Write Down Your Fairness Decisions Like an Auditor Will Read Them

In compliance work, there's an old rule: if it isn't written down, it didn't happen. AI fairness needs the same discipline.

Every fairness decision your team makes — which definition of fairness you chose, what you tested, what you found, what you changed, who signed off — should be documented as if an auditor will read it. Because one might: a regulator, a client doing vendor due diligence, or your own leadership after an incident.

In plain English: your fairness work only counts if there's a record of it.

This doesn't mean hundred-page reports. It means a simple, consistent log: date, decision, rationale, owner. "Tested hiring model v2 on 500 past applicants. Found an 8-point approval gap by group. Adjusted threshold and added human review for borderline cases. Signed off by [name]." That's it. That's governance.

The beautiful side effect: writing it down forces clarity. Teams that document their fairness decisions make better ones — because "we'll write down why" is a ruthless editor of fuzzy thinking.

Do the work. Write it down. Both count.

I explain frameworks; I don't give legal counsel.