improve-business

# Improve a Business

An interactive, resumable journey for a business that already runs but has stopped moving — real revenue, real customers, a flat line. Across eight phases it works the layers in order (strategy, execution, management, structure, motivation, metrics, margin, pricing), diagnosing before treating rather than chasing one tactic at a time. The agent asks before every decision and records each choice in `docs/` so the turnaround survives across sessions.

## Core Principle

**A plateau is a diagnosis failure: diagnose before treating, and work the layers in order — strategy, execution, management, structure, motivation, metrics, margin, pricing.** Poking one tactic at a time never breaks a plateau because the constraints compound. This skill sequences the phases, asks the decision questions, and records what was decided; the constituent skills carry the actual method — invoke them rather than improvising their frameworks.

## Journey Map

| Phase | Skill | Question it answers | Artifact |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | good-strategy-bad-strategy | What single challenge is capping the business? | Creates docs/STRATEGY.md — GATE |
| 2 | traction-eos | How do we execute the strategy every week? | Creates docs/OPERATIONS.md |
| 3 | high-output-management | How does the operator multiply the team, not bottleneck it? | Extends docs/OPERATIONS.md |
| 4 | team-topologies | Is the org structure itself the constraint? | Extends docs/OPERATIONS.md |
| 5 | drive-motivation | Why has the team quietly checked out? | Extends docs/OPERATIONS.md |
| 6 | lean-analytics | Which one number tells us the truth? | Creates docs/METRICS.md |
| 7 | negotiation | Where are we leaking margin, and what do customers truly value? | Extends docs/CUSTOMER.md |
| 8 | monetizing-innovation | Are we charging for the value we deliver? | Extends docs/OFFER.md |

## Operating Rules

1. **Resume first.** Before anything else, read `docs/IMPROVE-BUSINESS-PLAN.md` and every artifact in the Journey Map. If the tracker exists, summarize the journey state in 3-5 lines and ask which phase to enter. Done when the user has confirmed an entry point. A journey with a tracker is resumed, never restarted.
2. **Intake on first run only.** No tracker: run the Intake below, then create `docs/IMPROVE-BUSINESS-PLAN.md` with every phase statused `pending | in-progress | awaiting-evidence | done | deferred: reason | skipped: reason`. Done when the tracker exists and the user has confirmed the phase plan.
3. **Phase entry.** Announce: what the phase does, the decision it forces, the artifact it produces, rough effort. Offer proceed / skip / defer — phases marked GATE may be deferred, never skipped. Mark the phase `in-progress` on proceed. Done when the user chose.
4. **Skill invocation and fallback.** Load the phase's skill and use it: each phase's Invoke line names the skill by slug — use that skill to run the phase. If it is not available, offer: `npx skills add wondelai/skills/<slug> --global`. If the user declines, run the phase from its Brief — the minimum viable method. State which mode you are in.
5. **In-phase decisions.** Ask every question under "Decide with the user" — with concrete options and your recommendation. Record the choice in the tracker's Key Decisions. A decision made silently is a defect.
6. **Phase exit.** Present the draft artifact content for sign-off before writing. On approval: write or extend the docs/ files, update the tracker (status, Key Decisions, Next Actions). Done when the files are written and the phase row shows `done`.
7. **Artifact discipline.** Read before writing; create a file only if missing, otherwise extend — add or update your sections, preserve everyone else's. Files are UPPERCASE in `docs/`. Every recommendation lands as a checkbox or a table row with owner and priority. See [references/artifact-templates.md](references/artifact-templates.md) when creating a docs/ file for the first time — create it from the full skeleton (all section headings), then fill the sections your phase names.
8. **Diagnosis before treatment.** No new initiative, reorg, or pricing change starts before `docs/STRATEGY.md` holds a written Diagnosis the user has confirmed. When asked to jump straight to Phase 4, 7, or 8, complete Phase 1 first (or confirm it is already done and recorded). Done when a confirmed Diagnosis exists before any treatment phase writes its artifact.

## Intake

Ask these before creating the tracker:

1. What is the plateau — flat revenue, rising churn, a team working hard with nothing moving? (Frames the Phase 1 diagnosis and the Phase 6 OMTM.)
2. What passes for your current strategy today — a deck, OKRs, a goal list, nothing written? (Feeds Phase 1; if none exists the diagnosis work is larger.)
3. How big is the team and how is it structured? (Sizes the Rocks and 1:1 system in Phases 2-3; gates Phase 4.)
4. Do you run technology teams, or is this a services / brick-and-mortar business? (`team-topologies` is engineering-specific — skip Phase 4 for non-tech orgs.)
5. When was pricing last set, and on what basis — cost-plus, competitor, or value? (Gates Phase 8; cost/competitor pricing signals margin left on the table.)
6. What is your sales win rate, and do you hear price objections? (Near-100% win rate with no pushback signals minivation — Phase 8.)
7. Where does work get stuck — within teams or between them? (Between-team stalls point at Phase 4; within-team points at Phases 3 and 5.)

Phase-skip heuristics: skip Phase 4 when you don't run technology teams or teams already deliver cleanly; skip Phase 5 when morale is engaged and not the constraint; skip Phase 7 when no large renewals or vendor contracts are in play; skip Phase 8 only if pricing was recently repriced from validated willingness to pay.

Then create `docs/IMPROVE-BUSINESS-PLAN.md` from the template and confirm the phase plan. Done when `docs/IMPROVE-BUSINESS-PLAN.md` exists with every phase statused and the user has confirmed