Jory MacKay on December 10, 2024 What is the RAPID decision-making technique (and should you use it)?
Making decisions is tough. A recent study of over 14,000 people found that 85% of us regularly suffer from decision distress – the feeling of regret, guilt, and uncertainty around the decisions we make.
But the most successful companies have to make difficult choices every single day. So, surely there has to be a way to help us make well-informed, confident decisions?
Originally developed by Bain and Company, RAPID is a technique for making crucial decisions in a controlled and structured way. It provides a step-by-step approach, with clearly assigned roles and responsibilities for everyone involved.
At a high-level, this sounds great. But RAPID isn’t right for every company, team, or leader.
Jump to a section
What is the RAPID decision-making technique? When should you use it?
RAPID is a decision-making framework that helps teams set clear roles, responsibilities, expectations, and timelines when making complex decisions. Not only that, but RAPID’s structure and guidance also helps to promote collaboration, accountability, and consistency.
Despite the acronym, RAPID isn’t about making fast decisions — it’s about making good ones.
Under RAPID, team members are assigned specific roles, reducing the ambiguity and stress that comes with making complex decisions across large teams. This clarity and structure is actually shown to boost stakeholder engagement and encourage honest feedback throughout the process — both of which ultimately lead to higher quality decisions.
In many ways, the benefits of the RAPID decision-making framework are similar to those of a team RACI chart. Both techniques clearly define who is in charge, who inputs, and who is kept up to date, providing a structure that overcomes confusion and allows teams to progress.
So, when should you use RAPID versus other decision-making techniques?
Let’s take a look at the situations where the RAPID framework can help you the most:
- When multiple stakeholders are needed for a single decision. RAPID excels in large teams by ensuring that everyone has a clear role. Defined responsibilities boost collaboration, reduce the chance of conflict, and make it easier for project managers or team leaders to coordinate the work required.
- If decisions are taking too long to get made. If you’re struggling to get a big decision made, RAPID can help provide the structure and guidance to push past your blockers. While RAPID isn’t about making a fast decision, it ensures timely progress in a controlled and considered way.
- When you require a high level of confidence. To make the biggest decisions, you need confidence that the right people have been involved in the process. RAPID is great at giving subject-matter-experts the platform to provide their inputs, alongside dedicated roles for providing the challenge and assurance to the recommendation.
- You have a flexible deadline and don’t need to rush. If quality, not speed, is the most important factor, RAPID is the perfect framework. Alongside defined roles, it also provides guidance on the activities to complete, with time provided for thorough data gathering, analysis, and consideration.
- When there are complex or competing priorities. RAPID’s structure, detail, and guidance are helpful when picking apart a highly complex decision, such as a wicked problem. It helps teams consider all the angles, gaining inputs from all corners of the organization to highlight the pros, cons, and tradeoffs of any recommendation.
But, is RAPID right for every team? Not always
So, that’s when you should use RAPID, but when should you not use it?
Here are three situations where RAPID might actually make decision-making harder:
- Smaller decisions. If the decision is small, inconsequential, or can be easily reversed, the RAPID framework is probably too cumbersome. Using it will likely cause unnecessary complexity and become resource intensive.
- Time-critical decisions. RAPID is built on providing inputters with the space they need to leave no stone unturned. This takes a lot of time, so it isn’t best if you need to make a quick decision under pressure.
- Few stakeholders. If the decision can be made in a small team, don’t waste time and energy assigning RAPID roles. It’ll only add complexity, feel like micromanagement, and slow the entire process down.
For situations like the above, try using a lightweight decision-making framework such as Benefits, Costs, Mitigations (BCM) instead. BCM is great for making snappy decisions that help you and the team move forward quickly.
RAPID isn’t about making fast decisions - it’s about making good ones.
Understanding the 5 stakeholder roles in RAPID
The RAPID acronym describes the five crucial roles every team should allocate when making complex decisions. Each role has a particular purpose, bringing something unique, but important, to every decision.
Recommend
The Recommender is responsible for coordinating and presenting the team’s recommendation.
For this reason, the Recommender needs visibility across the entire team, possessing the skills to align stakeholders, coordinate inputs, and articulate complex information into clear executive summaries. The Recommender should also be trusted by the decision-maker, with an established level of credibility and authority in the topics discussed.
Who might play this role?
A department lead, team leader, business lead, or program manager.
Agree
The Agreer provides an objective, third-party review on the recommendation.
This role is typically filled by assurance-type professionals (such as risk, legal, or compliance) who have no personal stake in the decision’s outcome. They work with the Recommender throughout the RAPID process, ultimately providing challenge or endorsement to the final recommendation.
Who might play this role?
A Risk Manager, Compliance Lead, Legal Advisor, or a member of the project management office.
Perform
Once the decision is made, Performers must turn it into action.
Those in the Perform role must understand the intricacies of the decision and be empowered by their organization to implement the outcomes. They may also be involved in the decision-making process itself, providing implementation considerations to the Recommender in the role of Inputter.
Who might play this role?
A Project Manager, Delivery Manager, Product Owner, or Tech Lead.
Input
Inputters provide the data, information, and insight that shapes the final recommendation.
