Runs on PeopleSmall business
When you're the owner, every layer of the model lands on your desk.
The nine dimensions, in your world
What weak looks like here. Each one links to its playbooks.
Product and Operations
OutcomesYou're flat out every week and can't say which work actually wins customers.ReliabilityEverything works, as long as the owner is in the building.MeasuresYou check the bank balance, and not much else.Playbooks, in your terms
In a team of five, nobody tells the owner the truth by default. "What could I do differently?" matters most.The 1:1 playbookPeople · Trust→The founder is the only person who can price a job.People debtPeople · Capability→The "how we quote" document that only the owner has read.Process is an agreementProcess · Agreements→Saying yes to every customer feels like survival. Ask what this job stops you doing.How to say noProcess · Clarity→The owner who is the entire backup plan.Stability without heroesProduct and Operations · Reliability→Talking to the friend you hired about their performance.Runbooks for humansPeople · Trust→Three good ideas, time for one.Prioritisation that survives the loudest voiceProduct and Operations · Outcomes→Today's customers or fixing how you work? Ring-fence half a day a week.Ending the engineering vs product tug of warProcess · Cadence→With ten people, the owner *is* the strategy. Write it down anyway, or it changes with every conversation.From vision to the graduate's first dayProcess · Clarity→You don't need a BI tool. One weekly number on a whiteboard, chosen for a decision, beats any dashboard.Using data to make decisionsProduct and Operations · Measures→If the business stops when you take a week off, you're managing everything and leading no one.Good manager, good leader: how to know you're bothProduct and Operations · Measures→The founder who was brilliant at the craft can't stop doing it, so the business can't grow past them.You've been promoted. You're a beginner again.People · Capability→The founder with all the answers builds a team that can't function without them.Multiply, don't diminishPeople · Capability→Tell the owner what changed for customers, not what you were busy with.Getting noticed, without the networking malarkeyPeople · Capability→five questions on a shared form, read together over coffee.Surveys that change somethingProduct and Operations · Measures→good staff do what they're asked. Excellent staff spot what the customer needed before the customer did.Good vs excellentProduct and Operations · Outcomes→a reset when the team has grown past the way the founder used to run it.How to reset a teamProcess · Cadence→the founder's routine becomes everyone's routine. A quarterly reset helps.Groundhog Day: when every week feels the samePeople · Energy→
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