It happens more often than you'd think. Someone adjusts the launch timeline from Q2 to Q4, but the competitive positioning still assumes first-mover advantage. The budget gets cut by 30%, but the scope stays ambitious. Customer acquisition costs double, but the growth strategy remains unchanged.
The problem isn't the revision—it's the disconnect.
Every number in your plan exists to support a claim. Your headcount supports your execution capacity. Your runway supports your milestone sequence. Your unit economics support your scalability goals. When any of these shift, the claims they underpin must shift too.
This is where plans can break down. Not because the numbers are wrong, but because the narrative hasn't kept pace. You've updated the cells but not the logic. Changed the what without revisiting the how.
The fix isn't complicated: treat every numerical change as a narrative trigger. Ask yourself what assumption just changed, which claims need revisiting, and what new story these numbers now tell. If your answer is "nothing changed," you're either lying to yourself or you never needed that number in the first place.
Great plans don't just have consistent numbers—they have numbers that tell a consistent story. And when that story changes, everything changes with it.
Some other small thoughts I had while writing this…
If you can't explain why a number changed in two sentences, you don't understand your business well enough yet.
The best plans have fewer numbers, not more. Each one should carry weight.
#MakeEveryDecisionCount
