Phase 1 — Active Workload Audit
Most teams cannot enumerate the work currently in flight, let alone score it. The Precision Protocol begins with a mandatory inventory of every active initiative, owner, hypothesis, and measurement contract.
Step 1.1 — Enumerate every in-flight initiative
Surface the full list. Teams routinely discover 30–50% more work than leadership believes is active.
Step 1.2 — Attach a hypothesis to each
An initiative without an explicit hypothesis is exploratory work mislabeled as execution. Reclassify or remove.
Phase 2 — Falsifiability Scoring
A hypothesis that cannot be falsified inside a defined window does not produce signal. The Precision Protocol requires every active initiative to declare its falsification criteria upfront.
Step 2.1 — Define the disconfirming outcome
State the result that would cause the initiative to be terminated. If none exists, the work is not falsifiable.
Step 2.2 — Bound the falsification window
Open-ended timelines preserve unfalsifiable work indefinitely. The Protocol mandates a fixed evaluation interval.
Phase 3 — Capacity Discipline
Precision is enforced through capacity, not through priority lists. The Protocol caps active initiatives at a fixed multiple of team headcount and prohibits exceeding the cap without explicit decommissioning.
Step 3.1 — Rank by expected contribution per unit of capacity
The ranking metric is not effort, urgency, or stakeholder preference. It is the falsifiable hypothesis's expected contribution divided by required capacity.
Step 3.2 — Decommission the bottom tercile
The lowest-ranked third is removed before the next cycle. This is non-negotiable; without it, the workload monotonically grows.
Phase 4 — Cadence Lock
Once the surviving set is committed, the cadence is locked. Mid-cycle additions are permitted only with explicit decommissioning of equal-weight work.
Step 4.1 — Enforce the swap rule
New work in requires equivalent work out. The cap is preserved or precision degrades.
Step 4.2 — Review on the locked interval
All evaluation, ranking, and decommissioning happen at fixed intervals. Continuous re-prioritization is the failure mode the Protocol exists to prevent.
Audit Your Focus
Run any landing page, funnel, or product surface against the Precision Protocol. Receive a hypothesis-by-hypothesis diagnostic and a decommissioning roadmap.
Run Precision Audit