Definition
DACI is a decision-making framework that assigns four explicit roles to every significant product decision. The acronym stands for Driver, Approver, Contributors, and Informed. The Driver owns the decision process, gathers input, frames the options, and makes a recommendation. The Approver has the authority to accept or reject the recommendation. Contributors provide expertise and input but do not have decision authority. Informed parties are notified of the outcome but are not part of the decision process.
The framework originated at Intuit and was later adopted by companies like Atlassian, Airbnb, and Stripe. It solves a specific problem: as organizations grow, decisions slow down because nobody is clear on who actually gets to decide. Teams default to consensus, which leads to lowest-common-denominator outcomes and endless meetings. DACI cuts through this by making authority explicit. It pairs well with stakeholder management practices because it forces you to identify who cares about a decision before you start the process.
DACI is related to the RACI matrix but optimized for decisions rather than tasks. While RACI answers "who does the work," DACI answers "who makes the call." Product managers frequently serve as the Driver, since they own the decision process, while a VP or director serves as the Approver.
Why It Matters for Product Managers
Product managers make dozens of decisions per week, but a handful of those decisions carry outsized consequences. Pricing changes, feature deprecations, market pivots, and partnership terms all affect multiple teams and are difficult to reverse. Without a clear framework, these decisions either stall in committee or get made by whoever has the loudest voice.
DACI gives PMs a tool to move fast on important decisions while maintaining buy-in. By explicitly naming Contributors upfront, you ensure the right expertise is in the room without giving everyone veto power. By separating Contributors from Informed, you reduce meeting sizes and prevent scope creep in the decision process. Teams that use structured decision approaches like DACI alongside decision matrices tend to reach better outcomes faster.
How to Apply It
For each significant decision, create a one-page DACI document. State the decision to be made, the deadline, and assign the four roles by name. As the Driver, schedule time with Contributors to gather their input, then synthesize options into a recommendation with clear tradeoffs. Present the recommendation to the Approver with enough context for them to approve or push back.
Keep the Contributor list tight. Three to five people is usually right. If you have more than five Contributors, some of them should probably be Informed instead. After the Approver decides, notify the Informed group with the outcome and rationale. Use a decision log template to record the DACI, the options considered, and the final decision. This creates an audit trail that prevents relitigating settled decisions months later. For an overview of decision-making approaches in product management, see the frameworks library for structured scoring methods that can complement DACI.