# Company Operating System — 90-Day Implementation Guide

Don't implement everything at once. The fastest path to failure is trying to launch the full operating system in week one. Build incrementally. Let the team experience wins before adding complexity.

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## Before You Start

### Prerequisites

**Leadership alignment (non-negotiable):**
Every member of the leadership team must understand why you're doing this and commit to running the system. One holdout destroys the whole model. If the CFO skips the L10 meetings, the system won't work.

**Current state audit:**
- What meetings currently exist? Which can be replaced?
- Who owns which functions today? (Even informally)
- What metrics are being tracked? (Even inconsistently)

**Assign an OS owner:**
One person is responsible for the implementation and ongoing maintenance of the operating system. Usually the COO or CEO (at smaller companies). This is not a committee job.

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## Week 1–2: Accountability Chart + Scorecard

### Accountability Chart Workshop (Week 1)

**Duration:** 2–3 hours, full leadership team

**Step 1 — List all functions (30 min)**
On a whiteboard, list every function the company performs:
- Sales (inbound, outbound, partnerships)
- Marketing (content, paid, brand)
- Product (roadmap, design, research)
- Engineering (frontend, backend, devops)
- Customer success (onboarding, support, retention)
- Finance (accounting, FP&A, legal)
- People (recruiting, HR, culture)
- Operations (processes, tools, facilities)

**Step 2 — Assign owners (45 min)**
For each function: "Who is the one person ultimately accountable?" Write their name.
Rules: One name only. No joint ownership. One person can own multiple functions at small scale.

**Step 3 — Identify gaps and overlaps (30 min)**
- **Gaps:** Functions with no owner → Who should own them? Or do we need a hire?
- **Overlaps:** Two people said they own the same thing → Resolve now, not later.

**Step 4 — Publish and socialize (Week 2)**
Share with the full company. Explain what an accountability chart is and isn't.
"This is about clarity, not hierarchy. It tells everyone who to go to for each function."

**Output:** A documented accountability chart. Use a simple tool (Miro, Google Slides, Ninety.io).

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### Scorecard Design (Week 2)

**Duration:** 90 minutes, leadership team

**Step 1 — List candidate metrics (30 min)**
Each leader lists 3–5 metrics they already track or wish they tracked. No filtering yet.

**Step 2 — Filter to 5–15 (30 min)**
Criteria: Is it measurable weekly? Does it tell us if the company is healthy? Does one person own it?
Drop: metrics that are monthly only, metrics without a clear owner, metrics that measure activity not outcomes.

**Step 3 — Set weekly targets (20 min)**
For each metric: what's the weekly target? Not a range — a number. Red/yellow/green thresholds.

**Step 4 — Assign owners (10 min)**
Every metric has one owner who is responsible for reporting it weekly.

**Output:** A scorecard document. 5–15 metrics, owner, target, weekly tracking column.

**First scorecard run:** Week 2 or 3. It won't be perfect. That's fine.

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## Week 3–4: Meeting Pulse (Start With L10)

Don't start all the meetings at once. Start with the weekly L10. Replace existing leadership syncs.

### L10 Meeting Setup

**Schedule:** Same day, same time, every week. Non-negotiable attendance.
**Duration:** 90 minutes. No more, no less.
**Facilitator:** Rotate or assign to COO/CEO. The facilitator keeps time and follows the agenda.

**Fixed agenda:**
1. **Good news** (5 min) — One personal, one business from each person. No skipping.
2. **Scorecard review** (5 min) — Traffic light only. Red items go to the issues list.
3. **Rock review** (5 min) — Each person: "on track" or "off track." No justification needed at this step.
4. **Customer/employee headlines** (5 min) — One sentence each. No reports.
5. **Issues** (60 min) — IDS process. Prioritize the top 3–5 issues. Solve them.
6. **To-do review** (5 min) — Review last week's commitments (done/not done). No excuses, just data.
7. **Conclude** (5 min) — Rate the meeting 1–10. What would make next week better?

**First L10 meeting:**
It will feel awkward. Run through the agenda anyway. The team needs the repetition to internalize it. By week 4, it should feel natural.

### Issues List Setup

Create a shared document (Notion, Google Docs, or dedicated tool):
- Issue title
- Priority (High / Medium / Low)
- Status (Open / In progress / Solved)
- Owner (once assigned)
- Due date

At the first L10, generate the issues list by asking: "What's getting in our way right now?" Expect 10–20 items on the first pass.

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## Week 5–8: Rocks and Quarterly Planning

### Quarterly Planning Session (end of Week 5 or start of Week 6)

**Duration:** 4–8 hours (or 2 × 4-hour days for larger teams)
**Who:** Full leadership team

**Session structure:**

**Part 1: Review previous quarter (60–90 min)**
- What rocks were completed? What were dropped?
- What did we learn?
- What changed in the market or company?

