Weighted Decision Matrix
Seven criteria, your weights, three lanes. Build, Buy, and Wait each get scored, because "wait" is a decision, not a default.
A Field Guide from B&A · $39
Build it, buy it, or wait? Most teams decide on a demo and a gut feeling.
The decision every project hits, made on numbers — including the number nobody prices: what waiting costs, and what it buys.
Downloadable spreadsheet workbook + Notion guide · No account, no code, no sales call.
The problem
The build that looks expensive and the subscription that looks cheap trade places somewhere over a three-year horizon — and most teams never find where. "Do nothing" gets treated as free. It isn't.
This toolkit prices all three lanes, waiting included, so the call gets made on evidence instead of whoever demoed last.
What's inside
Three lanes, priced honestly.
3-Year TCO Calculator
Every lane priced over the horizon where costs cross, including the monthly cost of the unsolved problem × months deferred.
Timing Assessment
Ten yes/no questions producing a Wait-Signal score (of 10) with a re-decision date attached. A wait without a date is a decision not to decide.
The Verdict
All three on one screen, with a reading guide for when they disagree.
How it works
Four steps to a defensible call.
1
Open the workbook
Download and open the workbook. Gold cells are the only cells you edit; example rows show the expected format.
2
Work the tabs
Work the tabs in order: set your weights (defaults ship pre-filled), price all three TCO lanes with real numbers, answer the ten timing questions honestly.
3
Read the Verdict
Read the Verdict — and use the built-in guide for when the tools disagree.
4
Record it
Record the outcome the day you decide.
Who it's for
For a call you can defend.
Who it's for
An operator facing a concrete build-vs-buy call who wants a defensible answer, not a hunch.
Not for
Anyone who hasn't yet confirmed the problem is real and AI-shaped — price the decision after you've diagnosed it.
This is the Intervene step of the method — Identify → Investigate → Intervene → Document — sharpened to a single decision.
Format & delivery
The workbook is the tool.
Downloadable spreadsheet workbook — this is the tool. Standard .xlsx — works in Excel and Google Sheets.
A Notion guide explaining how the four tools connect and how to read them when they disagree.
Licensed for single-user use.
Get the guide
Get the Toolkit — $39
Price all three lanes — waiting included — and make the call on evidence.
Next rung
See the Scoping Kit →
Made the call? Record it the day you make it — the AI Project Scoping Kit ($49) includes the Decision Log built for exactly that.