Operating plan in one page

Hey Everyone,

If you've spent any time looking at operating plan frameworks, you've probably noticed that V2MOM, EOS, OKRs, and OGSM all promise to be "the one." And the more you compare them, the harder it gets to pick.

The good news is you don't have to. The frameworks share enough structure that you can borrow the best pieces from several and combine them on a single page.

Today, we're walking you through exactly which pieces to steal and how to assemble them.

Every framework answers the same five questions

We compared six popular frameworks side by side – V2MOM (Salesforce), EOS (Traction), OKRs, OGSM (Procter & Gamble), MSPOT (HubSpot), and the One-Page Strategic Plan from Verne Harnish's Scaling Up.

Strip away the branding, and they all land on the same structure. Where are we going? What are we betting on this quarter? How will we measure it? Who owns each bet? And what are we choosing not to do?

The differences are in what each framework adds on top of that shared base. And those additions are worth stealing individually.

Five pieces to put on your page

1. A "not doing" list (from HubSpot's MSPOT)

Brian Halligan, HubSpot's co-founder, wrote in HBR that in HubSpot's early stages he was a "yes man" who said yes to almost anything. The result was a chaotic lack of focus. So he built a framework called MSPOT that includes a row called "Omissions," a written list of things the company will not fund this period.

Writing down what you're refusing forces trade-offs that a priority list alone won't produce. Add a section at the bottom of your plan with two to four items you're explicitly choosing to skip.

2. A pre-mortem row (from Salesforce's V2MOM)

V2MOM is the only major framework that requires a written "Obstacles" section before you start executing. Benioff's original version, scribbled on the back of an American Express envelope during a flight, included four obstacles alongside the company's first methods and measures.

Parker Harris later framed that envelope and gave it to Benioff at Salesforce's IPO.

Write down the two or four biggest risks to each quarterly priority. If you ran a pre-mortem (we covered how in a previous issue), this is where those risks live between meetings.

3. Color-coded scorecards (from EOS)

The EOS system uses a weekly scorecard where every metric is marked red, yellow, or green. The weekly meeting only discusses reds and yellows.

The time savings come from skipping everything that's on track. Put five to eight metrics on your plan, color-code them before every weekly meeting, and only spend time on the ones that are off track.

4. One owner per priority (from OKRs and EOS)

Both OKRs and EOS require a single named owner for every objective or "Rock." When two people share ownership, neither feels fully responsible.

Next to every quarterly priority on your page, write one name. If you can't decide whose name goes there, that priority isn't defined well enough yet.

5. A blank-page quarterly reset (from Scaling Up)

Verne Harnish insists that every quarterly planning session starts with a blank document rather than editing last quarter's plan. Editing produces small adjustments to old priorities. Rewriting forces you to re-commit or let go.

AvidXchange, a B2B fintech that grew from 50 to 1,600 employees and IPO'd on the NASDAQ in 2021, ran quarterly planning sessions using this method for 16 consecutive years. CEO Michael Praeger has said the company never missed a single one.

Build your plan

We built a template with all five sections from this issue, plus a weekly review scorecard. Grab it, fill it in, and put it on the agenda of your next Monday meeting.

Download the One-Page Operating Plan + Weekly Review template

When next quarter comes, don't edit this document. Open a fresh copy and rewrite it from scratch.

Go deeper

👉 Salesforce: Create Strategic Company Alignment With a V2MOM – Benioff's own walkthrough of V2MOM, including how it cascades from CEO to individual at a 75,000-person company

👉 First Round Review: The Secret to a Great Planning Process — Lessons from Airbnb and Eventbrite – Lenny Rachitsky and Nels Gilbreth's "W Framework" for planning cycles, with plug-and-play templates

👉 Strategy+Business: Sharpen Your Strategy Document – Adam Bryant on why strategy docs become overloaded and a four-section format that fixes it

👉 EOS Worldwide: The Vision/Traction Organizer – the full EOS one-page template, including the scorecard and issues list

Coming up tomorrow

Tomorrow, we'll share how the fastest companies treat escalation as a feature, not a failure, and a one-page system you can set up today.

That's it for today!

P.S. Which framework (if any) is your company running right now, and what have you borrowed from a different one?