Purpose and story
Help a startup move from heroics and one-off fixes to a simple, repeatable way of working. Keep speed, protect runway, and set the base for future growth, without piling on heavy process.
Objectives
- Make decision owners clear so work moves faster.
- Choose a right-now structure that fits the stage and can grow later.
- Set up a few useful forums where real decisions happen.
- Run a pilot in one important flow and learn quickly.
- Leave a simple plan for the next six to twelve months.
Stratenity's Point of view for startups
Context: Startups win by learning faster. Slow decisions burn time and cash.
Stratenity view: Push decisions to the people closest to the work. Keep only a few guardrails at the center.
Context: Early teams explore; later teams need repeatable habits.
Stratenity view: Use small cross-functional squads for discovery, then add lightweight communities of practice to keep quality as you grow.
Context: Heavy process drains energy. No process creates chaos.
Stratenity view: Write down the few rules that raise signal. Keep meetings short. Track decisions, not chatter.
Context: When every choice routes to one person, the company slows down.
Stratenity view: Name decision owners in product, go-to-market, and operations. Escalate only the hard calls.
Context: Clean handoffs, simple goal setting, and light logging pay off later.
Stratenity view: Start small. A shared dashboard and short written updates beat long slide decks.
Eight-week plan
| Weeks | Focus | Key activities | Main outputs |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 to 2 | See where speed is lost |
Founder kickoff and goals Interviews across product, engineering, design, sales, support Map decisions, handoffs, and wait times Choose one critical flow for the pilot, such as build to ship or lead to closed deal |
A simple map of bottlenecks, a list of quick wins, pilot scope and success signs |
| 3 to 4 | Design how the team works |
Pick a structure: simple functions or small cross-functional squads Write who decides what and who supports Set a short set of goals and a weekly rhythm that drives decisions |
Future way-of-working draft, meeting outlines, role cards for key leads |
| 5 to 6 | Run the pilot and adjust |
Weekly ship review for the pilot flow Short review when things go wrong and what we will change Train managers on handoffs and feedback |
Pilot report, updated blueprint, short playbook, first set of metrics |
| 7 to 8 | Scale what works |
Extend to one or two more teams Draft hiring and leveling guide that matches the model Plan the next twelve months |
Final blueprint, simple governance guide, twelve-month plan, board summary |
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Workshops
- Agree on goals, risks, and what good looks like.
- Output: short charter, list of top decisions to study.
- List the common decisions, owners, and blockers.
- Output: decision map and top fixes.
- Compare simple functions with squad-based work.
- Output: draft model with forums and handoffs.
- Define the flow, checkpoints, and who decides at each step.
- Output: pilot playbook and dashboard.
- Roll to more teams. Plan training and simple communications.
- Output: rollout plan and short guides.
Interviews
- Founders and executive leaders
- Leads in engineering, product, design, sales, support
- People managers with large teams or stretched spans
- Program and project leads
- Which decisions get stuck and why?
- Where do handoffs break down?
- Which meetings lead to real decisions, and which are only updates?
- If the founders took two weeks off, what would stop working?
- What would a clear win look like in the next month?
Data request
| What we need | Examples | Owner | Format | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team snapshot | List of people and teams, who reports to whom, levels if you have them | People operations or founder assistant | Spreadsheet or Notion link | Rough is fine. We will tidy it. |
| Rhythm of work | Calendar of weekly and monthly rituals, simple product plans and testing checklists | Operations, engineering, product | Links or PDFs | Mark which meetings are for decisions. |
| Delivery and sales trends | Time to ship, release frequency, sales cycle, activation and retention | Engineering, revenue operations, data team | CSV or screenshots of dashboards | We only need trends. No personal data. |
| Runway and hiring plan | Headcount plan, key roles, budget limits | Finance and people operations | Spreadsheet or deck | We match the model to what you can fund. |
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Ways of working
Keep two or three core forums: weekly ship review, a simple goals check-in, and a short review when things go wrong. Name the owner for each. Keep meetings short. Write down the decisions.
Write who decides what and who supports. Add clear checkpoints for build, test, and ship. Track decisions in a simple log.
Use metrics to cut meetings, keep ownership clear, and automate basic logs. Review and trim forums every quarter.
Risks and how we handle them
| Risk | Why it happens | What we do |
|---|---|---|
| Founders become a bottleneck | Every choice routes to one person | Name decision owners. Keep a simple weekly escalation path for the few hard calls. |
| Hero culture | Firefighting is praised, process is ignored | Focus on goals and outcomes. Celebrate working systems, not late nights. |
| Shadow processes | Real decisions happen in chat threads | Make two or three forums official. Record decisions in one place. |
| Quality and compliance debt | Speed over guardrails | Keep a few must-do checks. Run short incident reviews with real fixes. |
| Hiring misses | Unclear roles and levels | Create simple role cards and short interview scorecards. Try a small paid project when helpful. |
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Deliverables
| Week | What you receive |
|---|---|
| 1 to 2 | Map of where speed is lost, list of decisions, pilot scope and success signs |
| 3 to 4 | Draft way of working, meeting outlines, role cards, first set of goals |
| 5 to 6 | Pilot report, short playbook, first metrics on cycle time and decision time |
| 7 to 8 | Final blueprint, simple governance guide, twelve-month plan, short board summary |
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How we measure progress
Time to decide and time to ship go down by about one third.
Most key decisions have named owners. Forums run as planned.
Goals met more often. Fewer quality issues. Faster time to value for customers.
Hiring and spending match the model. Less rework and fewer delays.
Roles and cadence
| Workstream | Leads the work | Accountable | Consulted | Informed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Operating model and forums | Operations lead | Chief executive or operations head | Engineering, product, revenue teams | Board |
| Pilot flow | Pilot owner for the chosen flow | Founder sponsor | Engineering, design, testing | Operations |
| Goals and metrics | Operations analytics | Chief executive or operations head | Product, engineering, revenue teams | All hands |
| Hiring and leveling | People operations | Chief executive or operations head | Function leads | Finance |
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Ship review, squad standups, unblockers.
Goal check-in, pilot steering, metrics refresh.
Board snapshot, trim or tune forums, hiring plan sync.