A year of evidence, written a week at a time, so that the review is a reading and not a memory.
Nobody remembers the good work in March. This book asks for six lines a week while the week is still true, and then hands the year back to you in the only month you need it. Write it down the week it happens, or do not claim it later.
A row reads left to right: the day, what you did, who saw it, and the number that proves it. If there is no number yet, write the row anyway — the book counts those separately and so should you.
“I made the reporting better” is a feeling. “I took the report from nine tabs to two, and the two people who read it noticed” is evidence. A number you can point at beats an adjective you have to defend.
The wins are the strips you carried forward. The numbers are counted from the strips. The review reads the numbers. The ask is built from the review. If a page at the back is empty, the weeks behind it are empty, and the book is telling you the truth.
| MODULE | PAGE | WHAT IT IS FOR |
|---|---|---|
| THE EVIDENCE | 04–58 | Fifty-two strips. One week a page, one piece of evidence a row, the number beside it. |
| THE THIRTEEN | 03, 17, 31, 45 | One page at the head of each quarter: thirteen weeks, counted. |
| THE WINS | 59 | The rows you carried forward, still dated, still with their witness. |
| THE MEASURES | 60 | The measures this role moves, month by month, and what the year adds to. |
| THE GROWTH | 62 | What you can do now, when you could do it, and what proved it. |
| THE REVIEW | 63–64 | Four questions, assembled from the evidence, with the page numbers attached. |
| THE NEXT ROLE | 65 | What you want next and the gaps that still stand in the way. |
| THE ASK | 66–67 | The case for the promotion, built only from what is already written. |
Thirteen weeks of the year, counted. 33 pieces of evidence, 18 of them carrying a number. Nothing here is typed twice: the columns are the strips behind them.
Thirteen weeks of the year, counted. 35 pieces of evidence, 17 of them carrying a number. Nothing here is typed twice: the columns are the strips behind them.
Thirteen weeks of the year, counted. 34 pieces of evidence, 18 of them carrying a number. Nothing here is typed twice: the columns are the strips behind them.
Thirteen weeks of the year, counted. 26 pieces of evidence, 21 of them carrying a number. Nothing here is typed twice: the columns are the strips behind them.
These are the rows from the weeks that you would want in the room. A win without a date and a number is a story — the witness column is there so that you are never the only person who remembers it.
| DATE | THE WIN | WHO SAW IT | THE NUMBER |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19 JAN | Trained the new starter on order intake | Dan Whitfield, new starter | 1 person trained |
| 15 FEB | Answered the buyer's audit questions on stock accuracy | the buyer's audit team | 6 questions closed |
| 17 FEB | Reconciled the February count with no write-offs | the finance month end | 0 write-offs |
| 9 MAR | Ran a session on what an exception actually is | nine people from two teams | |
| 7 APR | Built the cost model for the two-pack line | the line manager | 6 cost lines modelled |
| 25 APR | Gave the April numbers at the team meeting | the whole operations team | |
| 11 MAY | Cut the exception queue to zero for the first time this year | the queue | 0 items waiting |
| 19 MAY | Fixed the duplicate supplier records | the supplier master | |
| 3 JUN | Ran the June audit with no findings on stock | the audit record | 0 findings |
| 15 JUN | Ran the mid-year numbers for the leads | the operations leadership team | 12 measures reviewed |
| 9 JUL | Got the trial extended to the second line | the operations leadership team | |
| 5 AUG | Cut changeover on the second line from 52 to 38 minutes | the line log | 14 minutes per changeover |
| 11 AUG | Held the variance inside tolerance for the first time | the August count | 0 counts out of tolerance |
| 23 AUG | Answered the audit follow-up in two days | the audit team | 2 days, down from 10 |
| 9 SEP | Ran the September count with no rework | the warehouse team | 0 items reworked |
| 17 SEP | Wrote the case for a permanent analyst on the line | the operations leadership team | |
| 13 OCT | Got the analyst role approved in principle | the operations leadership team | 1 role approved |
| 5 NOV | Handed the count method over to the Saturday crew | the Saturday crew | 5 people running it |
| 23 NOV | Gave the year's numbers at the all-hands | the whole site | 5 measures |
The measures this role moves. One column a month, and no measure without a number. The change column is the difference between the first month you filled and the last, and it is arithmetic, not a memory.
