Productize and scale

In May 2015 I founded division5 in Albania. I was 23, with no connections, no money, no references and no experience. A decade of growing it taught me that whatever was blocking the company was almost always something that existed only in my head.

This is what was left after a decade of that. Eight steps, each ending in something you have to compile, because a question you answer in your head is one you flatter yourself through. You finish with your own document: what you actually sell, where the work really comes from, what only you can do, and a first ninety days that does not start with buying software.

What is inside

  • What you actually sell

    The offer you have already sold twice is the one the market voted for.

  • Who pays, and from where

    Your last ten customers, by country and by how they really found you.

  • How the work really happens

    Not the process diagram. The one with the workarounds in it.

  • Where the work comes from

    Referral is not a channel. It is a ceiling with good manners.

  • What only you can do

    What stops when you stop, and which of the three reasons it is.

  • One clean version of your numbers

    Four rows. Any row with two answers breaks the next step.

  • Only now, automate

    Starting here is the expensive mistake. It makes the mess run faster.

  • The next ninety days

    One constraint, one process, one channel. Owners and dates against each.

The playbook came out of this article, which is the story rather than the work. Read that first if you want to know whether any of this is worth your hour.

If you would rather not do the diagnostics alone, I run them with leadership teams remotely over two weeks as the Constraint Sprint. That is the paid version, and the playbook is genuinely enough for plenty of people.