Founder worksheet
Bring the question. Make the review useful.
A useful growth review starts with a decision, a comparable reporting period and the changes your team already knows about. This worksheet helps you bring the context that makes the conversation productive.
Write the decision before you collect reports
Finish this sentence: We need to decide whether to ____, because ____. Choose an operating decision, such as which part of the customer journey to investigate first. A list of ten channel problems usually hides the choice the founder actually needs to make.
Write what would change if the review were useful: a priority, an owner, a test or a spending decision. Separate that desired output from a promised result. A review can improve the basis for a decision without guaranteeing growth.
Use this preparation worksheet
You can fill this in with short answers. An unknown answer is useful context; it does not need to be replaced with an estimate.
- Business and store URL: ____
- Decision and deadline: ____
- Symptom, when it started and where it appears: ____
- Comparison periods and reporting timezone: ____
- Revenue basis, returns treatment and currency: ____
- Recent pricing, promotion, stock, site or team changes: ____
- Reports available, report owners and known gaps: ____
- Who can implement the next action: ____
Bring a timeline, not just a screenshot
List meaningful changes next to the dates they reached customers. A promotion launch, stock interruption or checkout change can help explain a pattern that a channel dashboard alone cannot. Keep observations separate from explanations: orders fell after a change is an observation about timing, not proof that the change caused it.
Use completed, comparable periods where possible. A partial current week and a completed prior week answer different questions. If the reporting period is incomplete, write the cutoff. Note attribution windows and metric definitions rather than trying to make unlike reports agree.
Choose the smallest useful evidence set
Start by listing the reports you have and what each can establish. Store orders, acquisition reports and customer history may answer different parts of the question. Access and handling should follow the agreed scope.
For the first email, the business URL, decision and short context are enough. Do not attach passwords, customer exports or payment information to a general inquiry. If detailed records are needed, agree an appropriate access route first.
Leave the review with a next step
A practical output identifies the observation, the remaining uncertainty, the proposed action and its owner. It also says what will be checked afterward and when.
If an input is missing, make that part of the next step. A smaller decision supported by available evidence can be more useful than a confident answer built on a reporting gap.