It’s one thing to prescribe a process; it’s another to live by it. We built Basis on the conviction that a structured sprint is the fastest way to de-risk a big bet and align a team. But what happens when we turn that process on ourselves?
We recently ran an internal Foundation Sprint to sharpen our own strategy. The goal was to move beyond abstract ideas and forge a tangible, testable plan for our own growth. The experience was humbling, clarifying, and a powerful reminder of why this process works.
Here are the most important lessons that were driven home for us.
Lesson 1: The “Obvious” is a Minefield of Misalignment.
Our practice is built on a simple observation: when you ask two people on the same founding team a question as basic as "Who is your customer?", you almost always get two different answers. We know this intellectually, but living it again was a potent reminder. The _Basics_ section of the sprint - defining the customer, problem, and competitors - feels simple, but it’s deceptively critical. It forces the conversations that are often avoided because they feel "obvious."
The real challenge isn't just having an answer; it's agreeing on the right level of abstraction. During our sprint, we debated the core problem we solve. Is it "lacking a process for prioritization," or is it something bigger? We realized that all the smaller pains laddered up to one core truth: our clients struggle to move quickly and with confidence.
Choosing that higher-level problem was a critical decision. We were reminded that a five-degree drift at this early stage can lead a team to an entirely different, and wrong, destination. The sprint’s structure doesn’t just get you an answer; it forces the team to align on the _right altitude_ for that answer.
Lesson 2: Your Fiercest Competitor is Human Behavior.
When we ask teams to name their competitors, they almost always list other companies. We fell into the same trap. But the Foundation Sprint forces you to look beyond the usual suspects. For us, the fiercest competition wasn't another firm, but the default mindset of a founder: the belief that they can simply brute-force a solution on their own.
This reminded us that a company's most powerful competitor often isn't another business, but the inertia of established human behavior. For many finance startups, the real competitor isn't another app; it's Excel. For us, it isn't another agency; it’s the status quo of gut-feel and endless debate. Your biggest barrier is often inertia.
Once you identify the _real_ competition, the differentiation exercises provide a framework to win. The process pushed us to consider how we could redefine the competitive landscape to our advantage.
By creating a 2x2 grid comparing "Alignment vs. Discord" and "Collaborative vs. Prescriptive," we found our unique space. Seeing our position visually on the grid was a genuine revelation that crystallized our unique place in the market. It turned an abstract feeling into a concrete, strategic position.
Lesson 3: The Real Product Isn't an Idea; It's Alignment.
This was the most profound lesson. We went into the sprint hoping to find a killer marketing idea, and we did. But the idea itself wasn't the most valuable outcome. The true product of the sprint was alignment.
This gets to the heart of our philosophy: the challenge of building a great product is often secondary to the challenge of getting the team fully aligned. The best ideas are almost always already living inside the team’s heads. The difficulty is creating a structure to bring them to light without getting derailed by politics, circular debates, or the loudest voice in the room.
The sprint’s structured, silent exercises are designed for exactly this. We saw again how group voting isn't about designing by committee. Instead, it’s a tool for quickly visualizing the landscape of ideas, which helps the decider make a confident choice without getting lost in endless debate.
This solidified our identity: we aren't magicians who invent solutions, but stewards who create the conditions for a team's own best ideas to emerge.
The Outcome: A Hypothesis Built on Confidence.
Ultimately, the sprint didn't give us a guarantee of success. It gave us something far more valuable: a battle-tested hypothesis we all believed in, and the shared clarity to move forward with confidence. The process of defining our foundation was a powerful exercise in clarifying what, exactly, makes us _us_. It was a stark reminder that simply taking the time to do this work puts a team ahead of the vast majority of their peers.