AUA: How To Design a Startup OS From Scratch?
Rodney and Sam explore what OS elements to build early, what to resist, and why “minimum viable everything” beats perfect systems.
At Work with The Ready · Rodney Evans and Sam Spurlin
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Show Notes
Starting a company with a blank slate sounds like a dream—but it’s also a trap. In this mini episode, Rodney and Sam respond to a listener question about how to design an organizational operating system from scratch, without inheriting all the baggage of traditional management.
They argue for resisting the urge to over-design early, letting real tension (not theory) drive structure, and focusing on a few foundational practices that scale. From operating rhythms and Kanban boards to experimentation and “sky sensing,” this episode breaks down what’s actually worth putting in place early—and what’s better left until it hurts.
Mentioned references:
- "op rhythm": BNW Ep. 118
- "strategy": AWWTR Ep. 2
- "experimentation": AWWTR Ep. 38
- "retrospectives": BNW Ep. 10 with Jordan Husney
- Kanban board
- The Ready's Experiment Proposal Template
- "The Sky" from Depthfinding
- Mia Wise
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Got a work question like this one you'd like us to answer? Email us at [email protected]
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Sound engineering and design by Taylor Marvin of Coupe Studios.