Tool 1 of 32
One-Paragraph Answer
The people accountable each write what the company is building and why, separately. The differences are the first finding.
At intake, before any group discussion of the goal.
Step 1 of 7 · Intake, day 0
Big Picture
What are we actually trying to achieve?
Before touching anything else, get three things in writing: what you are building and why, what success and failure look like, and the health numbers you will later measure against.
Why this step exists
Most stuck companies assume this alignment already exists. In practice people quietly carry different versions of the goal, and rather than raise it they work toward their own. If failure is never defined, nothing is ever officially off track, so nothing gets corrected. That is where drift starts.
What you leave with
- One paragraph each from the people accountable, the leads, and the key contributors, with the differences named
- Success and failure in one sentence each, agreed by the people who have to deliver them
- The health numbers written down with a date and a source, so later progress is measured instead of felt
The usual miss
Treating the writing as a group drafting exercise. Paragraphs written after discussion converge on the loudest phrasing and measure nothing.
3 tools
Tool 2 of 32
Success/Failure Definition
One sentence each, agreed by the people who deliver them. The failure sentence matters more, because undefined failure means nothing is ever officially off track.
At intake, agreed by the people who have to deliver the sentences, not drafted by leadership alone.
Tool 3 of 32
Baseline Vitals
The health numbers written down on day 0, so day 100 is measured against them instead of felt.
Captured day by day across the diagnosis window, each vital dated the day it first exists, before any treatment of the thing it measures.