Build your wind tunnel
Test small, measure real, ship proof by Friday.
Last week, we sorted our dreams into three categories: carry, compost, and cache. My inbox was filled with your lists. The pattern was consistent across Founders and Operators: too many “maybes”, not enough clear wins, and calendars that favour planning over shipping.
It’s time to fix the rhythm.
proof weeks: the rhythm that keeps dreams light
Here’s the move I’m running this quarter: proof weeks. One small, public deliverable by Friday.
Not a plan. Not an update. An artifact anyone can see.
A quick story to center this. In 1901, the Wright brothers realized the published lift numbers they trusted didn’t match their glider’s behaviour. So they built a small wind tunnel in the back of their bike shop, carved dozens of tiny wooden airfoils, and tested them in repeatable runs.
The notes were plain: angles, forces, counts. Day by day, the data showed which shapes created reliable lift. That course correction set up the 1903 flights at Kitty Hawk.
Two details matter for us:
First, they shrank the arena so that experiments could fit inside their week.
Second, they turned feelings into measurements they could share.
That’s the spirit of a proof week. Make the environment small. Make the output visible. Score what happened so next week starts smarter.
I’m writing this to pull my two worlds back into one place again. The operator in me loves clean cadence. The human in me wants a life and business that feel honest.
If you’re here for systems, you’ll leave with a method. If you’re here for the story, you’ll leave with a practice that keeps the story moving.
how a proof week works (in the wild)
Start with one carry dream. Name a change that fits inside the next five days. Keep it testable and public.
Here are some personal examples you can steal: publish the CEO Morning OS checklist and collect ten replies; record a 90-second explainer and send it to five founders; run three short user calls and post a one-page summary.
Define the smallest unit that counts. If the dream is “steady newsletter cadence,” the unit isn’t an outline. It’s a shipped issue.
If the dream is “cleaner handoffs,” the unit isn’t a meeting. It’s a one-page handoff standard you ask two teams to use on Thursday.
A unit that counts changes how others behave.
Create a simple scorecard. Four fields do the job:
energy returned this week (low, medium, high)
pull from the market (mentions, asks, replies)
learning gained (one sentence)
next visible proof (one step you’ll ship next Friday)
Fill it out on Friday, right after you publish. No spin. You either have a thing or you don’t.
Block the time. I use 30 minutes in the morning for forward motion and 20 minutes late-day for finishing.
The early block advances the artifact. The late block removes friction: links, layout, names, posting steps. Two small daily blocks are better than one long block that you skip.
Publish the proof where your people are. If it belongs on LinkedIn, post it there. If it belongs here, post it here. If it needs a short video, hit record and keep it raw. Then close the loop with your scorecard.
Five lines. That’s it.
what changes when you work this way
Decision fatigue drops. You stop rehearsing ten possibilities because the week has a single mission.
Energy returns because progress is tangible.
Trust grows because people see movement.
Perfectionism loses air because the clock forces a cut.
All of these things compound.
Heavier dreams don’t vanish. They move to the quarterly long list.
A few rise into carry when timing and partners align.
Many become raw material. That’s compost doing its job.
Cache protects your optionality without stealing attention.
If you want a daily mirror for this, think of Benjamin Franklin’s two questions:
He asked the same thing every morning and evening. “What good shall I do this day?” and “What good have I done today?”
Swap “good” for “proof” and you have a founder’s check.
What proof shall I ship today? What proof did I ship today?
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the bridge between operator and human
On LinkedIn, many of you come for the operator who plays a key role in reducing noise, fostering culture, and driving revenue growth.
Here, you also meet the person under the armour: the father, partner, and creator, sorting out meaning and mastery. It’s the same mission in two rooms: give founders a clear path to action without compromising their humanity.
Proof weeks are where those rooms meet. The cadence satisfies the operator. The kind rhythm serves the human.
One artifact a week, scored and shared, keeps both parts honest.
run your first proof week (today)
Pick one carry dream. Declare a unit that counts. Write your four-field scorecard. Block two daily slots.
Tell one person what you’re shipping by Friday. If you want to go further, make the commitment public.
The point isn’t pressure. The point is clarity.
A few templates to speed the start:
Commitment sentence (post this somewhere visible):
“This week’s proof: [artifact] shipped by Friday 4:00 pm. Scorecard posted after.”
Friday scorecard (paste into your post or doc):
Energy returned: [low/medium/high]
Market pull: [mentions/asks/replies]
Learning: [one sentence]
Next proof: [specific step for next Friday]
Team version (leaders, this is your move):
At Monday standup, each lane—product, sales, CS, ops—commits to one customer-visible artifact. Ten-minute demos on Friday.
Cut slides unless they are the product. Publish a short digest for the company. Now your culture rewards shipping, not status meetings.
Founder version (hold your own bar):
Post your proof first. People copy what you do.
If the week explodes, shrink the unit. A one-page decision memo counts.
A call summary with a changed plan counts. A public note with one policy shift counts. Keep the chain alive.
what I’m shipping this week
I’m committing to a one-page Proof Week Scorecard template you can duplicate, plus a short walk-through clip.
Posted Friday. I’ll include five anonymized patterns from reader submissions so you can see how this plays in different businesses.
If you’re running your own proof week, reply with your commitment sentence. I’ll read them, select the most useful ones, and incorporate them into next week’s issue, building an example bank that we can all draw from.
This is how we keep dreams light: one finished artifact at a time.
⚙️ Strategic Co-Pilot (limited)
From stuck to shipped in 30 days
If you haven’t published in weeks, I’ll help you put a real win on the board every Friday. One outcome that moves the number, made visible. Momentum returns. Confidence rebuilds. Your audience notices. Limited to 3 clients per quarter.
Let’s have a brief clarity conversation. 👇
That’s a wrap
What’s the smallest unit of your dream that you can ship by Friday? Write the sentence, block the time, and publish the proof. Then we repeat until the load feels light again.
Fans on, proof coming.
~ Warren