1-240-800-7498

Your business review, redesigned.

Turn your scorecard, agenda, and cadence into one decision system that produces clear commitments and follow-through.

Your team has more data, dashboards, and AI summaries than ever—and your reviews still end without a decision.

Schedule a 30-minute call

In 30 minutes, we’ll identify whether the constraint is metrics, cadence, AI handoff, or action follow-through — whether or not we work together afterward.

See how I work with you

This is for executive teams with real analytics investment, recurring operating reviews, and decisions that still depend too much on interpretation, politics, or heroic follow-up.

What you get

Not disconnected artifacts: one decision system your team runs.

A working operating review

intentionally-designed scorecard, agenda, and cadence

The room uses them to decide, so leadership leaves with commitments and a plan for the week.

Definitions everyone can use

A metric dictionary with an owner and a next move: if this number moves, we do X. Your team will mean the same thing when they say the same word.

A clear path for what to buy next

Tools, vendors, and hires sequenced against the decision system so every dollar of analytics spend has a job.

AI in the right seat

AI holds the analysis. People hold the mission. The pipeline is built so both do their best work.

Actions that follow the numbers

The numbers show what moved. People own the next move. Reporting is built so a tile becomes next week’s work.

Eric Brafford
Eric Brafford
18 years facilitating decision-making

Restaurant operations, corporate strategy, and commercial analytics — not advising from a slide deck.

Multi-unit operating expertise

Steak n Shake · Choice Hotels · Extended Stay America. Experience working with small portfolios to thousands of units.

Defined scope. Fixed fee.

A named deliverable and fee, agreed before kickoff.

Common triggers

If one of these sounds familiar, the decision system — not the analytics team — is usually the constraint.

BI investment didn’t improve the review

You bought dashboards or a BI stack, but the operating review still feels subjective and inconclusive.

More AI, not more alignment

AI produces more analysis, but executive alignment and follow-through haven’t moved with it.

Definitions instead of decisions

The team spends the meeting debating what a number means instead of deciding what to do about it.

Follow-through depends on the room

Commitments stick when the right people are present and fade when they aren’t.

How I work with you

Every engagement exists for one reason: to keep your decisions true to what your organization is for.

Decision Signals™ is the method. The job is below.

  • If the operating review is broken, start with Decision Signals™ Strategist.
  • If you need to scale or optimize tools, vendors, or analyst hires, start with Decision Signals™ Architect.
  • If the system exists but needs senior judgment in the room, start with Decision Signals™ Advisor.
Decision Signals™ Strategist

Most common starting point

Operating-review redesign 12 weeks

For teams already invested in analytics whose decisions aren’t keeping up.

  • The Assessment and the binding constraint
  • Redesigned operating-review artifact
  • First cycle implemented, then a handoff so it doesn’t decay
Decision Signals™ Architect

Design before you buy 12 weeks

For teams about to invest in BI, vendors, or analyst hires — and want the operating model first.

  • Operating model: cadence, attendees, what each review decides
  • Executive metric dictionary
  • 12-month analytics roadmap sequenced against that model
Decision Signals™ Advisor

Senior judgment in the review Monthly

For teams that have a system and want senior judgment in the room, cycle after cycle.

  • Pre-review prep and real-time read of the operating review
  • Post-review: decisions made, decisions deferred
  • AI guidance and quarterly recalibration of the Assessment

How we start

01 · Call

30-minute diagnostic call

In 30 minutes, we identify whether the constraint is metrics, cadence, AI handoff, or action follow-through. You leave with a sharper read on where the system is breaking, whether or not we work together afterward.

02 · Proposal

Scope and fee before work

A written proposal names the deliverable, the path, and the fee. Nothing starts until that is clear.

03 · Work

Fixed-scope engagement

Typically 12 weeks, or a monthly retainer if continuity is the need.

The Decision Signals™ Method

Each engagement opens with a full Assessment.

Once an engagement begins, the Decision Signals Assessment scores the five dimensions of the Maturity Model. That scored read is the shared language with the buyer and the framework that anchors the work.

Explore the Maturity Model

The five levels of decision-system maturity

1 Ad Hoc Numbers exist, but a decision system does not. Definitions live in people’s heads, and operating reviews debate whose number is right.
2 Functionally Defined Each function has its own system; the functions do not agree. Cross-functional reviews surface gaps but rarely resolve them.
3 Executive Aligned One executive scorecard and agreed definitions. Reviews focus on performance, but decisions still depend heavily on who is in the room.
4 Decision-System Designed Reporting is built for decisions, not display. Each signal has an owner and a next move; AI is in the workflow on purpose.
5 Self-Calibrating The operating model renews itself on a cadence. Metrics retire, outcomes track back to decisions, and the system adjusts from what actually worked.

The five dimensions the Assessment scores

Metrics Architecture

What gets measured, how it’s defined, who owns the definition.

Decision Cadence

The rhythm of reviews, who attends, what each review is built to decide.

Reporting Surfaces

The artifacts leadership actually sees, and whether they’re built for decisions or display.

Human-AI Integration

Where AI fits in the analytics pipeline, and how AI outputs land in executive decisions.

Action Linkage

Whether what shows up in reporting reliably changes what gets done.

Start with a 30-minute diagnostic call

Schedule a 30-minute call

About Eric

Eric Brafford

I’m Eric Brafford. At every stop in my career inside multi-unit operators, I’ve been in the room where executive decisions get made — restaurant operations at Steak n Shake, corporate strategy at Choice Hotels International, and most recently Senior Director of Commercial Analytics at Extended Stay America.

I now advise executive teams at multi-unit operators on the systems behind their business reviews. The thesis is simple: AI is helping you analyze faster. Your decision-making is not keeping up. The work is designing the system so it does.

I’ve worked across field operations, commercial analytics, corporate strategy, finance, and IT—and have helped integrate AI into the workflows that connect them. The work is not to build each layer; it is to redesign the decision system that makes them work together.

What I believe

I believe an organization stays true to its purpose through the design of its decision system. Nobody decides to drift. It happens through the machinery: a metric that rewards the wrong behavior, a review cadence that trains short-term thinking, a dashboard that buries the numbers the mission depends on. And AI compounds whichever system you point it at. That’s why I build decision systems where AI does the heavy analytical lifting and human judgment, the thing that actually carries a mission, stays in charge. Not more dashboards. Decisions your mission would recognize.

How the practice runs

We intentionally make our Operating Manual public. Publishing how the practice runs is a constraint, not a brochure: it makes it harder to drift from the mission, and it lets clients see the same rules we work under.