LK

Operations

Diligence Without Theater

If the operating model only works in the CIM, it does not work.

Lena Kowalski/March 2026/5 min read

I have sat on both sides of growth-stage diligence. The theater version is a deck of metrics with no owner. The useful version is a list of who runs the weekly, what breaks when headcount freezes, and which customer segment actually pays the bills. I write that list first.