Product System
Impact contracts
The measurable statement a strategy card carries: direction, baseline and measurement windows, confidence, status, and evidence.
An impact contract is the small, checkable statement attached to a Work/Action or Ideas/Hypothesis card. It turns "we think this will help" into something you can judge.
The fields
| Field | What it captures |
|---|---|
| Metric links | The metrics this bet touches, each with a role: target, leading, or guardrail. A link points at a tracked metric or a card. |
| Expected direction | increase, decrease, or stabilize — what "good" looks like for the target. |
| Expected change | Optional size and unit, e.g. +3,000 / month. |
| Baseline window | The "before" period the result is compared against. |
| Measurement window | The period over which the result is judged. |
| Confidence | low, medium, or high — how sure you are up front. |
| Status | The lifecycle: draft → planned → measuring → won / lost / inconclusive. |
| Owner & result note | Who owns the bet, and the short write-up of what happened. |
Reading a contract
Action: Ship annual billing
Target Expansion MRR increase +3,000 / month
Leading Annual-plan adoption increase
Guardrail Churn rate must not rise
Baseline 2026-05 Measure 2026-07 … 2026-09
Confidence medium Status measuringHow measurement works
- Set a baseline from the before-window so a result is measured, not claimed.
- While the measurement window is open, the contract is measuring.
- When it closes, compare the target's movement to the expected direction and change:
- moved as expected, guardrails intact → won
- didn't move (or a guardrail broke) → lost
- too noisy to tell → inconclusive
- Record a result note and attach evidence.
Guardrails can veto a win
Hitting the target while breaking a guardrail is not a win. Judge target and guardrail together.
Why the windows matter
Without an explicit baseline and measurement window, every result is arguable. The windows make the bet falsifiable — the difference between a metrics tool and a scoreboard.
Next step
See it in a full workflow: Build a growth map, or go back to Strategy to impact.