JAI JALAN / BETTER

The founder operating review

Before adding another feature, campaign or tool, write down where the business gets stuck. Use one recent example in each section. Leave an answer blank if you do not have evidence yet.

This worksheet covers three connected parts of a software business: building the product, finding customers and running production. It is a starting point for a working discussion.

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1. Build: follow one workflow

Choose a task someone needs to complete. Follow it from the first input to the final outcome, including spreadsheets, approvals and manual handoffs.

Who needs to do what, and why does it matter?Where does the work stop, repeat or leave the product?What is the smallest change worth testing?

Decision: If the bottleneck sits in an approval or missing input, a new screen alone may not fix it. Include the whole workflow in the scope.

2. Grow: follow one customer journey

Pick one customer type and one offer. Trace the path from finding you to buying and using the product.

Who has the problem, and what makes it urgent?Where does the journey lose people?Which assumption will the next experiment test?

Decision: If the right people arrive but cannot understand the offer, fix that before buying more traffic. If they buy but do not stay, examine the product and onboarding.

3. Operate: replay one production issue

Use a resolved incident or support escalation. Reconstruct how the team found the cause and checked the fix.

What failed for the user, and what was the impact?What evidence did the team need?Where did investigation or recovery lose time?

Decision: Separate the time spent finding evidence from the time spent reasoning about it. Evaluate an AI tool against a real incident, with defined permissions and human review of changes.

Choose one next step

What will change, who owns it, and when will you review the result?

If a conversation would help, bring the relevant section and a recent example. Describe the outcome you need, what happens today and where the work gets stuck. Remove confidential customer data and credentials before sharing.

Build

Products, internal tools and integrations.

Better Software

Grow

Positioning, websites, search, newsletters and outreach.

Better Marketing

Operate

Production investigations using code, logs and data.

Operate

Jai Jalan, founder of Better. Practical notes on building software, finding customers and running production.