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Concepts

Confab is built around a small set of core concepts that help structure group decision-making without making it rigid or complex. This page explains those concepts from a user perspective. You don't need any experience with formal processes. Confab is designed to feel natural, flexible, and collaborative.

Understanding these foundational ideas will help you navigate the rest of the documentation and use Confab effectively, regardless of the type of decision you're working on.

Workspace​

A Workspace is an organizational space in Confab. It holds personal or shared activity and content, including Confabs you’ve created or share with other workspace partners.

You can think of a Workspace as a container for decisions. Each user belongs to at least one Workspace, and teams or organizations may share a common Workspace for coordination and access management.

Confab​

A Confab is a single, structured conversation focused on one specific decision or issue. It’s the heart of the platform—a flexible space to explore, compare, and decide.

Each Confab contains a combination of notes, ideas, options, and opinions from the people involved. You can think of it as a digital decision room where everyone contributes asynchronously or in real time. Some Confabs are quick and simple, while others are more complex and evolve over time.

Every Confab has:

  • A purpose or guiding question
  • A set of people with roles
  • A collection of Options, Opinions, and Attributes
  • A history of how the decision evolved

Team​

A Team in Confab refers to the set of people participating in a specific Confab. Teams are created dynamically for each decision and are not limited by organization boundaries.

Team members for a Confab aren't required to share the workspace which contains the Confab. You can invite anyone with an avccount on the Confab platform.

Each team member is assigned a role, which determines what they can see and do. Roles include:

  • Owner – responsible for managing the Confab and its participants
  • Editor – can add, update, or remove content
  • Respondent – can contribute opinions and questions
  • Viewer – can observe but not edit

Teams are lightweight and flexible, so you can easily involve the right people with the right roles for each decision, and change over time as understanding of the Confab issues evolve.

Option​

An Option is any possible choice or alternative under consideration within a Confab.

For example:

  • A product feature that might be prioritized
  • A hotel to book for a group trip
  • A vendor under review
  • A strategy for solving a problem

Options contain the research and details of each alternative. Some of that is in a free-form document. Some details are structured data called Attributes (see below) for comparison and analysis.

Options are typically added by Editors and refined over time based on input from the team. They are central to most decisions and are the focus of comparisons and evaluations.

Typically, options are exclusive. The team is choosing one and only one. But they don’t have to be. Confab supports decisions where multiple options may be selected or advanced in parallel. For example, your team might be evaluating 18 proposed product features. Rather than selecting a single "winner," you could prioritize and approve a subset—say, the top four—to move forward with. Confab accommodates both exclusive and inclusive decision-making models, depending on what the situation calls for.

This flexibility makes Confab useful for a wide range of decisions—from selecting a single strategy to building a roadmap from multiple viable options.

Opinion​

An Opinion captures what someone thinks about one or more Options. Opinions might be expressed as:

  • Comments or observations
  • Votes or ratings
  • Preferences or rankings
  • Justifications or concerns

Opinions are the voices of the team. They reflect the different perspectives, experiences, and priorities of everyone involved. Like sitting at a round table without a leader or facilitator, opinions enable team-wide communication without enforcing order, hierarchy, or favoritism. No one can dominate the floor, and no one is left out. Everyone contributes when it works best for them, and the team can easily catch up and respond without needing to be present at the same time.

This approach gives everyone space to think before speaking, ensuring every voice is heard and valued.

Attribute​

An Attribute is a characteristic or criterion that helps evaluate and compare Options.

Examples include:

  • Cost
  • Ease of implementation
  • User satisfaction
  • Risk
  • Long-term value

Attributes help the team consider what's important and compare Options on relevant dimensions. Different Confabs may use different sets of Attributes depending on the type of decision being made.

You can think of Attributes as the "axes" on which Options are evaluated, often leading to charts, scorecards, or structured discussions.

Understanding these core concepts is the first step toward getting value from Confab. As you continue through the user manual, you’ll see these terms used and how these elements work together to help you and your team move from uncertainty to clarity.