Operator Sheets

Most founders make their biggest calls under pressure, with no real process.

These are the decisions that quietly decide whether a company works. The tools here make them properly, with a process you can run again.

Built over 26 years of operating, across companies founded, scaled and sold. Most of the decisions covered here were made the hard way first. The frameworks are what was left once the expensive lessons were paid for.

Start with the free Decision Quality Checklist →
Interactive HTML tool + Structured PDF every pack includes both formats
Core Range
Eight evaluation packs
The decisions that cost the most when they go wrong. Hiring, pricing, partnerships, vendors, expansion, fundraising, sunsetting a product, and decision quality itself.
£29 per pack  ·  Browse →
Entry Range
Five focused packs
The calls you make earlier, with less on the line but the same ways to get them wrong. Co-founder, key hire, agency and freelancer, pivot, and spend and budget.
£15 per pack  ·  Browse →
Bundles
Three curated sets
The full Founder Evaluation System, the People Decision Pack, and the Early Stage System. Grouped for the stretches where the decisions arrive together.
From £49  ·  Browse →
Fast screen section of the Hiring Evaluation tool
Fast screen. Five yes/no gates before the full evaluation opens
Hiring Evaluation interview scorecard
Interview scorecard. Score each area 1 to 5 with notes and evidence
Role clarity test
Role clarity test. Each dimension scored with strong/weak anchors
A few of the actual questions
From the Hiring Evaluation
01
What will this person own that no one else currently owns, and what happens if that stays unowned for six more months?
02
Under what circumstances would we pause this search entirely, and are we genuinely willing to act on that?
03
If we do not hire for this role, what breaks in the next six months?
04
If this person leaves in 12 months, what does rehiring cost?
Free
Decision Quality Checklist The Decision Quality Checklist is free because it's the clearest way to see how these tools are built. Use it. If it improves how you make decisions, you'll know what to expect from the rest of the range.
Download free
What usually goes wrong

The same handful of decisions, missed the same handful of ways.

01
Hiring someone because they were impressive in the room, not because they fit the role you actually needed filled.
02
Saying yes to a partnership because the upside is easy to picture and the operational cost is not.
03
Keeping a product alive because of what it cost to build, rather than what it is worth from here.
04
Treating a fundraise as validation, when it is a financing decision with a price and terms attached.
05
Pricing off what feels safe to charge, rather than what the thing is worth to the person buying it.
06
Promoting your best operator into a management job nobody checked they wanted, and losing the operator.
Core Range  ·  £29 per pack

Eight structured evaluation packs

The calls most founders make on instinct, on a busy afternoon, with half the information they wanted. Each pack walks the decision in order, so pressure stops doing the thinking for you.

£29per pack
Entry Range
Entry Range  ·  £15 per pack

Five focused evaluation packs

The decisions you face earlier, before the bigger frameworks fully apply. Same way of thinking, smaller scope, lower price. There is usually less on the line, and the same handful of ways to get it wrong.

£15per pack
Co-Founder Evaluation Agency & Freelancer Evaluation Pivot Evaluation Key Hire Evaluation Spend & Budget Evaluation
Bundles

Three curated sets

Grouped for the stretches where these decisions tend to arrive together rather than one at a time. Each set costs less than buying the packs on their own.

Good operators keep rebuilding the same decision tools from scratch.

Run anything for long enough and you notice it. The same scoring grid for a senior hire. The same questions before signing a partner. The same rough check before committing real money. You rebuild it each time, because the last version is in a doc you can no longer find, and because in the moment it feels faster to just think it through again.

What you learn, slowly and at some expense, is that most poor decisions are not made by people who lacked the information. The information was usually there. What was missing was a way to weigh it that did not bend to whoever spoke last, or to the deadline. Bad calls rarely look bad on the day they are made. The cost shows up a quarter or two later, attached to a decision nobody wrote down.

These sheets are those rebuilt tools, finished properly and kept in one place. Every one started as a real decision that mattered, made under real conditions, sometimes well and sometimes badly. The structure is simply what was left once the lesson had been paid for.

Clear before clever

The dull questions get asked first. Most decisions come apart on the obvious thing nobody said out loud, not the subtle one.

Useful under pressure

Built for the decision as you actually meet it, late and contested, not the tidy version that turns up in a textbook.

Evidence over conviction

Confidence and evidence feel identical in the moment. The scoring exists to tell them apart before you commit.

Light enough to actually use

Most frameworks die because nobody opens them twice. These are short enough that you will reach for them again.

The whole range lives on Gumroad.

Checkout and payment are handled there. You get the files the moment you buy, nothing to wait for.

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