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The point 路 Rituals

Six ritualsThree tests

Are you the operating system, or have you built one?

Most product organisations run on a person. The rituals look like process, but the process is a memory in somebody's head, and it goes on holiday when they do.

The distinction

A system answers the same question the same way when nobody is watching. A person answers it well, differently each time, and only while they are in the room.

01Keep or killSix rituals

Kill the ritual. Keep the question it was asking.

Nearly every recurring meeting exists because somebody once needed an answer and the only way to get it was to gather people. Agents changed the second half of that sentence, not the first.

  • KillDaily standup
    Is anyone blocked?A blocked flag anyone can raise the moment it happens, not the next morning.
  • KillSprint demo
    Did we build the thing?A landed read four weeks after release, when the answer actually exists.
  • KillWeekly status deck
    What has everyone been doing?One screen anybody can open without asking a person to assemble it.
  • KeepWritten decision record
    What did we believe, and when?Keep it. It is the only ritual that gets more valuable as agents get faster.
  • KeepLaunch review, four weeks after
    Did this change what anyone does?Keep it. This is the meeting the whole operating model exists to feed.
  • KeepQuarterly bet setting
    What are we choosing not to do?Keep it, and make the not-doing list as explicit as the doing list.

Kill the ritual, keep the question it was asking.

Every ritual on this list started as a real question. Most of them outlived the answer.
02What replaces themPerson and agents

The meetings go away. The ownership does not.

When the reading is automated, the temptation is to let the conclusion be automated too. That is the one move that turns a working system back into guesswork with better formatting.

Person
  • Business fit
  • Design quality
  • Technical fit
  • Final approval

Judgment. Never delegated, never automated.

The call
Agents
  • Read the context
  • Draft the options
  • Check the rules
  • Propose the next move

Volume. Fast, tireless, and never the owner.

Everything left of the rule has a name attached to it.

03Three testsAnswer honestly

Three tests tell you which one you are, and none of them takes a quarter.

Each test has a tell, and the tell is usually something that already happened this year.

Test 01

Take a week off with no handover

If the answers to the three standing questions still exist on Monday, you built a system. If people wait for you, you are the system.

The tell: someone messages you on holiday for a number that should be on a screen.

Test 02

Ask two people for the same number

Two different answers means the number is being assembled by hand, and whoever assembles it is quietly making judgment calls nobody reviewed.

The tell: both answers are defensible and neither matches the deck.

Test 03

Read the last launch you disliked

If it was judged by the same definition as the launch you championed, you have a definition. If not, you have a preference.

The tell: the exception was justified, at length, and only that once.

One next step

If the tests stung, the model behind them is written down.

Three frameworks and a five-stage ladder, described rather than scored, so you can place your own organisation without running a survey.

Read the three frameworksFive minutes, no scores