Decision Jam cuts decision-making time in half

"A business is only as good as the system it's created for its operation. Perhaps the pinnacle of technology is how successful it is in making our everyday tasks easier and more efficient."

We originally built Decision Jam to save on post-it notes, stickers and whiteboard markers. It is one of Symph's self-initiated apps, and we want it to change how you run brainstorming sessions and make decisions.

Decision Jam runs on computers and phones, and it is free. It gets team members to cut to the chase, share their ideas and decide quickly, so a decision that used to take forever takes five minutes, tops.

Believe it or not, this is a photo of a productive meeting, thanks to Decision Jam.

"So, what should we talk about for today's meeting?"

"I have an idea but I don't want to suggest because it may sound shallow."

"I don't want speak up because no one might relate to it."

"I'll go with whatever the boss says, we're all going for what he wants in the end anyway."

We hear you. Getting a team to speak up in a meeting can be a loooong, cricket-chirping process, and it often gets inefficient to a fault. Usually the boss ends up doing the talking, or the same few confident people, and it shouldn't always go that way.

We don't think that happens because people have nothing to contribute. Some people don't know how to say what they want to say, and some are afraid to speak their minds. waves at the quiet folks

Decision Jam lets team members share their thoughts and ideas easily and anonymously. You start a jam by creating a decision link and sharing it with the team, and remote team members can join or lead jams too, so the whole team gets more done together.

The anonymous feature is the most important part of the app. Nobody sees who pitched an idea or who voted for which option, so people give their honest input. Being anonymous in Decision Jam means:

• you can pitch in any #shameless idea
• you can vote without being swayed by whose idea is whose
• shy people, it's your time to shy(ne)!

When the time is up (the Jam Creator sets it), everyone can see all the ideas the team posted and vote on them, still anonymously. The Jam Creator chooses how many votes each member gets. Once voting is done, members see the top ideas, and you have your decision.

How it works

You make a Decision Jam room, share the code, pitch in ideas anonymously, vote (still anonymously), and you have decided.

We made Decision Jam so people can say what they think, honestly and quickly. We may still have a long way to go before post-it notes disappear, but in the meantime we save two of the most important resources known to mankind, trees and time, and we get to use up the most valuable one, which is our ideas.

Decision Jam works well for:

• Setting the meeting agenda
• Brainstorming for the next big start-up idea
• Where-do-you-want-to-eat questions
• Creating plans with friends who end up not going anyway

We don't recommend Decision Jam for:

• Wedding proposals
• Court hearings
• Quarter-life crisis decisions (but hey, who knows?)

Try Decision Jam with your team.

Dave Overton and Albert Padin, our founders, talked about how we built Decision Jam in less than a week in an episode of the Dave and Albert Show.

If you have an idea for a web or mobile app, contact us.