**Part 2: Confirm or update company direction (60 min)**
- Is the 1-year goal still valid?
- Any major strategy shifts needed?
- Update the V/TO or OPSP if using EOS or Scaling Up.

**Part 3: Set company rocks (90 min)**
- Brainstorm: What are the 3–7 most important things to accomplish this quarter?
- Prioritize. Be ruthless. 3 rocks done > 7 rocks started.
- Each rock: clear owner, clear definition of done, 90-day timeline.

**Part 4: Set individual rocks (60 min)**
- Each leader sets their 3–7 rocks (aligned with company rocks where possible)
- Share with group: dependencies? Conflicts? Overloaded people?

**Part 5: Communicate (Week 6)**
- Share company rocks with the full organization within 1 week
- Each team sets their own rocks, cascaded from company rocks (3–5 per team)

**Rock template:**
```
Rock: [What you'll accomplish]
Owner: [One person]
Due date: [Specific date within the quarter]
Definition of done: [How we'll know it's complete]
Dependencies: [What else needs to happen first]
```

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## Week 9–12: Issue Resolution Mastery + Communication Cadence

By now the L10 should be running smoothly. Weeks 9–12 focus on deepening IDS skills and establishing the broader communication cadence.

### IDS Practice

The issue resolution process often degrades in weeks 5–8. Common problems:
- Issues discussed but never solved (no clear action item)
- Same issues recurring (root cause not addressed)
- Too many issues, not enough resolution (prioritization failing)

**IDS calibration exercise (Week 9):**
In the next L10, after each issue is "solved," ask:
- "Is this actually solved, or are we postponing it?"
- "What's the specific action? Who owns it? When is it due?"
- "Is this the real issue, or a symptom of something deeper?"

### Communication Cadence Setup

Build out the full communication calendar:

| Communication | Frequency | Owner | Format | Tool |
|---------------|-----------|-------|--------|------|
| Company all-hands | Monthly | CEO | Update + Q&A | Video call |
| Quarterly planning results | Quarterly | CEO/COO | Written + live | Notion + all-hands |
| Board update | Monthly | CEO + CFO | Board memo | Doc |
| Investor update | Monthly | CEO + CFO | Email | Template |
| Department L10s | Weekly | Dept lead | L10 format | In-person / Zoom |
| Daily standups | Daily | Team leads | 15 min | Team call |

**Company all-hands template:**
1. State of the company (financial health, key metrics) — 10 min
2. Quarterly rocks: what we committed to, where we stand — 10 min
3. Wins and recognitions — 5 min
4. What's coming next quarter — 10 min
5. Q&A — 15–25 min

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## Post-90 Days: Refinement and Optimization

### Month 4 retrospective

After the first full quarter, run a retrospective on the operating system itself:
- What's working? What isn't?
- Which meetings should continue as-is? Which need adjustment?
- Is the scorecard measuring the right things?
- Are rocks the right size and specificity?
- What should we add next?

### Scorecard evolution

By month 4, you'll know which metrics matter most. Add 2–3 that are missing. Remove metrics that nobody uses for decisions.

### L10 health check

Rate your L10 meetings over the first quarter:
- Average rating < 7: The agenda isn't being followed or issues aren't being resolved. Diagnose.
- Average rating 7–8: Normal. Keep building discipline.
- Average rating > 8: The team is engaged. Start extending the system to department level.

### Department L10s (Month 4+)

Once leadership L10 is running well, cascade the meeting structure:
- Each department runs their own weekly L10
- Department rocks cascade from company rocks
- Issues that cross departments are escalated to leadership L10

### Year 1 annual planning

End of year 1: run a full-day annual planning session.
- Review the year: what did we accomplish? What did we miss? What did we learn?
- Update 3-year vision (has it changed?)
- Set next year's annual goals
- Set Q1 rocks
- Celebrate. Seriously — mark the milestone.

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## Implementation Anti-Patterns

**Skipping the accountability chart:** Without ownership clarity, every other system breaks down. Do this first.

**Building a perfect scorecard before starting:** Start with 5 imperfect metrics. Improve over time.

**Not replacing existing meetings:** Adding L10 on top of 3 existing meetings creates meeting overload. Cancel the redundant ones.

**Leader non-participation:** If one leader consistently skips or is disengaged, the system won't work. Address this directly — it's a culture issue, not a calendar issue.

**Changing the L10 agenda:** The agenda works because of repetition. Resist the urge to customize it for the first 6 months.

**Rocks without accountability:** If nobody checks rocks at the L10 ("on track / off track"), they become wish lists. The weekly review is what makes them real.
