Research
Purpose: Find useful evidence about customers, problems, competitors, channels, and business assumptions.
Typical output: Research brief, evidence log, unanswered questions, and recommended next test.
Companion quick reference
AI Team Business Quick Reference
One founder directing six connected business functions
Direct download: https://dcfrancisco.github.io/ai-team/downloads/AI-Team-Business-Quick-Reference.pdf
Direct your AI team
The six roles
Marketing
Purpose: Turn approved evidence into useful market-facing messages and acquisition experiments.
Typical output: Message, content draft, listing draft, channel test, and response measurement.
Sales
Purpose: Turn attention and interest into qualified conversations, offers, proposals, orders, and decisions.
Typical output: Qualification record, sales-conversation plan, proposal, follow-up, and decision request.
Delivery
Purpose: Turn an accepted sale or order into reliable work, fulfillment, quality checking, acceptance, and payment follow-through.
Typical output: Onboarding checklist, delivery plan, completed work, quality check, and acceptance record.
Support
Purpose: Handle questions, problems, revisions, returns, refunds, and customer follow-through.
Typical output: Support response, issue record, resolution, escalation, and recurring-problem signal.
Operations
Purpose: Maintain the weekly view of customers, sales, delivery, support, cash, capacity, risks, and decisions.
Typical output: Weekly operating review, problem list, capacity view, cash record, and next priority.
The basic handoff
- Researchevidence
- Marketingattention and responses
- Salesaccepted offer or order
- Deliverycompleted work or fulfillment
- Supportcustomer issues and recurring signals
- Operationsreview, decision, and improvement
Assign work with the ten-part prompt
Role:
You are the [AI ROLE].
Business context:
[WHAT THE BUSINESS SELLS, TO WHOM, AND HOW]
Objective:
[THE BUSINESS RESULT REQUIRED]
Inputs:
[APPROVED INFORMATION AND SOURCE MATERIAL]
Method:
[STEPS OR CHECKLIST TO FOLLOW]
Constraints:
[WHAT THE ROLE MUST NOT ASSUME, PROMISE, PUBLISH, OR DO]
Required evidence:
[WHAT MUST SUPPORT THE OUTPUT]
Output:
[THE EXACT ARTIFACT OR DECISION SUPPORT REQUIRED]
Escalation:
[WHEN TO STOP AND ASK THE FOUNDER]
Founder approval:
[WHAT MUST BE REVIEWED BEFORE EXTERNAL USE]
Keep the founder in control
Founder approval is required before:
- Committing money
- Setting or changing prices
- Making customer promises
- Sending proposals or contracts
- Publishing content or listings
- Accessing private customer information
- Issuing refunds
- Accepting major scope changes
- Delivering final work
- Automating consequential actions
Run and improve the business
The business cycle
- Offer
- Customer
- Sale
- Delivery
- Support
- Review
- Improve
AI can prepare, organize, compare, draft, monitor, and recommend. The Founder owns commitments, money, judgment, quality, and final decisions.
Weekly business review
- What sold or moved closer to a sale?
- Which customer conversations produced useful evidence?
- What must be delivered or fulfilled next?
- What is waiting for approval, acceptance, or payment?
- Which customer or support problem appeared?
- How much usable capacity remains?
- What happened to cash, costs, refunds, and inventory?
- Which assumption was disproved?
- What is the largest current constraint?
- What single improvement or experiment should run next?
Track the numbers that show business movement
Service-business numbers
- Prospects contacted
- Replies
- Customer conversations
- Qualified opportunities
- Proposals sent
- Sales accepted
- Revenue invoiced
- Cash received
- Delivery hours
- Revisions
- Outstanding payments
- Available capacity
E-commerce numbers
- Visits or listing views
- Product-page engagement
- Add-to-carts
- Orders
- Conversion rate
- Average order value
- Product cost
- Packaging and fulfillment cost
- Marketplace and payment fees
- Acquisition cost
- Returns and refunds
- Inventory available
- Cash received
Attention, followers, clicks, and carts do not equal revenue.