This role is often filled by a mix of people who are either affected by the decision, have a hand in implementing it, or have experience in the subject-matter at hand. Their contribution directly impacts the quality of the decision, so they should be given time and resources to gather data, conduct research, and share insights as required.
Who might play this role?
Analysts, Researchers, Developers, Business Analysts, and subject-matter-experts.
Decide
The Decider makes the final decision and directs the actions to be taken.
Ideally, the Decider should be one person, but if it falls to a group, clearly defined rules should be agreed on how a decision will be reached (e.g., a voting system). The Decider must have the level of authority to make the decision, have the visibility of the broader organizational trade-offs and impacts, and is responsible for sharing the outcome of the decision with other business stakeholders.
Who might play this role?
Executives such as an IT Director, Chief Marketing Officer, or Vice President. In projects, this will likely be the project sponsor.
How RAPID decision-making works in the real world
RAPID isn’t just about assigning roles. An end-to-end process of data gathering, analysis, review, and submission is needed to make great decisions.
Let’s use a real life example of creating a project business case to show how the RAPID decision-making process works in real life.
Step 1. Define the decision that needs to be made
John is the Head of IT Infrastructure for StrengthBox, a worldwide fitness app developer. He’s noticed the app’s loading speeds have reduced, and he believes investment should be made to upgrade or replace the existing servers.
John raises this with Sharon, the IT Director. Sharon asks John to create a business case with a recommendation on how best to improve the app’s performance.
Step 2. RAPID roles are assigned
Given there are over 50 people working in the IT department, John decides to use RAPID to help the team make the best decision.
He puts himself as the Recommender, assigning the other RAPID roles as follows:
- Sharon, IT Director: Decider
- Ganesh, IT Risk Manager: Agreer
- Philippe, IT Project Manager: Performer
- Suzy, Infrastructure Developer: Inputter
- Claire, Business Analyst: Inputter
- Mitchell, IT Performance Analyst: Inputter
Step 3. Inputters gather the data
John asks the Inputters to provide their thoughts and expertise on the best way to enhance the servers to boost the app’s performance.
While Mitchell provides data on the current performance issues, Claire gathers insight from customers on their load time experience, and Suzy estimates the work required to upgrade or replace the servers.
While Philippe has the Performer role, he has completed many server upgrade projects before, so feeds in his thoughts and lessons learned from previous projects.
Step 4. The Recommender develops a recommendation
John takes the inputs from the team and uses it to begin forming a recommendation. The costs, effort, and timescales to upgrade or replace the servers are pretty similar, so he clearly documents the pros, cons, trade-offs of each option.
He goes back and forth with the Inputters several times, iterating the information available, until a first version of the business case is complete.
Step 5. The Agreer reviews and endorses
John and Ganesh review the business case together, with Ganesh providing an expert view as a Risk Management professional.
Ganesh agrees that the current servers need investment to prevent further issues. Ganesh prefers the option to upgrade the servers, rather than replace them, as it will mean less downtime and less chance of a major IT incident.
John updates the business case to include Ganesh’s thoughts, and amends the recommendation accordingly.
Step 6. The recommendation is approved and work begins
John submits the business case to the IT Investment Committee, which Sharon chairs on a monthly basis. The committee reviews the business case and discusses the recommendation to upgrade the servers, balancing the investment required with the benefits on offer.
They all agree to proceed, approving that investment for server upgrades. Sharon notifies the other StrengthBox directors of the decision and instructs Philippe to begin planning and implementing the project.
Final thought: Don’t fall for these common RAPID pitfalls
Good decisions make great companies, but even great systems such as RAPID can fail if they’re not used properly.
Good decisions make great companies, but even great systems such as RAPID can fail if they’re not used properly.
To finish, let’s look at some common decision-making pitfalls you should avoid to ensure every choice you make is a good one.
- Succumbing to power dynamics. The RAPID system can shine a light on power dynamics across your team — especially if someone is used to being in the “decide” role. But every decision is unique, so don’t just go with business as usual. Instead, make sure to vary roles and get more well-rounded feedback for big decisions.
- Relying on a single person to make all final decisions. RAPID is a team effort. No single person should take on more than one role, ensuring that multiple stakeholders have the opportunity to input. This not only takes the pressure off one person, but ensures a well-rounded view on every decision.
- Leaving out key stakeholders. While too many voices can make it difficult to make a decision, make sure to include all key stakeholders in the RAPID process. Techniques such as stakeholder analysis can really help here, ensuring you have the right people involved at the right time throughout the process.
- Ignoring input from your team. If you’ve asked someone to be an Inputter, make sure that you take their inputs seriously and reflect them in the recommendation. There’s nothing more frustrating than doing work that’s ignored, with RAPID decisions relying on detailed analysis to make them a success.
- Letting the process fall apart. RAPID is successful because of the structure, control, and clarity it provides. While it can feel a little rigid, don’t let the structure of the roles fall apart as it will lead to chaos, confusion, and conflict across the team.
To help you keep hold of that structure, we’d recommend using tools like Planio alongside your RAPID decision-making framework. With handy features for gathering feedback, creating documents, and team collaboration, Planio is the perfect place for coordinating great decisions, keeping all of your most important information in one, easy-to-use place!
Try Planio with your team — free for 30 days (and no credit card required!)
