A meaningful approach to planning
Normally, founders can take months to solve a problem, but in a gas pedal, you don’t have any extra time. You have only three months to reach your goal. At the same time, you have to show the result every week. One of the tools we use to achieve results quickly is traction meetings. The essence of a tracked meeting is simple – you present the results of the week and set goals for the next week.

During the track session we identify four important criteria for a meaningful approach to moving towards the goal: performance, results, goals formulation, strategic vision. These make up the six states of the teams:

1. Didn’t do what they planned / no result
   The team came to the track meet with nothing. In this state, the founder can not draw conclusions and set goals for the next week. For example, the team planned to make 10 calls and get 5 sales with an average check of 100 000. The founder comes to the track session with the result of 0 calls and 0 sales.
2. They did what they planned / the result is not achieved
   The team met the plan for 10 calls. But either the hypothesis didn’t hold true, or something went wrong in the sales process. Here are two states of the team – (1) the founders did everything according to the plan, they understand the reasons of the lack of sales and know what to change in order to reach the result the next week, (2) the team can not explain why the sales did not come – the mistake in the value proposition, communication channels, sales stages, or the wrong choice of the LPR etc., and so on. – respectively, the founders can not set a clear goal for the coming week.
3. Results are there/no goal for the next week.
   The team came to the goal and made 5 sales with a check of 100 000. But the founders can’t see the steps for the next week. The team is assisted by trackers, figuring out what action plan will lead to the maximum result in the shortest possible time.
4. Results are in / there is a clear goal for the week.
   The team is good again – they made 500,000 sales, and at the same time set a clear goal for the coming week. But they haven’t defined distinct steps to achieve it – for example, how they are going to reach 10 sales next week and distribute resources for this goal.
5. Results are in place / there is a clear goal for the next week / there is an understanding of how the goal will be achieved
   Not bad. Almost perfect. Founders reach the goal and understand what they are going to do next week. But so far there is no vision of what segment the company is moving into and how the actions will affect the company’s position for the foreseeable future.
6. Results are in place / there is a clear goal for the next week / there is an understanding of how this goal will be achieved / there is a strategic vision of where the company is going
   The ideal state of a founder who has come to a traction meeting. There’s a result, there’s a goal for the week, there’s a reasonable understanding of where the company will be in three years.

There is no such thing as perfect planning. Today the team presented the project well at the traction meeting, and tomorrow something went wrong. Here are three tips to get the team closer to the goal:

Decompose the goal. Conventionally, you want the company to want to make 100 million by the end of the year. To do this, the team set a goal of making 8 million in the first month and 2 million in the first week. This means the team should have a sales plan for the coming week of 2 million.
Projecting the goal from the end. 10 calls in a week is the goal, but no results. Realistically, the team wants to make 500,000, based on an average check of 100,000. they realize they need to make 5 sales. Suppose 1 out of 2 calls is converted into a sale, which means they need to make 10 calls to reach the goal.
A small result is better than nothing. Often the plan is hampered by an overestimation of strength, a hallucination. Let’s say the founder promises 50 meetings and 10 contracts of 10 thousand a week. At a traction meeting, trackers help him adjust the plan: two people with this experience can physically do four meetings a day in optimal mode. “Hallucinating” can be both about your capabilities and the potential of the market. But after 1-2 iterations, realistic numbers will show up.