A story track · bring data to play it
Scale-up checkpoint
Growing Pains
Growth is working — and quietly reshaping who you are and what's breaking. This is the track — the ordered card-slots this story needs, laid out as a hypothesis before any data exists. Bring data and the engine confirms each slot, or hands the story off down a branch.
the story · before any data
the hero
A founder/COO whose company is winning fast — wants to scale without losing what made it work.
the villain
Silent reshaping — growth changing the company's composition and breaking points faster than anyone decides
the problem, felt at three levels
- External · Headcount compounds; the mix tilts; the hiring machine strains at one stage nobody has named.
- Internal · The 2 a.m. suspicion that the company you're running is no longer the company you built.
- Philosophical · Growth should be something a company chooses, not something that happens to it.
the plan
- 1See what growth is changing (mix, machine, management)
- 2Name the binding constraint
- 3Relieve that one, on purpose
if nothing changes
Unwatched, the mix decides your culture, the leak quietly prices every hire above it, and the org chart becomes archaeology.
success
Growth on plan with the constraint relieved before it bites.
From a company growth happens to — to a company that grows on purpose.
the screenplay · the sequence of scenes it needs
Act I — The World
growth itselfTHE REASSURANCE
the growth line (+pacing calculator)
Is growth on plan?
fills with
a computed step (calculator / decision) — not a single card
or any card of form: rising
the handle · On/off pace, stated.
Act II — The Forces
what growth is changing— BUT —
THE DRIFT
the mix shift
Who are we becoming?
fills with
the handle · Decide the mix on purpose.
— AND —
THE LEAK
the funnel
Is the hiring machine keeping up?
fills with
the handle · Fix the stage, not the funnel.
Act III — The Choice
the structural bet— WHICH MEANS —
THE BET
the scale decision
Capacity, structure, or pace?
fills with
a computed step (calculator / decision) — not a single card
the handle · Pick the constraint to relieve.
the resolution · what this story exists to produce
The named scale constraint and the investment against it.
What next? What else?
More certainty is priced, not promised — the next steps, each a known cost against the decision:
- ↗ span-of-control read
- ↗ manager-load instrument
- ↗ re-baseline comparisons for the new mix
what it needs to be told
told differently by altitude
exec · manager · analyst variants forthcoming
provenance · Pandora 2015 (pacing) + VMW 2013 (decomposition) replays + the framework
The driving question: What is growth doing to us — mix, machine, and management?
One story from the database — assembled from the shared deck of scenes. Browse the stories · browse the deck · bring your own data.