You can judge a company by the average quality of its weeks.
Good weeks compound. Bad weeks camouflage themselves as “busy.”
Two Mondays ago, I opened my update and felt the sting: full calendar, flat north-star. I’d shipped twelve things that didn’t move the thing. That’s the point of the ritual — it puts your week on trial. No stories. Just outcomes.
At Acta, we run a simple weekly cadence because uncertainty is the job and drift is the enemy. The update isn’t bureaucracy; it’s a forcing function. Fifteen to thirty minutes that decide whether the next five days are noise or leverage.
How it works (no fluff):
- Look back (facts only): What shipped last week? Did it move the north-star metric? Show numbers, not vibes.
- Extract learning: What did we learn about users, channel, product? What broke? What surprised you?
- Pick one bet: If you could only move one lever this week, what is it? Write it down in plain English.
- Ask for help: What’s blocked? Who can unblock it in 24 hours?
- Publish it: Post to the team site. Visible, searchable, timestamped. Accountability without drama.
Why this matters:
- Direction beats speed. Most “hard-working” weeks are just mis-aimed effort.
- Focus compounds. If everyone aligns on one meaningful bet per week, the company stacks momentum.
- Reality > narrative. The update confronts you with what actually happened, not what you intended.
Expect the discomfort. Some weeks you’ll realize you pushed pixels while the metric slept. Good — that’s the wake-up. Adjust the bet. Cut the non-leverage work. Ask for help faster.
This isn’t a status report. It’s a contract with yourself and your team: Here’s where I’ll create value next. Companies don’t fail from a single bad quarter. They decay through average weeks that felt productive.
Run the ritual. Win the week. The rest takes care of itself.