Just a few days after launching Accord, we're excited to share our vision for the future. While we've started with a focus on engineering teams and Architecture Decision Records (ADRs), our mission extends far beyond technical decisions. Today, I want to outline our roadmap and explain why we believe Accord has the potential to transform decision-making across entire organizations.
The Decision-Making Challenge Beyond Engineering
In my years of experience leading engineering teams, I've observed a pattern that many of you will recognize: engineering decisions are often reactive responses to product decisions that have already been made. Engineers are frequently tasked with figuring out how to build something after product teams have already determined what to build.
This sequential approach to decision-making creates several challenges:
- Technical constraints and opportunities may not be fully considered during product planning
- Engineers might lack context about why certain product decisions were made
- Product teams may not understand the technical implications of their requirements
- Misalignment between product vision and technical implementation can lead to friction, delays, and suboptimal solutions
"The best products emerge when product and engineering teams reach an accord before implementation begins. When everyone understands not just what we're building, but why we're building it."
The Need for Transparent, Traceable Product Decisions
Product decisions set the direction for what engineering teams build. These decisions are often more impactful and far-reaching than the subsequent technical decisions. Yet ironically, they're frequently less documented, less transparent, and less collaborative than their technical counterparts.
In organizations that have embraced Architecture Decision Records (ADRs), engineers document their technical choices with care and rigor. They explain the context, the options considered, the decision made, and the reasoning behind it. This creates a valuable knowledge base that helps teams stay aligned and informed.
But what about the product decisions that preceded those technical choices? Too often, these exist as scattered notes from meetings, vague requirements documents, or simply tribal knowledge held by a few team members. The lack of structure and transparency in product decision-making creates unnecessary friction and misalignment.
When product and engineering teams collaborate on decisions, better outcomes emerge
Introducing Product Requirements Documents (PRDs) in Accord
We're excited to announce that our next major feature will be support for Product Requirements Documents (PRDs) within Accord. This expansion will bring the same rigor, transparency, and collaborative approach we've applied to technical decisions to the product decision-making process.
With Accord's PRD support, product teams will be able to:
- Document product decisions with the same structure and clarity as technical decisions
- Collaborate with engineering teams early in the decision-making process
- Leverage AI assistance to create comprehensive, well-structured PRDs
- Maintain a traceable history of product decisions and their evolution
- Create clear connections between product requirements and the technical decisions they influence
By bringing product and engineering decision-making into the same platform, we'll enable a more holistic approach to building software. Teams will be able to trace the lineage of decisions from initial product concept through technical implementation, creating unprecedented alignment and clarity.
Our Vision: Decision-Making Across the Organization
While our immediate roadmap focuses on expanding from engineering to product decisions, our long-term vision is even more ambitious. We believe that the principles of transparent, collaborative, and well-documented decision-making should extend to every type of decision a company makes.
In the future, Accord will support:
Engineering Decisions
Architecture Decision Records (ADRs) for technical choices and implementation details.
Product Decisions
Product Requirements Documents (PRDs) for feature planning and product strategy.
Business Decisions
Strategic decision frameworks for organizational direction and business initiatives.
By creating a unified platform for decision-making across these domains, Accord will help organizations achieve unprecedented alignment. Teams will be able to understand not just the decisions made within their own domain, but how those decisions connect to and influence other areas of the business.
The Power of AI-Driven Workflows
A key component of our roadmap is the continued development of our AI capabilities. We've already seen how AI assistance can transform the ADR process, making it more accessible and efficient. As we expand to product decisions and beyond, we'll continue to leverage AI to:
- Suggest relevant information and context during the decision-making process
- Help teams identify potential impacts and dependencies across domains
- Generate comprehensive documentation from collaborative discussions
- Surface relevant past decisions that might inform current choices
- Identify potential gaps or inconsistencies in decision documentation
Our goal is not to replace human judgment with AI, but to augment it. By handling the routine aspects of documentation and surfacing relevant information, AI frees teams to focus on the creative and strategic elements of decision-making.
Building Bridges, Not Silos
Too often, tools and processes create silos within organizations. Engineering teams use one set of tools, product teams another, and business leaders a third. This fragmentation makes it difficult to maintain alignment and creates barriers to collaboration.
With Accord, we're taking a different approach. We're building bridges between teams, creating a shared space where different perspectives can come together around decisions. By bringing product and engineering decisions into the same platform, we're taking the first step toward a more integrated approach to decision-making.
As we expand to support business decisions as well, we'll create even more opportunities for cross-functional alignment. Imagine being able to trace a business strategy decision through its product implications and all the way to its technical implementation. That level of transparency and traceability is what we're working toward.
Join Us on This Journey
We're just at the beginning of this journey, and we're excited to have you with us. As we work to expand Accord from engineering decisions to product decisions and beyond, we'd love to hear your thoughts and feedback.
If you're already using Accord for your engineering decisions, consider how you might involve your product team in the process. And if you're interested in being among the first to try our PRD features when they launch, please reach out to us.
Together, we can build a future where decisions at every level of the organization are made with transparency, collaboration, and a shared understanding of context and implications. A future where teams don't just make decisions—they reach an accord.
