template · portfolio review

Portfolio review template

Copy-paste skeleton. Pre-read pack + 90-minute agenda + signed outcome. Each initiative decided: kept · sharpened · killed.

How to use

The pre-read pack is sent 48 hours before. The outcome doc is filled during the review and signed at the end. The discipline: at least one initiative is killed every quarter.

Pre-read pack (sent 48h before)

text

# 2026-Q[N] Portfolio review — pre-read

## 1. SLA performance (one page)
[Across all client engagements. Met / approached / breached
 per dimension. Categories review noted.]

## 2. VRI trends (one page)
[Value Realization Index — fraction of predicted value that
 actually reached the person. Per active initiative. VRI of 0.8
 means 80% of intended change happened; 0.3 means delivered 30%
 of what was promised. Trending up = chain producing more of
 what was paid for. Trending down = rework, drift, scope leak.]

  Initiative                  VRI (Q-1)   VRI (Q-2)   Trend
  ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
  Hebrew-grading              0.78        0.85        UP
  AI-assisted feedback        0.31        0.18        DOWN
  Cold-cache warming          n/a         0.92        NEW
  Grader keyboard shortcuts   0.65        0.71        UP

## 3. Root-cause patterns (one page)
[Chain-level distribution of this quarter's bugs/incidents.]

  Level                   Count   % of total
  ─────────────────────────────────────────
  L1 Strategy             0       0%
  L2 Discovery            8       24%
  L3 Scope                11      33%
  L4 Execution            10      30%
  L5 Operation            4       12%

  Concentration: L2 + L3 = 57% — investment signal upstream.

## Active initiatives (one row each)
[Pulled from each Initiative Brief.]

  Name | Bet (one line) | Kill criterion | Cycle status

In the review — 90 minutes

text

# 2026-Q[N] Portfolio review — outcome

Date:        YYYY-MM-DD
Attendees:   [Leadership], Alex (PO), [TL]
Duration:    90 minutes

## Opening (5 min) — the bet, stated by leadership

[Leadership states the quarter's bet in 5 sentences,
 in their own words. Not from slides.]

## Read the three artefacts (15 min)

SLA performance:   [one paragraph reaction]
VRI trends:        [one paragraph reaction — what's moving?]
Root-cause:        [one paragraph reaction — what level is
                    concentrating? where is the structural
                    investment going next quarter?]

## Walk each initiative (30 min · ~5–10 min per row)

Initiative 1: [name]
  Brief:           [link]
  Bet:             [one line]
  Kill criterion:  [date + signal + threshold]
  Current signal:  [as of YYYY-MM-DD]
  Decision:        KEPT | SHARPENED | KILLED
  If sharpened:    [what's amended in the brief]
  If killed:       [link to kill brief]

Initiative 2: ...

## Concentration check (5 min)

Active initiatives:           [N]
First-cycle:                  [N]
Concentration limit (1/2):    [met / violated]
If violated:                  [decision — kill or delay]

## Investment shifts (15 min)

[What does the root-cause pattern tell us about where to
 invest in the chain itself next quarter? E.g., L2 + L3
 concentration says: invest in Discovery rigour. Concrete
 actions, dated.]

## Sign the outcome (5 min)

Initiatives kept:        [list]
Initiatives sharpened:   [list]
Initiatives killed:      [list — AT LEAST ONE]
Investment shifts:       [list]
Next review:             YYYY-MM-DD

Signed: [Leadership], [PO], [TL]

Worked example — Q2 2026 outcome

text

# 2026-Q2 Portfolio review — outcome

Date:        2026-06-29
Attendees:   Avi (Leadership), Alex (PO), Esti (TL)
Duration:    87 min

## Opening — the bet, stated by leadership
"This quarter we bet that observation-first cycles produce
higher VRI than the spec-first work we used to do. The wager
was a third of our delivery capacity on observation-grounded
initiatives. Q1 evidence was suggestive; Q2 was the test."

## Read the three artefacts
SLA performance:   Two breaches this quarter (JWT outage P0;
                    one P1 latency drift on grading-submit).
                    Both with postmortems; both with structural
                    fixes shipped. Availability held at 99.7%
                    against 99.5% SLA. No category renegotiation.

VRI trends:        Two of four initiatives improving, one new,
                    one declining. AI-assisted feedback VRI dropped
                    from 0.31 to 0.18 — a kill candidate.

Root-cause:        L2 (Discovery) and L3 (Scope) together = 57%
                    of bugs this quarter. Invest in Discovery
                    rigour next quarter.

## Walk each initiative
Hebrew-grading:        VRI 0.85 (up). Decision: KEPT, sharpened
                       — broaden pilot to 3 more schools.

AI-assisted feedback:  VRI 0.18 (down). Three cycles of intervention
                       did not move adoption. Decision: KILLED.
                       Kill brief: /briefs/killed/2026-Q2-ai-feedback.md.

Cold-cache warming:    VRI 0.92 (new). Decision: KEPT as-is;
                       roll to GA in cycle 7.

Grader keyboard shortcuts: VRI 0.71 (up). Decision: SHARPENED —
                       extend to multi-section grading next cycle;
                       brief input for Hebrew language-pack timing.

## Concentration check
Active initiatives:           3 (after kill)
First-cycle:                  1 (cold-cache warming)
Concentration limit (1/2):    met

## Investment shifts
- Discovery rigour: Q3 will fund a half-time "discovery audit"
  pass on the four longest-running initiatives. Owner: Alex (PO).
- Amigos template: add prompt for boundary cases in financial
  fields (already in last retro's change; sustaining)
- Post-mortem template: confirmed working — JWT outage produced
  structural fix that shipped

## Sign the outcome
Initiatives kept:        Hebrew-grading, cold-cache warming
Initiatives sharpened:   Grader keyboard shortcuts
Initiatives killed:      AI-assisted feedback
Investment shifts:       Discovery audit pass; amigos template
Next review:             2026-09-28

Signed: Avi, Alex, Esti · 2026-06-29

Where this lives in your project

The outcome doc is published — readable by the team, archived alongside the prior quarters' outcomes. The kill brief for any killed initiative is filed next to that initiative's Initiative Brief.

What to do if a section resists

Resistance	What it means	Where to go
Cannot state the bet in 5 sentences	The bet has decayed. That's the review's first finding.	Pause; reconstruct the bet before walking initiatives
No initiative is killable	Either the portfolio is too small, or the team is over-attached	Pick the lowest-conviction; kill. The discipline matters more than the optimal choice.
VRI trends are all "n/a"	Measurement isn't in place	This is itself a portfolio-level decision; invest in VRI capture next quarter
Concentration limit violated	Too many first-cycle initiatives	Force a kill or a delay
Investment shifts section is empty	The root-cause data wasn't read for what it says about next quarter	Re-read; the chain-level distribution is the most actionable artefact

Portfolio review template ​

Pre-read pack (sent 48h before) ​

In the review — 90 minutes ​

Worked example — Q2 2026 outcome ​

Where this lives in your project ​

What to do if a section resists ​

See also ​

Portfolio review template

Pre-read pack (sent 48h before)

In the review — 90 minutes

Worked example — Q2 2026 outcome

Where this lives in your project

What to do if a section resists

See also