Good advice should leave you knowing what to do next. Here’s what that looks like: a clear diagnosis, an executable plan, and a way to see whether it’s working.
Illustrative work samples created for a fictional consumer business with ecommerce and a retail location. All figures, findings and targets are hypothetical, not client results. Actual engagements are built around your business.
Scenario: a founder-led consumer business is bringing in more orders, but promotions, fulfillment costs and competing priorities are making growth harder to manage.
Before buying more traffic, establish which orders create enough contribution to fund growth. Then focus the team on profitable repeat purchases and the operating issues getting in their way.
Signal: sales rise during discount weeks, while contribution after advertising falls below plan.
Investigate: compare full-price and discounted orders by product, acquisition source and first-time versus returning customer.
Signal: acquisition gets a weekly review; repeat purchase behavior does not.
Investigate: review 30-, 60- and 90-day cohorts, product replenishment windows and post-purchase messages.
Signal: campaigns and replenishment decisions wait for approval without clear owners or deadlines.
Investigate: map the last two launches, identify approval delays and assign decision rights.
Swipe sideways to explore the table →
| Priority | First action | Owner | Decision it enables |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 / Establish the economics | Reconcile 13 weeks of sales, discounts, product costs, fulfillment and ad spend. | Finance + growth lead | Which products and offers can support additional spending? |
| 2 / Test the repeat opportunity | Build a second-purchase test for one customer cohort, with a holdout where volume allows. | Lifecycle lead | Does the intervention generate incremental contribution? |
| 3 / Give execution an owner | Set three weekly priorities, one accountable owner each and an escalation deadline. | General manager | What can move without waiting for the founder? |
What you leave with: a ranked opportunity list, the evidence to validate it, and a clear starting point. The diagnosis stays provisional until the data and team interviews support it.
Objective: improve profitable growth while reducing the number of everyday decisions that depend on the founder. These sample targets would be calibrated after the baseline review.
Reconcile channel economics. Map customer cohorts. Audit the promotional calendar and approval process.
Deliverables: agreed KPI definitions, baseline dashboard, ranked backlog and decision owners.
Gate: finance and channel leads sign off on the baseline before spend changes.
Run one repeat-purchase test and one offer test. Introduce a shared six-week commercial calendar and weekly operating review.
Deliverables: test briefs, named owners, launch dates and an issue log.
Gate: expand only when contribution improves without weakening service.
Scale supported tests, stop weak ones, document decision rights and assign the next quarter’s priorities.
Deliverables: playbooks, a capacity and hiring recommendation, and the next 90-day plan.
Gate: each ongoing initiative has an owner, a measure and a review date.
Swipe sideways to explore the table →
| Measure | Sample baseline | Day-90 target | Accountable owner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contribution after advertising / net sales | 18% | 22% | General manager |
| Second purchase within 60 days | 21% | 25% | Lifecycle lead |
| Orders shipped on time | 93% | 97% | Operations lead |
| Planned initiatives delivered on time | Baseline in month one | At least 90% | Functional leads |
10 minutes: review performance against plan. 10 minutes: resolve blockers and make decisions. 10 minutes: confirm owners and next steps. Status updates arrive in advance; decisions and due dates leave in writing.
Scope discipline: keep three active priorities. A new request either replaces one, goes into the backlog, or comes with an explicit capacity decision. Targets are planning assumptions, not promised results.
Example reporting week, compared with the weekly plan. Fictional figures demonstrate the review format; this is a sample, not a live reporting system.
Sales are $2,000 below plan, but contribution is $2,360 short of the $11,000 plan. At the planned 22% margin, the sales shortfall explains $440; the lower margin explains the remaining $1,920.
Decision: hold the proposed ad budget increase until the team identifies the margin gap and resolves the shipping backlog.
Swipe sideways to explore the table →
| Exception | Action | Owner | Due |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contribution rate below plan | Separate the impact of discounts, product mix, fulfillment and advertising. | Finance + growth | Tuesday |
| Repeat rate below target | Review eligible cohorts and approve one post-purchase test. | Lifecycle lead | Wednesday |
| Shipping service below target | Quantify the backlog by cause and assign a recovery plan. | Operations lead | Monday |
Net sales: sales after discounts and returns, excluding tax. Contribution after advertising: net sales less product costs, variable fulfillment, payment fees and advertising. It excludes fixed overhead and is not net profit.
60-day second-purchase rate: customers with a second order within 60 days divided by first-time customers in fully matured acquisition cohorts. On-time shipping: orders shipped by the promised date divided by orders due to ship in the period.
Production setup: reconcile commerce and POS exports to finance, agree cost allocation, document refresh timing, and flag missing or delayed sources before each review.
What you leave with: a shared view of performance, agreed definitions, and a short list of decisions with owners. The format can live in the tools your team already uses.
Tell me where things are getting stuck. We’ll talk through the priorities and what useful support could look like.
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