One basis for every digital dollar.
Funding followed last year's budget and the best-argued case.
Allocation looked like a negotiation because, structurally, it was one. Results were reported as activity (launches, traffic, features) rather than as the value each dollar moved, so the strongest argument tended to win.
When the investments were put side by side on the same basis, the picture changed: a small number of initiatives drove most of the measurable outcome.
Every digital investment on one outcome basis, funded and re-funded quarterly.
- MapWe mapped how digital investment decisions were actually made: who proposed, which evidence counted, and how results flowed back, across the full digital portfolio.
- AssessThe constraint was comparability. Without a common basis, no allocation could be defended on evidence.
- DecidePut every digital investment on a common outcome basis tied to P&L, and fund and re-fund on a quarterly cadence against measured results.
- ExecuteBuilt the planning model and cadence with product and finance, and scaled it across the digital portfolio.
Faster decisions, made on the same evidence.
The cycle-time reduction is the cleanest read of the change. The larger effect was qualitative: allocation conversations moved from whose case was most persuasive to what the evidence showed.
What carried forward into Zero Fog's work today
Putting competing decisions on one basis before asking anyone to choose between them. It is the core of every decision readout.
Facing a similar decision?
Zero Fog Advisory Group · quarterly execution cycles · founder-led