Decision Workbench
Make data-driven decisions with AI-powered analysis, customer insights, and persona validation — optimized for both Product Managers and Founders.
Overview
The Decision Workbench is Evols' core decision-making tool that helps you frame complex decisions, generate strategic options, and validate them with customer personas. It supports two distinct modes tailored to different decision contexts:
PM Mode
For product managers making roadmap decisions based on existing customer feedback and themes.
Founder Mode
For founders making strategic startup decisions using real-time market data from Reddit and other sources.
PM Mode: Product Roadmap Decisions
When to Use PM Mode
Perfect for product managers working on established products with existing customer data:
- Feature prioritization: "What should we build next for Enterprise customers?"
- Roadmap planning: "Should we focus on scalability or new features in Q3?"
- Segment decisions: "Which customer segment should we prioritize?"
- Trade-off analysis: "Should we invest in Feature X or Y?"
How PM Mode Works
- 1. Frame Your Decision
Define your objective, target segments, time horizon, and constraints
- 2. Pull Context
Auto-pull relevant themes and feedback from your VoC data
- 3. Generate Options
AI generates 3 strategic roadmap options with pros/cons and ARR impact
- 4. Compare Options
Review side-by-side comparison with segment impact and citations
- 5. Get Persona Votes
Your customer personas vote on options based on their needs and priorities
Key Benefits
Decisions grounded in actual customer feedback and ARR data
Personas represent real customer perspectives
Understand impact across different customer segments
Strategic options generated from patterns in your data
Founder Mode: Strategic Startup Decisions
When to Use Founder Mode
Ideal for founders making strategic decisions about their startup, especially pre-launch or early-stage:
- Product direction: "Should we build a B2B SaaS or consumer app?"
- Market positioning: "Should we target enterprise or SMB first?"
- Strategic pivots: "Should we pivot to a different problem space?"
- Go-to-market strategy: "Sales-led or product-led growth?"
- Build vs buy: "Should we build our own infrastructure or use third-party?"
- Idea validation: "Is this problem worth solving?"
How Founder Mode Works
- 1. Frame Your Decision
Define your decision objective, target market, and product description (product name optional for pre-launch)
- 2. Pull Market Data
Scrapes real market data from Reddit, including customer pain points, competitor mentions, and trends
- 3. Generate Personas (Optional)
Create customer personas from market data, or use your existing personas
- 4. Generate Strategic Options
AI generates startup-appropriate options (market positioning, GTM strategies, product direction)
- 5. Get Persona Votes
Personas vote based on market validation and customer needs
Key Benefits
Scrapes actual discussions from Reddit for market validation
Options tailored for strategic startup decisions
Understand customer pain points before building
Works even without a product name (use description only)
💡 Pro Tip
Don't have a product name yet? No problem! Founder Mode works with just a product description. This is perfect for idea-stage validation when you're still exploring problem spaces.
PM vs Founder Mode Comparison
| Feature | PM Mode | Founder Mode |
|---|---|---|
| Best For | Established products with customer data | Pre-launch & early-stage startups |
| Data Source | Your VoC data (themes & feedback) | Real-time Reddit scraping |
| Decision Type | Product roadmap & features | Strategic startup direction |
| Options Generated | Feature sets & roadmap paths | Market positioning, GTM, pivots |
| Personas | Existing customer personas | Generate from market or use existing |
| Metrics Focus | ARR impact, segment coverage | Market validation, opportunity size |
| Product Name | Required | Optional (can use description only) |
Getting Started
🚀 First Time Using the Workbench?
- 1. Choose your mode: PM Mode for roadmap decisions, Founder Mode for strategic startup decisions
- 2. Frame your decision: Be specific about what you're trying to decide
- 3. Pull context: Let the system gather relevant data automatically
- 4. Review options: Compare AI-generated strategic options side-by-side
- 5. Get validation: See how your customer personas vote on each option
- 6. Download brief: Export a decision brief to share with your team
⚡ Best Practices
- • Be specific in objectives: "What should we prioritize for Q3?" → "What should we prioritize for Q3 for Enterprise customers?"
- • Use constraints field: Add team size, budget, or timeline constraints for more realistic options
- • Review persona votes carefully: Understand WHY personas voted as they did, not just the final tally
- • Save past decisions: Click on past decisions in the sidebar to review your decision history
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I switch between PM and Founder mode?
Yes! Use the mode toggle at the top of the workbench. Each mode maintains separate form state, so you can switch without losing your work.
Do I need existing personas to use the workbench?
PM Mode: Yes, you need existing customer personas from your VoC data.
Founder Mode: No! You can generate personas from market data, or use existing ones if available.
How does Founder Mode pull market data?
Founder Mode scrapes real discussions from Reddit using your product description and competitor names. It extracts customer pain points, competitive insights, market trends, and opportunities from actual conversations.
What happens to past decisions?
All decisions are automatically saved after persona voting. Access them anytime from the "Past Decisions" section in the sidebar. Click any past decision to view its full decision brief.
Can I regenerate options if I don't like them?
Yes! After viewing generated options, you can add additional constraints and regenerate to get different options.
Ready to Make Better Decisions?
Start using the Decision Workbench to validate your product decisions with real data and customer insights.
Open Workbench