Our reading notes

The Secret to a Great Planning Process — Lessons from Airbnb and Eventbrite

Framework by Lenny Rachitsky and Nels Gilbreth

A planning sequence that moves between leadership context and team proposals before committing the organization.

The idea to take with you

Planning fails when responsibilities and decision order are implicit. Make the exchanges between leaders and teams explicit.

What to look for

01
Start with direction and constraints from leadership.
02
Ask teams to propose feasible work and surface dependencies.
03
Integrate the proposals and return the resulting tradeoffs for final alignment.

Designed around multi-team company planning. Use a lighter version where one team can resolve the same questions directly.

Put it to work

Write the next planning calendar as four handoffs, naming who sends what, to whom, and which decisions each handoff makes possible.

Notes and exercises by Awesome CTO. The original work belongs to Lenny Rachitsky and Nels Gilbreth.

Our planning & delivery guide connects the reading to a practical approach and a template.