If sales doubled next month, or you took a week off, what would break first? Five stages, four questions each. You see where to start, the order to fix it in, and what kind of help fits, if any.
By Jacob Burke · About three minutes · Your answers stay in your browser
Before you start
Which is closer to your business?
It sets the five stages the test walks through: the path a customer travels after they say yes.
You may not need help
Then use the order above, one stage at a time, and let the weekly number tell you whether each fix held. If a fix stalls, the usual cause is an owner who was given the task and not the authority. The guide goes through each step in more detail.
Operating Advisory fits
You and your team do the work, and an operator helps with the calls that are hard to make alone: who should own this, what the standard is, what to stop doing. Four 45-minute sessions a month, each with a written recap. From $2,500 a month, month-to-month. About Advisory →
Operating Partner fits
Your person owns the fix. We design it with them and review it when it lands: the same four sessions as Advisory, plus one agreed improvement each month. From $4,000 a month, month-to-month. About Operating Partner →
A Workflow Sprint fits
One defined process, mapped, set up in your tools, tested, documented and taught to your team, with 14 days of fixes after you accept it. $3,000 fixed, with a target of ten business days from written start. It suits a stage that runs in a tool you can name. About the Sprint →
Fractional COO fits
When nobody has the time or the seniority, what is missing is the operating seat itself. A fractional COO holds it part-time, or works beside the operations lead you have, until owners, standards and checks are in place and your people run them. From $10,000 a month, month-to-month. See how the engagement runs →
Then start with the first fix
Do the first item on the list this week. How it goes will tell you whether you need help, and what kind. Or bring this result to a 30-minute call and ask for a straight answer.
A second opinion
If the answers surprised you, or you suspect they are kinder than the truth, a 30-minute call is a quick way to test them.
It walks the path a customer travels after they say yes, in five stages. For each stage it asks the four questions from the guide: who owns it, what the standard is, where the check is, and what number is looked at every week. Each “no” or “not sure” is a mark. The stage with the most marks is where to start, and a stage with three or four marks is the one most likely to give way when volume rises or you are away.
What it cannot tell you
It reads your answers, not your business. It cannot see the work, the people or the numbers, and founders tend to answer more kindly than the people doing the work would. Treat the result as a place to start a conversation with your team, or with Jacob. It does not pick a service for you. It asks who would lead the fixes, and one of the answers is that you can do this yourselves.
Asked often
Questions about the test
Do you keep my answers?
No. The test runs in your browser and none of your answers are sent anywhere. The site counts that a test was started and that a result was shown, without identifying you. If you want Jacob to see your result, the result page can put it into the note form for you. It is sent only if you then press Send.
What if every stage is marked?
Start with the handoff from sale to delivery. It is the stage that makes every later stage worse, and fixing it gives the others an owner and an input they can rely on.
How is this different from the guide?
It is the same diagnostic. The guide takes a pen and about twenty minutes and lets you name your own stages. The test uses five standard stages and adds up the marks for you.
Is the result a recommendation to hire you?
No. It names the stage to start with and the order to fix it in, which you can do yourself. If you want to know what kind of help would fit, the result asks one more question, who would lead the fixes, and answers from that. One of the answers is that you do not need any.
What does “not sure” mean for the result?
It counts as a mark, and the result shows it as a question mark. If you do not know whether a stage has a check or a weekly number, that is worth finding out before anything else. Ask the person who does the work.
Bring your result to a 30-minute call.
You’ll leave with a straight answer on what to fix first and whether you need help doing it.