Founder Weekly Review: A One-Page Template and 30-Minute Agenda

TL;DR. A founder weekly review fits on one page with four sections: what you committed to last week and what happened, seven numbers you choose from a menu, the decisions you made, and your top three commitments for next week. Run it in 30 minutes at the same time each week. Tie each of next week's priorities to a quarterly objective so the review keeps the quarter on track without becoming a second planning meeting.

What goes on a one-page founder weekly review?

The page has four sections. Each one answers a single question, and none of them should run longer than a few lines.

Section	Question it answers	What to write
Last week's commitments	Did I do what I said I would?	Each commitment from last week's top three, marked done, partly done or not done, with one line on why
Seven numbers	What is the business telling me?	Seven numbers picked from the menu below, this week's value next to last week's, plus a one-word direction note
Decisions made	What did I settle this week?	Each decision in one sentence, who it affects and where the full reasoning is recorded
Next week's top three	What matters most next?	Three commitments, each linked to a quarterly objective or marked as necessary maintenance

Keep the template the same every week. The value comes from comparing pages over time, and that only works if the layout stays still.

Leave out targets. The weekly page records what happened and what you will do. Targets belong in your quarterly OKRs, where they get proper discussion. Putting them on the weekly page invites you to argue about the goal each week instead of looking at the trend.

Which seven numbers should a founder track each week?

Choose seven numbers that, taken together, show the health of the business at its current stage. Pick from a menu like this one and adapt the definitions to your business:

• Pipeline: open opportunities or their total value at a stage you define
• New customers: accounts that started paying this week
• Cash: cash in the bank, or months of runway at the current spend
• Revenue: recurring revenue, or bookings if you are earlier stage
• Retention: accounts or revenue lost or kept this week
• Activation: new signups who reached your first meaningful outcome
• Product usage: active accounts or a core action that shows real use
• Support load: open tickets or conversations, and how many are older than you would like
• Hiring: open roles and candidates at the final stage
• Shipping: items released to customers

Some guidelines for choosing:

1. Cover the whole business. Include at least one number each for selling, keeping customers, the product and money.
2. Prefer numbers you can pull quickly. If it takes an hour to calculate a number, you will stop recording it.
3. Define each one once. Write the definition at the bottom of the page so the number means the same thing every week.
4. Change the set rarely. Swap a number when your stage or quarterly focus changes, not because the week went badly.

If you are not sure how to define retention or revenue terms, the SaaS metrics glossary is a good reference.

How should you run the 30-minute weekly review?

Block the same 30 minutes each week, ideally at the end of the week or before the first meeting of the next one. Run it alone or with a co-founder.

Minutes	Step	Output
0–5	Score last week's commitments	Each item marked done, partly done or not done, with a reason
5–12	Fill in and read the seven numbers	Values entered, any unexpected movement circled
12–17	List decisions made	One line per decision, linked to the full record
17–22	Check the quarter	Note whether each quarterly objective looks more or less likely
22–28	Choose next week's top three	Three commitments, each tagged to an objective
28–30	Share or file	Page saved where your team or co-founder can see it

Read the numbers before you choose next week's priorities. If you write priorities first, you will tend to read the numbers in a way that supports them.

When a number moves unexpectedly, do not investigate it during the review. Write a question next to it, and if it matters, make answering it one of next week's three commitments.

How does the weekly review connect to quarterly OKRs?

The quarterly OKRs set direction and targets. The weekly review shows whether your week is moving them. Make three links.

Tag every top-three item. Next to each commitment, name the objective it serves. If an item serves no objective, mark it as maintenance. A few maintenance weeks are normal. A run of them means your objectives and your actual work have drifted apart.

Record confidence weekly. In the quarter-check step, note your confidence that each objective will be met. This gives you the same signal described in OKR confidence check-ins, at a size that fits a founder's week.

Let the seven numbers overlap with key results. Some of your seven numbers should be the same as, or lead to, your key results. You still leave the target off the weekly page. You read the trend weekly and compare it with the target at the quarterly review.

If you are setting up OKRs for the first time, start with OKRs for SaaS teams.

Where should decisions be recorded?

The weekly page lists decisions in one line each. The reasoning lives elsewhere. Keep a separate decision log covering the context, the options considered, what you chose and what would make you revisit it. The product decision log template works for company decisions as well as product ones.

The one-line list does two things. It shows you how many decisions you are making yourself, and it gives you a weekly index you can search when someone asks why something changed.

Illustrative example: one week's page

The figures below are invented to show the format. They are not benchmarks.

Last week's commitments

• Close two pilot agreements: partly done, one signed, one waiting on legal review
• Publish onboarding changes: done
• Interview three churned customers: not done, one interview booked

Seven numbers (this week / last week)

• Pipeline opportunities: 14 / 12, up
• New customers: 2 / 1, up
• Months of runway: 11 / 11, flat
• Accounts lost: 1 / 0, question: why?
• Activated signups: 9 / 10, flat
• Open support conversations: 23 / 15, up, question: release-related?
• Items shipped: 4 / 2, up

Decisions made

• Pause the paid channel test until onboarding changes settle (logged)
• Move support rota to include the founder two mornings a week (logged)

Next week's top three

1. Finish churned-customer interviews (Objective: improve retention)
2. Find the cause of the support increase (Maintenance)
3. Get the second pilot signed (Objective: grow pipeline)

What are the common mistakes?

Adding targets to the page. The review becomes a weekly argument about goals. Keep targets in the OKRs.

Tracking too many numbers. More than seven and you skim them. Fewer than seven and you will likely miss a part of the business.

Changing the numbers when they look bad. Swapping metrics after a poor week hides the trend you most need to see.

Writing a top five or top ten. Three forces a choice. A longer list is a task list, not a set of priorities.

Skipping the score on last week. Without it, commitments become wishes. Write an honest reason for each miss.

Turning it into a team meeting. The page can be shared with the team, but the review itself is the founder's thinking time.

When does this template not apply?

If you have no customers or revenue yet, most of the menu will read zero. Pick numbers that track learning instead, such as interviews held or experiments run, until commercial numbers exist.

If the company already has a working leadership review with shared metrics, do not add a parallel founder version. Use the decisions and top-three sections as your personal notes for that meeting.

In a crisis week, such as an outage or a cash emergency, skip the full review. Record the decisions and resume the normal page the following week.

What else should founders know about a weekly review?

Frequently asked questions

What is a founder weekly review template?

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It is a one-page record a founder completes each week covering last week's commitments, a fixed set of chosen numbers, decisions made and next week's top three priorities. It keeps daily work connected to quarterly goals without needing a long planning session every week.

Why leave targets off the weekly page?

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Targets are set and debated at the quarterly level. Putting them on a weekly page invites you to renegotiate goals every week and distracts from the trend. Read the direction of each number weekly, then compare progress against targets during your quarterly OKR review.

Should a co-founder or team see the weekly review?

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Sharing the finished page is useful because it shows priorities and decisions openly. The review itself works best as quiet thinking time for the founder or co-founders. If the team needs a group discussion, hold a separate meeting that uses the page as its input.

How often should I change my seven numbers?

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Change them when your stage or quarterly focus changes, usually at the start of a quarter. Avoid swapping a number because one week looked bad, since that hides the trend. When you do change one, note the change and its definition on the page.

Related reading

• OKR Confidence Check-ins — track how likely each objective is to land, week by week.
• Product Decision Log Template — record the reasoning behind each decision on your weekly page.
• OKRs for SaaS Teams — set the quarterly objectives your weekly priorities serve.
• SaaS Metrics Glossary — define your seven numbers consistently.