When our HR produced only three unqualified agencies for a critical AI feature, I dug into the process and found the issue: the RFP demanded a “detailed essay.” Strong agencies had no time for it, weak ones did—so we filtered in the wrong partners. With decision acceleration, measurable daily goals and instant visibility would have revealed the problem on Tuesday, not a week later. Clear scoring and status capture prevent hidden drag and protect momentum.

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Last week, I tasked our HR with hiring an AI agency to build a feature critical to our upcoming launch. I made it clear: this was his only priority in the world until it was closed. By Friday, I learned that only three agencies had been presented—and all of them were unqualified.

I was dismayed. Our launch has already been announced, and the clock is ticking. So I dug in. When I reviewed the RFP template being sent out, the problem became clear in the very first sentence: “Write a detailed essay.”

That one line told me everything.

Capable, competent agencies don’t have time to write essays just to prove they can do the work because they’re busy doing the work. Incompetent agencies, on the other hand, have endless time for unpaid essays. By introducing this unnecessary burden, HR had accidentally filtered out the very agencies we wanted, and left us with only the wrong ones.

The technology team didn’t want to waste time vetting incompetence. The HR team wanted to respect that. But in the process, they created a filter that alienated the capable and welcomed the incapable.

This is exactly where decision acceleration comes in.

If we had set quantifiable delivery goals, like a minimum number of agencies submitted per day, we would have seen the failure early. If every missed goal automatically flagged stakeholders, we would have caught the flawed RFP wording on Tuesday, not a week later. Instead of finding out too late, we could have adjusted immediately, kept the process on track, and possibly avoided risking a delayed launch.

Decision acceleration isn’t just about speed, it’s about visibility and scoring. Every task should have measurable goals, and every outcome should be captured reliably. Without that, small missteps compound into critical delays.

In this case, a week was lost. With decision acceleration, that week could have been saved.

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