# FY1 S2 Operations Guide

“Dream and make dreams reality” is not only why we operate (See Founding Philosophy), but also how. 

### Company Roadmap

We first start from our dream: to make a world where people can dream and make dreams a reality. Then we write Company Roadmap charting out a way for us to go from where we are to making our dream a reality. We rewrite the document periodically with new plans in order to increase our chance of success. 

### Product Plan

A Product Plan focuses on a product in the Company Roadmap. 

Before we work on a product, the following must be made clear to us by the Product Plan document: 

- Contribution to the company roadmap: What is the position of the product in the context of (a version of) the company roadmap?
- Customers: Who are the immediate target customers? What problems are they experiencing today? What behaviors do they exhibit? What do we not yet understand well, and how will we gain better understandings?
- Solution: What product can we make for them to solve their problems? How will it work? What story will it enable for the customers?
- Execution: Present the purest form of the solution that we can deliver to our customers to bring them into loop as we keep growing the product for them. Present how we will deliver the product to customers if it is actually made. Present how we will make sure the product is safe and sustainable.
- Product Roadmap: What can the product grow to be? How will we position it to grow naturally? What attributes of the product must we focus on during execution?
- Action Plan: Convert the abstract plan to concrete actionable tasks.

As for the naming convention, “FY1 S2 Product Plan” denotes that the Product Plan document is FROM FY1 S2 (as opposed to FOR FY1 S2). This naming convention applies to all documents. 

### Version Documents

Before starting to work on a version of a product, we first write the documentations. We write two version documents for each version:

- prominence/VERSION describes the product from external perspective (our customers). What attractive features does the new version enable customers to use immediately? This document explains why we are working on the version.
- foundation/VERSION describes the product from internal perspective (us). This document explains how we are enabling features in prominence/VERSION and in future versions.

### Study Reports

We write study reports for work that does not fit the version document format. For example, distribution (e.g. a marketing campaign), study (e.g. a round of customer interviews), or finance (e.g. testing a pricing change). 

- Study Plan
    - Context
    - Hypothesis
    - Implications: If the hypothesis is correct, then what do we gain?
    - Method: How can we test our hypothesis? What alternative methods did we consider?
    - Possible Outcomes: What each outcome may mean.
- Study Review
    - Observations
    - Analysis
    - Learnings
    - Action Items
    - Suggested Future Work

Do not start a study before the study plan is reviewed. Do not consider a study done before the study review is reviewed. 

### Story Reviews

Our story is the only deliverable that we care about. Let us consider a story untold a story that never happened. 

Our greatest legacy will be “the world where people can dream and make dreams a reality”. But if our time ends before we complete our journey, then the greatest legacy we can pass down to our successors will be what we learned along the way so far. 

In every action we take, we try to get closer to our dream. Sometimes we succeed, sometimes we fail, and at all times we learn what works and does not work. When we succeed, we may get better technology, more capital, or deliver some immediate utility to customers. Whereas these are nice for sure, these are not what will really help our successors carry on. That is why learnings are more important to us. 

I write a story for all of us, the entire company, once every season. But let us make it a habit to write a story: for each team, each person, any initiatives we took on, so that we can reflect and so that we can pass down.