CEO
Last updated
Last updated
The job of a CEO is simple but hard. It requires an accurate understanding of the present, setting a clear direction for the future, and a process for considering decisions along the way. Convictional has built our solution to help you do this.
This guide will walk you through how to use Convictional to build context, set goals, and make decisions. It should take about 20 minutes to read and complete the videos, or you can jump around depending on what you're currently working on.
Context is the foundation of Convictional. It is the information that is used to make decisions. Even the best teams with great execution can struggle to make decisions without having the right context at hand when making them. We call this the Decision Context Problem. If you want to see some examples of symptoms of the problem, you can learn more here.
Context is built by capturing information from your team's conversations, meetings, and documents. Broadly there are two types of context: tacit knowledge and explicit knowledge:
Tacit knowledge is the knowledge that is held by individuals, but not explicitly documented.
Explicit knowledge is the knowledge that is explicitly documented (e.g. things software knows).
Making decisions as a CEO requires a combination of the right tacit and explicit knowledge. People often talk about the importance of asking the right questions when making decisions, but the right questions are only useful if you have the ability to answer them. Convictional exists to improve your ability to ask and answer the right questions.
Convictional offers a survey tool within our decision process. This allows you to capture information from your team in a structured way. You can use this to capture information from your team on a regular basis, or to capture information on a specific topic. Responses are only shared with members of the decision process, not the people who filled out the survey.
Here's a quick video walking you through how to use surveys when making decisions:
Convictional offers a context search tool that allows you to search through your company's explicit knowledge. This is useful when you need to find information quickly, or when you need to find information that you know exists but can't quite remember where it is. Results are returned along with the source of the information and related follow-up questions to ask.
Here's a quick video walking you through how to use context search:
Here are some example queries you can use to find explicit knowledge. Click one to try it within your company's context:
In order for the people and AI agents within your organization to be effective, they need to be aligned on what's most important. Goals are the backbone of Convictional. They are injected into every part of the app, from the AI tools found on decision processes to knowledge search, keeping the team aligned on what's most important.
As CEO, one of your primary responsibilities is to set the goals for the organization. By setting success conditions, tracking progress against the goals, and collaborating with the rest of the executive team on setting the right company level goals, you can maintain alignment across your organization. Here, you can learn more about how to setup goals in Convictional.
Here are some examples of goals you can set in Convictional:
Increase revenue by 20% in 2025
Launch a new product by the end of Q1
Reduce our customer churn rate by 10%
Find and lease a new office space by June
Once set, goals influence the behavior of the people and AI agents within your organization. They are used to guide the decisions that are made, and to track progress towards the goals, as well as track related context.
Here is a quick video walking you through how to set goals in Convictional:
As your goals collide with the realities of your business, changes will need to be made in order to keep your organization on the best path forward. Convictional's decision processes allow you to collaborate cross-functionally on organizational decisions. These decision processes are linked to your goals, ensuring alignment across your organization.
Here are some examples of decisions you can make in Convictional:
Strategy Decisions: Choosing the right market to enter, or the right product to build.
Operational Decisions: Choosing the right tools for your team, or the right policies for your company.
Financial Decisions: Choosing the right funding strategy, or the right investment to make.
HR Decisions: Choosing the right hiring strategy, or the right people for your company.
As you can see, there are many types of decisions that you can make in Convictional. Over time, you'll find that you're making more and more decisions in Convictional, and that you're able to make decisions faster and more effectively.
There are three ways that a decision can be recorded in Convictional:
Decision Process: A decision process is a structured way to work through a decision. It allows you to collaborate with your team to work through a decision, and to track progress towards a decision. You can see your past decision processes here.
Meeting Recording: You can record decisions from meetings directly into Convictional. This allows you to capture decisions made during meetings, and to review decisions made in the past. You can see your past meetings here.
Decision Logging: You can record decisions made from other sources, such as emails, documents, or Slack. This allows you to capture decisions made in the past, and to review them. You can log decisions from any source here.
Here is a quick video walking you through how to make and record decisions in Convictional:
If you have questions about how to make the most of your investment in Convictional, feel free to reach out to our CEO directly at roger@convictional.com to talk more.