-wide search, linking between decisions, revisit scheduling and analytics.
How do revisits work?
Each record names the conditions that should trigger a revisit, and the revisit is scheduled automatically. Revisit scheduling is part of the organisation plan.
Who can see the records?
Records are shared internally, so people elsewhere in the organisation, including new joiners, can read why a decision was made.
Is there an enterprise option?
Yes. Enterprise adds single sign-on and retention controls.
Why should I trust the decision recall check?
The score comes from your answers about one real decision, worked out in your browser. It reads nothing from your tools. It shows what your current way of recording decisions keeps and what it loses.
Could your team explain a decision it made six months ago?
Pick a decision your team made about six months ago, and answer fifteen questions about what you can still find: the options, evidence, assumptions, who disagreed and when to revisit. See what was lost. Runs in your browser. No account, no card, no call.
Open the free toolIt runs in your browser. OpenCogent never sees your inputs.