Custom · Decision brief

One decision. One seat. Registered before the data is pulled.

The catalogue briefs answer the decisions a whole category shares. This one answers yours. You name the decision and the seat that owns it; the question and the falsifier are written down before any source is opened, so the finding cannot be fitted to the answer you were hoping for.

About 10 pages · Commissioned · Delivered within ten business days
In the last piece of published research, one registered threshold did not resolve — and the brief said so instead of picking the direction that read better.

The threshold compared two medians, and the whole result turned on how one title was counted. Three defensible treatments landed on both sides of the line. That is what registering the question first buys you: when the evidence will not carry a claim, you find out from the brief rather than from the room you took it into.

What is in it

  1. Your decision, stated as a question with two sidesNot a topic. A question whose two answers lead to opposite actions — if both answers lead you to the same move, the brief says so on the first call and you do not buy it.
  2. The seat that owns it and the seat that contests itNamed before the work starts. A decision with no contested seat is a preference, and it is priced and scoped differently.
  3. The question and the falsifier, registered in writingWritten down and sent to you before any data is pulled, including what specific finding would make the leading answer wrong. A hypothesis nothing could falsify is a position, and the brief will tell you that instead of dressing it up.
  4. The evidence, with every figure carrying its source, date and limitsPrimary sources, search and platform demand, filings, and AI answer measurement where the decision calls for it. Where a number cannot be sourced, the brief says so and gives none.
  5. What the evidence cannot settleIts own section, not a footnote. Every instrument has a floor below which a difference is not reportable, and anything sitting under that floor is named rather than rounded into the argument.
  6. What would have to be true for the answer to flipThe condition to watch, and the date to look again. Closes with the executive decision matrix — CEO, CFO, CRO, CPO, Legal and Risk — each with something specific to do about your decision.

It is written for one person. If three seats need it, that is three decisions and a different conversation — say so on the call and it gets scoped honestly rather than stretched.

$995One decision · Commissioned · Registered before retrieval
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How it runs

  1. You buy, then we talk for twenty minutesThe call exists to pin the decision and the seat. If it turns out the decision is not decidable from evidence, or the two answers lead to the same action, you are refunded on that call.
  2. The registered brief comes back within two business daysQuestion, candidate answers, prior odds, the falsifier and the stopping rule — before anything is pulled. You see it and can stop there.
  3. The brief is delivered within ten business daysBy email, with the evidence attached — including the rows that did not support the answer you wanted.

What it is not

How the evidence is handled

Every figure is sourced. Where a number could not be sourced, the brief says so and gives none. Where two sources disagree on direction, it says that rather than picking the flattering one. Where a widely quoted statistic comes from a party with a commercial position, it is flagged — including where that flag weakens a point the brief is making.

The decision-maker and the question are fixed before any source is read, and are not revised to fit what comes back.

← All decision briefs

Licensing. A brief is sold for use inside the buying organization — read it, quote it internally, build on it in your own planning. It may not be resold, published in full, or redistributed outside your organization. Quoting a figure externally is fine with attribution to CULT+MATH and the as-of date, which is the part that makes the figure meaningful.