The Art & Science of Decision Buy-In

Making large, important technical decisions is a critical aspect of a senior individual contributor’s role. With the wide impact these decisions can have, it is essential to make the correct decision. Even more vital is ensuring the decision is made and communicated in a way that the team members impacted by it trust and buy in to the decision. Otherwise, even the best decisions will never realize their full potential when executed.

This case study examines how Comcast has employed the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), a decision-making framework developed in the 1970s, and adapted it for making technical and non-technical decisions both large and small. We will cover the key aspects that have made it successful for engineering teams, what we learned from our early mistakes, signs that the decision-making process you use is working effectively, and how you can easily leverage the AHP for your decisions.