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Takeaways

One page, one method, handed over whole.

Pick the moment you're in and run the one that fits, free, with no account and no funnel.

What a takeaway is, with a short video guide

A takeaway is a method you can run, not a description of one: the decision it forces, the fields, a schema, and a prompt that works in any model.

They ship alongside episodes. The episode is the conversation; the takeaway is the part you can run yourself on a Tuesday afternoon, free, with no account and no funnel.

Each one names a decision you can make this week and ends in a count rather than a feeling. Where a pass has been run, the page carries the numbers it returned, including the uncomfortable ones. Where it has not, the page says so.

The four moments, left to right, with every takeaway under the one it's for. The same list, in words, follows.

I am about to commit

Before you commit

15mininventory What do we want, and what worries us about each option? The Concern Column

Pros and cons hand a model half the picture. Tell it what you want and what worries you first.

a decision you're weighingany model 15mincard What decision are you making from a label? The Label Decision Card

Name what the label measures and what your decision needs. If they are different properties, the decision is resting on the wrong evidence.

a label you're acting onany model 1hrcard Re-sign, renegotiate, or build the replacement? The Renewal Card

Before the renewal: what we use it for, what could replace it, and whether we have the ground to build on. If not, renegotiate.

the renewal invoiceany model 15mincard What result would change what you do? The Pilot Kill Card

Name the decision, name the number that flips it. If both branches read the same, the pilot was never measuring anything.

one pilot you're planningany model 10mintool What did you already decide it was worth? The Implied Price Recovery

One spend you approved, one you refused, the same harm on both sides. The algebra brackets the price you say you don't have.

one approved, one refused spendmodel optional 15mindrill What's our signal, and what's our subtraction? Find your signal and your subtraction

Every episode carries two signals and two subtractions. Fifteen minutes with your last month of work finds yours.

your last month of workmodel optional 10mincard Should AI do this, how much do we check, who owns it? Two Decisions and an Owner

Should AI do this, how much do we check, and whose name is on it? Six questions, one decision, before anyone acts.

one AI-assisted decisionany model

I am running it and not sure it works

While it runs

1hrdrill Can we skip the rebuild by checking both ends first? The Second Hole

The cheapest test at each end, run twice, before anyone digs up the middle. It cancelled a trench; it will cancel a rebuild.

a rebuild you're consideringmodel optional 15mindrill Is it saying something, or is the formatting doing the work? The One-Page Test

Compress the output to one plain page and count what is left. The formatting was doing more work than the claims.

one long model outputany model 10mintool What share of the work you ship have you actually read? The Verification Budget

Outputs a week times honest minutes to verify one, against the minutes we really spend. One number, the one we were avoiding.

three honest weekly numbersmodel optional 2hrdrill Can the light we trust tell working from merely running? Empty Isn't an Argument

The dashboard says green. Feed the workflow an empty source on purpose and see whether it still does. If so, it never checked.

one workflow you ownmodel optional 1hrinventory Which recurring commitments still deserve to exist? Mandate Drift Inventory

Every recurring commitment, one row each, with the two columns nobody ever fills: what would end it, and who is checking.

a calendar exportany model

Something is out there acting for us

After GoLive

3hrinventory If this is wrong, whose name is on it? Name the Human

One row per thing that acts without a human deciding first, ending in a named person or a visible blank.

access to your automationsany model 15mincard Is this human a control, or decoration? Human in the Loop, Honestly

For every place a human is supposed to be able to say no: have they ever, and what happens if they don't press?

an approval log, if you have onemodel optional 15mincard Is this limit a wall, or just a sentence? The Enforcement Column

Name the mechanism that enforces one limit you rely on, and the verdict writes itself.

one limit you rely onany model 3hrinventory Who's on the hook for what the bot said? The External Speech Map

List every place an AI speaks to outsiders for you, then write down who answers for it.

a list of vendor botsany model 3hrinventory Who set the defaults everyone else has to live inside? The Default Ledger

One row per AI default in force, ending in the name of whoever set it. Most organisations can't fill the column that matters.

a list of your AI settingsany model 1hrinventory Which AI obligations have a date on them, and who owns each? The Obligation Calendar

Every AI obligation with a date on it, one row each, ending in a named owner and the qualified person who checked it.

where you operate and which AI tools you useany model

I need other people to change

People problems

15mindrill Do your resume, your profile and your portfolio describe the same person? Surface Alignment Check

Three surfaces in, one list of where they describe different people out. The model finds the drift and rewrites nothing.

resume, profile, portfolio textany model 3hrinventory Which handoffs only exist because the work needed a team? The Handoff Check

One row per handoff between specialists. Write down what each one protects before anyone collapses the chain.

a process doc or org chartany model 1hrinventory Whose decision has to change for this to move? The Right Ten

Ten people whose decision has to change, by name. Ten roles and zero names means you have an org chart, not a plan.

ten namesany model

The methods these pages instance are registered, with their definitions, scorecards and schemas, at Snap Synapse.

From friends of our show

Resources by guests and cohosts, linked from the episode they came with. Theirs, not ours.

Michelle Florendo The Relief-Regret Framework: Making Decisions Under Uncertainty

When we can't know the outcome until we act, Michelle's four-row Relief-Regret matrix fits on one page. Free to listen and read.

Limited Edition Jonathan LEJ AI Video Guides

An open-source kit that turns a web page into a two-minute narrated video guide, built into a real editor so every piece stays editable.

Markus Bernhardt The Decisions Your AI Is Making Without You

Who holds authority behind the AI defaults nobody chose, and the record a regulator will ask for. His brief at Endeavor Intelligence.

JD Dillon Frontline Resource Library

JD's free frontline toolkit: a facilitation guide, a workforce assessment and pulse surveys, all plain PDF downloads.

Douglas Hubbard How to Measure Anything: the free downloads

Doug's free calibration questions and the chapter spreadsheets, so we can check our own estimates before paying for more analysis.