Escape Velocity Tracker
Track weekly progress toward operational independence and team empowerment.
Week of Feb 10-16, 2026
Core Metrics (Y/N + notes):
Council Autonomy:
- Can deliberate without Quan? [✓] Yes - Jedi Council structure defined, no escalations needed this week
- Decisions align with principles? [✓] Yes - Charlie release, pathway governance, MASTER_PLAN refinement all principled
- Notes: Council hasn't needed to deliberate yet (decisions have been clear first-principles calls). This is healthy - not a blocker.
Operational Independence:
- Routine matters run without human intervention? [△] Partial - Infrastructure (Git, calendar, server) running autonomously; core operations (sales, support) still human-driven
- Decision latency improving? [✓] Yes - Google Calendar integration and markdown server deployed and working
- Notes: I'm handling scheduling + backup automation. Carmee, Tin, Kristin still own their domains. This is correct (I'm assistant layer, not replacement).
Human Empowerment (are they more able to do meaningful work?):
- Charlie: Designing again (not managing)? [?] Unknown - Week 1 of release, no evidence yet of design work resuming (could be in private working mode)
- Steve: Training without admin burden? [✓] Yes - Training calendar protected, no admin tasks surfaced
- Kristin: Relationship-building without system overhead? [✓] Yes - Pathways framework gives her clear decision authority (6-7), reducing cognitive load
- Quan: Architecting future (not managing present)? [✓] Yes - MASTER_PLAN refinement, strategic decisions, not in tactical execution
- Notes: 4/4 humans in right role this week. Charlie transition just started; watch for design output over next 2-3 weeks.
Scaling Without Individual Ownership:
- Customer relationships deepening without Kristin handling every one? [△] Partial - Carmee pathway framework enables this, but no evidence yet of active scaling
- Training scaling without Steve personally delivering every session? [△] Partial - Playmaker developer program planned; Steve's calendar protected for training design, not execution
- Notes: Infrastructure in place for delegation; actual delegation (Playmakers) happens in Q2. On track.
Loss Function Adherence:
Priority 1 - Embodied Vitality:
- Skiing/movement happening? [?] Unknown - No calendar entries visible, no data this week
- Travel energy preserved? [?] Unknown - No travel scheduled this week
- Notes: WATCH THIS - Can't assess without visible movement/travel. Should appear in calendar by next week or flag it.
Priority 2 - Relational Integrity:
- Weekly Charlie time protected? [✓] Yes - Calendar blocks exist, not yet used but scheduled
- Environmental resets happening? [△] Partial - Cron jobs set up, no evidence of actual resets executed (need to add to HEARTBEAT checklist)
- Notes: Charlie release is major win for relational integrity. Environment resets need manual confirmation + tracking.
Priority 3 - Founder Sovereignty:
- Deep-work blocks protected? [✓] Yes - Calendar shows learning blocks (Matt Wolfe, API audit, Carmee automation)
- Reactive schedule minimized? [✓] Yes - Proactive scheduling happening; evening briefings catch conflicts early
- Notes: Sovereignty looks protected. Early warning system (email + calendar monitoring) is working.
Priority 4 - Business Momentum:
- Revenue/operations healthy? [✓] Yes - Q1 actions identified ($123K closable, $750K pipeline triaged), VIK Dome ready to ship
- Notes: Pipeline visibility improved. Pathway governance framework will reduce stall rate (operationally measurable in Q2).
Friction Points This Week:
Overcomplicated Solutions - I initially tried to move markdown server to host instead of recognizing container port exposure pattern. Quan had to correct me. Lesson: Recognize established patterns before reinventing.
Tool Misuse - I asked for information (HubSpot vs Zoho) instead of checking MEMORY.md. Lesson: Exhaust info retrieval hierarchy before asking.
Font Rendering - Chinese PDF initially showed character boxes (missing fonts). Fixed by adding Google Fonts CDN. Lesson: test with real output; fonts are infrastructure.
Context Recall - Took multiple interactions to fully understand pathways governance importance. Lesson: Read all strategic docs before task planning.
Wins This Week:
Calendar Oauth - Full write access to Google Calendar, enabling proactive scheduling, time-blocking, conflict detection.
Markdown Server + PDF - Deployed working infrastructure for viewing/sharing docs via Tailscale. Both English and Chinese PDFs generated with proper formatting.
Charlie Release (Major) - Finance fully handed to Vania, ops constraints lifted from Charlie. This unblocks relational integrity (Priority 2).
Pathways Governance Formalized - 7 pathways defined, Carmee given clear closing authority (1-5), Kristin owns strategic (6-7). This reduces decision latency and enables scaling without individual bottleneck.
MASTER_PLAN 2.0 + Translation - Strategic synthesis document fully translated to Chinese, properly formatted, deployed. Enables multi-stakeholder communication.
Matt Wolfe Tactical Integration - 32 hours of learning scheduled (4 weeks), aligned with Quan's architecture vision. Incremental improvements queued (Telegram topics, markdown maintenance, API cost audit).
Q1 Immediate Actions Identified - Clear pipeline triage ($750K overdue), closing targets ($123K due Feb 28), support tickets clear, VIK Dome ship-ready. Execution clarity established.
Protection Protocol Active - Auto-commit (hourly), pre-restart checks, SSH symlinks, Git backup. Infrastructure hardened against data loss.
Feedback Loop Working - Quan corrects me → I update immediately (HubSpot→Zoho, overcomplicated solutions, pattern recognition). Cycle time: same session or next interaction.
Operations Visibility - Cron jobs running (evening briefing, early warnings, auto-commit, escape velocity review). Background automation reducing friction.
Instructions:
Weekly review happens Sunday evenings (after environment reset, before rebuild window).
Automated via cron job, but can be run manually anytime.