Weekly Review Questions by Goal: Ship Product, Get Users, or Close Sales

Weekly review questions only work when they match your current constraint. Use generic prompts, and you get "busy-work clarity" while still drifting.

The fix is simple. Pick one track for 1-2 weeks and run the matching question set. It's like an accountability coach for your week.

In FocusNinja, you pick one weekly target, log wins as evidence, then get a verdict that grades the right dimension.

Which Question Set Should You Use?

Choose the set that matches what's limiting your business right now. A week is a unit of execution. Drift kills weeks.

Track A: Ship Product (when the problem is unfinished work)

Pick Ship Product if:

• You have many half-done features and few releases
• Bugs keep resetting your week
• Launch dates slip because scope keeps growing
• You can't point to something shippable from last week

In FocusNinja: Your One Thing becomes a shippable increment. Your wins are artifacts (merged PRs, deploys). The AI grades you on shipped output, not effort.

Track B: Get Users (when the problem is demand and learning)

Pick Get Users if:

• The product works, but signups are inconsistent
• You don't know which channel works
• People sign up but don't hit "aha"
• You keep changing marketing without learning

In FocusNinja: Your One Thing becomes one distribution experiment. Your wins are experiments shipped and signals captured.

Track C: Close Sales (when the problem is conversion and cash)

Pick Close Sales if:

• You have qualified interest but deals stall
• Pipeline feels thin or random
• You're not controlling next steps
• Revenue is the constraint for the next 30-60 days

In FocusNinja: Your One Thing becomes pipeline movement or closed deals. Your wins are meetings booked and next steps secured.

Tie-breaker Rule

If two tracks feel urgent, pick the one that's:

1. Most time-sensitive in the next 7 days, or
2. Closest to cash in the next 30 days

Commit for 1-2 weeks. Solo founders lose weeks by running three tracks at once.

How to Write Questions That Produce Action

Good weekly review questions create binary evidence and a decision for next week.

Use this format:

• Evidence: a number, link, screenshot, commit, email thread
• Decision: what you'll change next week

In FocusNinja, this is why we push win logs. Log wins. The coach uses wins as evidence. No evidence means stories. Stories don't ship.

Track A: Ship Product Questions

Use these when shipping is the constraint. Goal: fewer "almost done" items, more finished increments.

1. What did we ship that a user could touch?

   • Evidence: release link, feature flag enabled, deploy log

2. What was the smallest shippable increment we completed?

   • Decision: define next week's increment in one sentence

3. What was planned vs actually shipped?

   • Evidence: list planned items and which became artifacts

4. Where did work get stuck and for how long?

   • Evidence: blocked hours/days. Name the blocker type

5. What scope did we add midweek? What did it cost?

   • Decision: keep, cut, or defer. Write the prevention rule

6. What "almost done" item should we finish or kill?

   • Decision: pick one. No third option

7. What is the one technical risk to burn down next week?

   • Evidence: failing tests, flaky deploy, performance issue

8. What will we stop doing to protect maker time?

   • Decision: one specific stop rule

Busy isn't progress. Shipped is progress.

Track B: Get Users Questions

Use these when distribution and learning are the bottleneck. Goal: run experiments and capture signals.

1. What acquisition channel did we test this week?

   • Evidence: where it ran, how many posts/emails/DMs

2. What was the result of the test?

   • Evidence: impressions, CTR, reply rate, signups, activated users

3. What message got the highest response rate?

   • Evidence: top 1-2 lines and the response numbers

4. What was our strongest acquisition to activation path?

   • Evidence: exact path (source, landing, first action, time-to-value)

5. What assumption about the user did we confirm or kill?

   • Decision: rewrite the assumption as a new rule

6. Where is the biggest friction point in activation?

   • Evidence: drop-off step, support tickets, session recordings

7. What experiment will we run next week?

   • Include: hypothesis, input metric, success threshold

8. What will we double down on? What will we stop?

   • Decision: one double down, one stop

Track C: Close Sales Questions

Use these when revenue is the constraint. Goal: next-step control and fewer stalled deals.

1. How many new qualified conversations entered the pipeline?

   • Evidence: count and source

2. What is the pipeline by stage right now? Where is it thin?

   • Evidence: stage counts (new, discovery, proposal, negotiation)

3. What deals moved forward this week? What caused movement?

   • Evidence: meeting held, champion identified, proposal sent

4. What deals stalled? Why?

   • Real reason: no urgency, no ROI clarity, pricing, no champion

5. What is the next step for every active deal?

   • Evidence: date, owner, and the ask

6. What is our follow-up debt? When will it be cleared?

   • Evidence: number of follow-ups overdue

7. What objection did we hear most? How will we answer it?

   • Evidence: exact objection language. Decision: update pitch

8. Pipeline math check: which multiplier is weak?

   • Deals = Leads × Conversion rate × Average contract value
   • Decision: pick one multiplier to improve next week

How to Run These in 15-20 Minutes

A weekly review is a decision meeting with yourself, not journaling.

The Rules

• Pick one track. Don't mix sets
• Timebox to 15-20 minutes
• Answer in "evidence + decision" format
• End with one output: next week's target plus 3 commitments

Leave With These Outputs

1. Next week's One Thing (one sentence outcome)
2. Three commitments that make the outcome likely
3. One stop rule that prevents drift

FocusNinja bakes this into the loop. Morning Anchor. Midweek Pulse. Weekly Review. Start aligned in the morning. Correct drift midweek. Review on Sunday.

How FocusNinja Makes This Stick

Most founders write good questions once. They fail on Tuesday. FocusNinja is built for the part after intention.

Configure Your Week Around One Target

• You choose a North Star and weekly One Thing
• You pick a track. FocusNinja loads the matching prompts
• Your daily check-ins stay tied to the same constraint

This stops you from re-litigating priorities every day.

Use Wins as Evidence, Not Vibes

• You log wins as you ship, sell, or run experiments
• The AI coach uses those wins as evidence
• More wins logged equals sharper coaching

We don't reward activity. We reward outcomes.

Get a Verdict That Grades the Right Dimension

Your review ends with a verdict that matches your track:

• Shipping verdict: did it ship, what blocked cycle time, what scope drift occurred
• Traction verdict: how many experiments produced signal, what improved activation
• Sales verdict: pipeline gaps, follow-up debt, stage movement, choke point

A verdict is a forcing function. It stops you from calling a scattered week "productive."