Where should you keep the decision record?
Spreadsheets and discovery tools can work well. See how Tarazu organizes options, sources and reviews, and when your current setup may be enough.
Three failure modes of spreadsheet prioritization
Spreadsheets can support a sound decision process. These problems arise when the team has no shared structure for scoring, evidence and later reviews.
Inconsistent scoring
Different stakeholders apply different logic to the same scale, so a 7 from one team is not a 7 from another — unless the sheet explicitly documents the anchors and differences.
Scattered context
Research, customer feedback, and the reasoning behind a number live in three other tools, unless someone keeps the links and their context current.
Weak decision memory
Teams remember what they chose but not why. Without a recorded rationale and review habit, later readers may have to reconstruct the argument.
Built for prioritization, not just tracking
Different tools can support the same decision. This is a general guide; capabilities vary by product, plan and configuration.
| Capability | Tarazu | Spreadsheets | Roadmap tools | Generic AI assistants |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Framework-based scoring | Built in, with a band-based RICE index on a 1–100 scale | Whatever you build by hand, per sheet | Available in some products; frameworks and configuration vary | Will compute a score if you describe one |
| Visual tradeoff analysis | Effort × impact map with labeled quadrants | Only if you build the chart yourself | Matrices and other comparison views are available in some products | No persistent view |
| Explainable AI recommendations | Reasoning shown, always editable, never auto-applied | Possible through formulas, add-ons or connected tools | Available in some products; inspect sources and review controls | Can reason from the context you provide |
| Strategy context | Strategy Brief and linked evidence inform AI suggestions | Can be stored in cells, notes or linked documents | May link goals, insights and supporting documents | Only what you paste into the prompt |
| Decision history | Preserved brief context, copyable decision brief and dated reviews | Can retain reasoning and versions if you structure it | May retain insights, rationale, comments and status history | Conversation history; a structured decision record needs an explicit workflow |
A spreadsheet, AI conversation or discovery tool can retain reasoning when you structure it that way. Tarazu brings the choice, preserved evidence, tradeoffs and dated reviews into one workflow. The question is whether that structure makes your own decision easier to explain and revisit.
When a spreadsheet is the right answer
Genuinely, often. Do not adopt a tool for a problem you don't have:
- Fewer than about fifteen candidates. Below that, you can hold the whole set in your head, and the ranking isn't the hard part.
- One decision-maker. Most of what Tarazu adds is about making a decision legible to other people. If that's not your problem, it's overhead.
- A one-off call. Decision memory only pays off when there's a next decision that should learn from this one.
- A genuinely bespoke scoring model. If your organisation weighs regulatory exposure and contractual commitments, a spreadsheet expresses that immediately and no framework tool will.
The case for something else starts when the same spreadsheet gets reopened every quarter by people who weren't there when the numbers were written.
What you carry over
Import a CSV; export a CSV. Your columns map onto reach, impact, confidence, and effort, with common aliases recognised automatically and out-of-range values clamped rather than rejected. Ranked output exports back to CSV, and the priority view exports to PDF. Copy a saved decision as a Markdown brief with preserved source text and dated reviews.
The decision brief is a readable handoff, not a full workspace backup. CSV and PDF cover the candidates and priority view; they do not contain all scoring claims, Signals or saved validation briefs. Keep your source originals.
If you want the mechanics before you move anything, the RICE guide covers the scoring model and where it breaks down, and how it works walks the full loop.
Bring your spreadsheet.
Import a CSV and see the same backlog as a ranked list and a tradeoff map. Free, no account needed.