| MEASURE | UNIT | J | F | M | A | M | J | J | A | S | O | N | D | CHANGE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cycle time | hours | 3.1 | 3 | 2.8 | 2.8 | 2.6 | 2.5 | 2.4 | 2.3 | 2.1 | 2 | 1.9 | -1.2 | |
| Volume handled | count | 1840 | 1910 | 2050 | 2010 | 2180 | 2240 | 2310 | 2260 | 2405 | 2480 | 2540 | +700 | |
| Error / rework rate | % | 4.8 | 4.6 | 4.1 | 3.6 | 3.2 | 2.9 | 2.4 | 2.1 | 1.9 | 1.6 | 1.4 | -3.4 | |
| Cost per unit | index | 100 | 99 | 97 | 96 | 94 | 93 | 91 | 90 | 88 | 87 | 86 | -14 | |
| People supported | count | 34 | 34 | 36 | 38 | 38 | 41 | 41 | 43 | 43 | 46 | 46 | +12 | |
| On-time delivery | % | 91.2 | 91.8 | 92.4 | 93.1 | 94 | 94.6 | 95.2 | 95.9 | 96.4 | 97.1 | 97.6 | +6.4 | |
| Backlog at month end | count | 212 | 198 | 176 | 161 | 142 | 118 | 96 | 84 | 71 | 58 | 44 | -168 | |
| Adoption of what I built | users | 6 | 9 | 12 | 16 | 21 | 24 | 27 | 31 | 34 | 38 | 41 | +35 | |
128 entries, 74 with a number, 11 of 12 months, 4 skills gained, 3 gaps open.
A skill with no date and no proof is a claim about your personality. This page asks for the thing you can point at — the model you built, the session you chaired, the page you wrote. Nine lines is more than a year usually gives.
| SKILL | DATED | WHAT PROVED IT |
|---|---|---|
| SQL window functions | 12 MAR | the backlog dashboard query, down to 0.8 seconds |
| Facilitating a cross-team review | 19 MAY | four sessions chaired, both shifts in the room |
| Cost modelling in a spreadsheet | 11 AUG | the two-line cost model, six cost lines |
| Writing a one-page decision memo | 7 OCT | three memos, one decision each |
Four questions and nothing else. Each one has a page number beside it, because an answer you cannot locate is an opinion with a date on it.
| DATE | WHAT HAPPENED | WHO SAW IT | THE NUMBER |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19 JAN | Trained the new starter on order intake | Dan Whitfield, new starter | 1 person trained |
| 15 FEB | Answered the buyer's audit questions on stock accuracy | the buyer's audit team | 6 questions closed |
| 17 FEB | Reconciled the February count with no write-offs | the finance month end | 0 write-offs |
| THE GAP | WHY IT MATTERS | THE PROOF I NEED | STATE |
|---|---|---|---|
| Owning a budget, not just a cost line | the next role holds one | OPEN | |
| Presenting to a customer, not just internally | half the job is outside the building | the September customer session | CLOSED |
| Managing someone directly | the next role has two analysts | OPEN | |
| Cost modelling without a template | the second cost model | CLOSED | |
| Chairing a senior review | four cross-team sessions | CLOSED | |
| Writing at decision speed | three memos in October | CLOSED | |
| Stakeholder work outside operations | the role sits across three teams | OPEN | |
| DATE | WHAT HAPPENED | WHO SAW IT | THE NUMBER |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19 JAN | Trained the new starter on order intake | Dan Whitfield, new starter | 1 person trained |
| 15 FEB | Answered the buyer's audit questions on stock accuracy | the buyer's audit team | 6 questions closed |
| 17 FEB | Reconciled the February count with no write-offs | the finance month end | 0 write-offs |