9.5 The Weekly Review Template
Most founders track nothing, then wonder why they’re stuck. The ones who scale do a weekly review, but not the vague “how do I feel about things” kind. A review that forces you to confront what actually happened, not what you intended to happen.
Here’s the template. Use it every Sunday. It takes 30 minutes.
The Weekly Review
Section 1: What I shipped this week
Not what you worked on. Not what you almost finished. What shipped. What is now in the hands of a real user.
This question is brutal because most weeks, the honest answer is “not much.” That’s the point. If you can’t name one thing that shipped, you spent the week in motion without creating output. A good answer looks like: “Launched the onboarding email sequence. Pushed the CSV export feature. Published the comparison page against Competitor X.” Incomplete work doesn’t count.
Section 2: The numbers
Write these down every single week, no exceptions. Fill in every field:
Trials started this week. Trials converted to paid. Churned customers this week. New MRR added. Net MRR change. Total active customers. Your biggest acquisition source this week.
A good answer is specific. “$1,200 MRR added, 3 churned at $97 each, net $911 up.” Andre Heckler Jr. of ListKit went from zero to $1M ARR in 87 days after relaunch. That didn’t happen because he had a vague sense of how things were going. He knew his numbers cold, every week. You need the same discipline at $3K MRR that he had at $300K.
Section 3: Customer learnings this week
What did a real customer say to you this week? Not what you assume they think. What words came out of their mouth, in a call, in a support ticket, in a reply to an onboarding email.
A good answer quotes someone directly. “Customer Sarah said she almost churned because she couldn’t find the export button.” A bad answer is: “Users seem to want better reporting.” If you didn’t talk to a customer this week, write that down. Then fix it next week.
Section 4: One specific change for next week
Not a list of ten things. One thing. The single change you’re committing to based on everything above.
This forces prioritization. If you write three things, you’re avoiding the harder decision of which one actually matters most. A good answer is: “Move the export button to the top nav.” A bad answer is: “Improve UX and work on retention and also do more outreach.”
Section 5: Bottleneck diagnosis
What is the single thing slowing you down right now? Not a symptom. The actual constraint.
Rob Hallum of SuperX grew to $13K MRR with 25% month-over-month growth. When growth slowed, it wasn’t because he wasn’t working hard. It was because he had a specific bottleneck he could name and attack. Good answer: “Trial-to-paid conversion is 8% and the industry standard is 20%. That’s the bottleneck.” Bad answer: “I need more traffic.” Traffic is rarely the real problem at under 100 customers.
How to Use This to Make One Decision Per Week
After you fill this out, read it back. One thing should jump out as the highest-leverage action you’re not taking. Not ten things. One.
Your job is to make that one decision before you close the doc. Write it at the bottom: “This week’s decision is X.” Then close the laptop and go do it.
Most founders leave the review feeling productive because they wrote things down. That’s not the goal. The goal is to leave with a decision made. Everything else is just documentation.