How to execute projects that generate compounding growth
August 8, 2025
Running the business keeps things alive. Building the business makes things better and is the key to winning over time.
As a leader, your success compounds when you invest energy not just in daily operations but in systematic improvement, creating systems, tools, and innovations that make tomorrow easier and better than today.
If you spend all your time running the business, the world evolves while you stand still. Competitors adapt, technologies shift, expectations rise, and suddenly, maintaining performance takes more effort. You work harder just to stay in place.
When you consistently build the business, improving processes, launching growth projects, and investing in productivity, you create leverage. You work smarter, not just harder. You set yourself and your team up to achieve more results with less effort over time.
We have very limited time each week, which means that if you waste "building the business time" on projects that don't make an impact, not only do you not move forward, you actually move backwards. So it's critical to get them right, and it's non-trivial.
This guide teaches you how to define, plan, and execute the kinds of projects that actually build your business, the ones that make the next quarter easier and more successful than the last.
Use the included Google Sheets template to turn this framework into action: define your problem, test your approach, and execute with precision.
1. Define the Right Problem and Goal
Every great project starts by solving a problem that matters.
Clarify the Problem
Prove it’s real. Use data, customer feedback, or operational pain points. Quantify the impact of not solving it.
Prioritize it. Ask: Why is this worth solving now? Tie it to strategic priorities or evolving needs.
Think long-term leverage. Will solving this make your team faster, more effective, or more scalable?
Define a Concrete Goal
Be specific: “Reduce onboarding time from 10 days to 4,” not “Improve onboarding.”
Ensure it’s measurable, with clear success indicators.
Define how you’ll know when you’ve won — the clear “Definition of Done.”
Use the “What Do We Have to Believe?” Test
Before committing, write down your assumptions:
What must be true for this project to be valuable or feasible?
What do we assume about user behavior, costs, or risks?
What would make this project not worth doing?
Then test those beliefs quickly and cheaply:
Run data pulls, small pilots, or expert interviews.
Validate assumptions early so you build confidence — or pivot fast.
2. Generate and Compare Solution Approaches
Building the business is not just about action, it’s about choosing the right action. For any problem, there are many ways to solve it. The difference between a good project and a great one is how well you compare and select among those options.
How to Explore Approaches
Generate at least 2–3 fundamentally different ways to solve the problem, seek external input if this is not a topic you are an expert on.
Compare them by:
Time to value — how fast do we see benefit?
Cost — to build and to maintain.
Risk — technical, operational, or strategic.
Leverage — how much does it improve scalability or advantage?
Maintenance - how much effort will be required to maintain this approach? are the business needs changing often? How much effort is it to adapt given our selected approach?
Ask the Smart Questions
What trade-offs am I accepting by choosing this path?
What evidence gives me confidence this is the best approach?
What’s the smallest, simplest test (MVP or pilot) to prove it works?
What would make me change my mind or pivot?
Avoid the “Shallow Work” Trap
If your project plan changes dramatically after feedback, it’s often a sign that your exploration was too narrow. Acknowledge and learn from it. Don't dive into execution if your plan isn't good.
Do the thinking upfront — so you can execute with confidence later.
3. Build a Structured, Realistic Plan
Once you know what to do, the next question is how to do it — clearly, credibly, and efficiently.
Key Elements of a Strong Plan
Milestones & Deliverables: Define tangible outcomes and ownership for each.
Definition of Done: Describe how you’ll know when something is complete.
Timelines with Buffers: Add slack time explicitly — don’t hide it in estimates. If you're not sure how to estimate a task, it means there's higher risk, and you might not have the knowledge. Seek external input from peers or experts.
Dependencies: Make them visible. Know what relies on what.
Measurement: Define how progress and quality will be tracked.
Make the Plan Adaptive
Ensure your plan is detailed enough to execute but flexible enough to evolve.
Use short feedback loops to detect if your assumptions break — and adjust before damage compounds.
4. Validate Before You Execute
A great project leader doesn’t just plan — they pressure test.
Run a Pre-Mortem
Ask your team: If this fails, what probably went wrong?
Capture those answers and build mitigations now.
Invite Skeptics Early
Share your plan with peers or cross-functional partners who will challenge your logic.
If they find holes, fix them early — before investing the time.
Model the Risks
Identify Known Unknowns (expected uncertainties) and manage them actively. Write them down to show yourself and others that you're aware of these risks.
Acknowledge Unknown Unknowns (unforeseen challenges) and use buffers and iteration to absorb them. Notice how frequently you get input and feedback that you agree with and haven't thought about it before? If you are getting a lot of feedback in every meeting, it means there are still a lot of unknown unknowns. It is critical to notice them.
Have clear triggers for re-evaluation — know when to adapt versus persist. If things are not working according to plan, sometimes the best approach is to stop or kill a project. Often times, this is not a sign of bad management, but of actually good management if this happens early on. If this happens late, then that's a sign of poor management.
5. Execute, Learn, and Scale Smarter
Execution is where you turn clarity into results — and learning into leverage.
Operate With Rhythm and Visibility
Hold weekly or biweekly check-ins: review milestones, risks, and learnings.
Track not just progress but quality — are outcomes matching intent?
When plans change, document why (planning miss, execution issue, or new discovery).
Separate Signal From Noise
A project that changes for good reason (new discovery) is learning.
A project that changes for bad reasons (poor planning) is waste.
Know the difference and learn from both.
End Every Project With a Retrospective
What worked? What didn’t? What surprised us?
What can be automated, simplified, or systematized next time?
How did this project make our business more scalable, efficient, or resilient?
When you consistently close this loop, every project makes the next one easier. That’s how you build a self-improving business.
Building the Business as a Habit
The leaders who grow fastest are the ones who make building the business part of their weekly rhythm.
Ask yourself regularly:
What’s one friction point we could remove this month?
What could we automate, document, or delegate to save 10 hours next quarter?
What would make our next 3 months easier, faster, or more effective?
If you’re not improving, you’re falling behind.
If you’re only running the business, you’re eventually running uphill.
When you invest in building the business, you create a compounding advantage — each project makes the next one faster and easier to win.
The goal isn’t to impress anyone, it’s to win smarter.
Great leaders use building projects to expand what’s possible, not just what’s expected.
And over time, those who build consistently are the ones whose results keep accelerating — even as their effort stays the same or shrinks.
Resources & Related Articles:
Article fillable template: How to Design, Validate, and Execute High-Impact "Building the business" Projects
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