The EOP Forge Kit: Your AI-Powered Decision-Making Templates
Your copy-paste-ready toolkit for running the protocol from our article, "Kill Bad Ideas Faster."
In our main article, "Kill Bad Ideas Faster" we introduced the EOP Forge—a conversational protocol for making high-conviction startup pivots with your AI co-founder.
This post contains the complete, ready-to-use templates from that playbook. Duplicate them, share them with your team, and use them to build your own "sense-making machine."
Part 1: The EOP Forge Protocol
This is the conversational process you will run with your co-founder or AI partner. Use these steps to guide your next high-stakes strategic discussion.
Step 1: The Spark & The Frame
Present the new signal (the "Spark") and use your AI partner to answer these three questions. This will help you deconstruct the signal without bias.
What's the core problem this new signal points to?
How does this map to what we know we're building (our core competency)?
What are we assuming is true if we act on this?
Step 2: The Forking Paths
Brainstorm 2-3 distinct strategic options you could take in response to the signal. For each, create a simple "Concept Sketch" to make them easy to compare.
Concept Sketch Template:
Path Title: [e.g., AI Venture Partner]
The Bet: [A one-sentence hypothesis.]
For Whom: [The specific ICP.]
The Win: [The core value proposition.]
Step 3: The Crucible
This is the most important step. For your top 1-2 paths, rigorously challenge them with these three pre-mortem questions.
The Inversion Question: What would guarantee this path fails?
The Ripple Effect Question: If this succeeds, what are the second-order consequences (for our product, team, and business)?
The Pre-Mortem Question: It's six months from now, and this path has failed. What is the most likely story of what happened?
Step 4: The Decision
Based on the insights from The Crucible, make a final, explicit call. Your decision must be one of these four outcomes.
COMMIT: The pivot becomes the primary roadmap.
INTEGRATE: A minor course correction to the current roadmap.
SPIKE: A time-boxed experiment to test a kill assumption. (If you choose this, use the Spike Rubric below).
DISCARD: Document and close; do not revisit without a new, strong signal.
Part 2: The EOP Template
Fill this out as the output of your Forge session. This document is the official, tangible record of your strategic decision.
# EOP V(X): [Name of New Strategy]
**Status:** `Active` / `Concluded: Go` / `Concluded: No-Go`
**Date Ratified:** `YYYY-MM-DD`
**Supersedes:** `[Name of Previous EOP]`
---
## I. Pivot Rationale & Hypothesis (The "Opening")
* **A. Previous State:** [Briefly describe the strategy you are moving away from.]
* **B. Triggering Events & Data (The "Spark"):** [What key insights, data, or conversations forced this change?]
* **C. Core Hypothesis:** [A single, clear statement of the proposed new direction.]
---
## II. The Core Strategy: Manifesto
* **A. North Star Vision:** [Does this change your vision? Usually not.]
* **B. Mission:** [Does this change your mission? Usually not.]
* **C. Ideal Customer Profile (ICP):** [Who is this for?]
* **D. Core Value Proposition:** [What is the primary benefit for the ICP?]
* **E. Defensible Moat:** [What makes this hard to copy?]
---
## III. Validation & Results (The "Closing")
* **A. Key Validation Activities (The Crucible & Spikes):** [List the Crucible questions asked and any Spikes that were run.]
* **B. Summary of Outcomes (Crucible Findings):** [Summarize the key risks and insights discovered during the Crucible.]
* **C. Formal Decision & Date:** [State the final decision (COMMIT/INTEGRATE/SPIKE/DISCARD) and the date it was ratified.]Part 3: The Spike Rubric
If your decision from Step 4 is `SPIKE`, use this rubric to define the experiment with ruthless clarity. This ensures you get a clear, data-driven answer and avoids endless research projects.
Blank Spike Rubric Template
Hypothesis: The single, falsifiable assumption we are testing.
Kill Criteria: The non-negotiable, measurable conditions that will prove the hypothesis false. If these are met, the idea is killed.
Timebox: The strict time limit for the experiment (e.g., 24h, 48h).
Owner: The single person responsible for running the Spike and reporting the results.
Artifacts: The tangible outputs of the Spike (e.g., run logs, a summary report, a short video).
Example: Our "AI Tech Co-founder" Spike
Hypothesis: A third-party AI code-gen tool can reliably produce and iterate on repo-scoped code scaffolds.
Kill Criteria: The idea is killed if: 1) Any failure takes >2h to fix, OR 2) The regression rate across 5 test runs is >10%.
Timebox: 24 hours.
Owner: Hannes Thaller.
Artifacts: A reproduction script, detailed run logs, a summary table of success/failure rates and patch times, and a final Go/No-Go recommendation.
At Segmnts, we build tools for Architect Founders. The protocols described here are core workflows we are building into our AI Co-Worker Platform. Join the waitlist to be the first to try it.