R3 Documentation Site
5. Action Planning
Create a realistic, focused, and accountable work plan for the next 90 days.
The R3 Action Planning process is designed to eliminate drift and replace it with clarity. Every 90 days, you’ll pause to reflect, analyze, and design your next sprint. The result? A laser-focused action plan aligned to your business goals.
“Brutal honesty and well-written analysis are your greatest planning tools.”
The Planning Inputs
To build a 90-day sprint, R3 uses six structured inputs:
- Review & Planning Workbook (Scorecard): Start with a full 360 review snapshot. This captures where your business stands across performance, challenges, and wins.
- Personal Positioning Statement: A detailed set of paragraphs describing who you are, what you’re building, and the broader business context. Not just a mission — but a clear articulation of purpose. It's a rookie error to skip this.
- Transformation Matrix: A structured prompt sheet of transformations common to businesses. Used to identify what the customer or business needs to shift in order to unlock growth.
- Impact Statement: This is your true north for the sprint. What ONE thing must happen over the next 90 days to move the needle? Derived from the process looking at context, opportunities, vehicle, beliefs, and intended impact (COVBI model).
- Framework Flow: Leverage the R3 Framework flows to prioritize and sequence stages, steps, and activities.
- Going-In Position: A business analysis narrative of what’s already in motion, what remains unresolved, and where you’re starting from today. It's a powerful way of creating a clear snapshot that scopes the next sprint.
From Chaos to Clarity — Going-In Position
It’s expected that you'll enter a new quarter with loose threads, often dozens of unanswered questions:
- Tasks from the last sprint that were not completed
- Ideas that remain on post-it notes
- Random backlog items
- Achievements with no follow-up planned
- New insights from customers and trend reports.
Developing your Going-In Position for the next sprint turns this melting pot into a clear execution plan. It's a 1-2 page document that analyses your progress to date, and uses planning inputs and loose threads to detail what needs to happen.
You can be as detailed or brief as you want. The important thing is to spend quality time thinking about how you'll spend your next 90 days. This is a very powerful approach.
Pro Tip: Write this document clearly — as if you had to present it to a board or advisor. This ensures it’s well thought-out, shareable, and grounded in action.
The Importance of Brutal Honesty
Many founders fail to plan realistically. R3 encourages brutal honesty in this process:
- Are you overestimating your time or energy?
- Are you ignoring known blockers?
- Are you chasing the wrong win?.
Without honesty, the plan becomes fiction — not strategy.
Accountability and Sharing
Planning in isolation leads to drift. We recommend:
- Share your plan with a peer, advisor, or AI assistant
- Use it in your weekly reviews
- Track completion and revise where needed.
Accountability turns strategy into execution.
Evergreen Offer: If you need help with a complimentary review of your plan, get in touch. We'll be pleased to provide constructive feedback.
The Work Plan: Week-by-Week Focus
The final step is to build a 12–13 week plan, where each week has one primary deliverable or focus area. This eliminates scattered effort and gives you a clear path to momentum.
Examples:
- Week 1: Rapid kickstart for positioning process
- Week 2: Offer Acceleration Steps 1-3
- Week 3: Funding Acceleration Steps 1-3.
This can be done using a spreadsheet or a tool like Notion.
Key Takeaways
R3 Action Planning is a quarterly rhythm to create execution momentum:
- Inputs like positioning, transformations, and impact goals create direction.
- Well-written plans = better thinking and better results.
- Honesty and accountability = higher follow-through.
- Clarity removes overwhelm and fuels growth.
Ready to define your scorecard and success metrics? Continue to the next page.