Ecom CFO Notebook - prioritize with rocks

Welcome to this issue of Ecom CFO Notebook – a weekly letter for 7–9 figure ecommerce founders and CFOs, sharing my perspective and stories for profitable growth.

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Sam here.

This week, we’re back to being better operators.

I recently got off a call with a client doing mid-eight figures. They've got a checkout optimization that adds $20 AOV per order.

When we did the math, it was $30k-$40k in potential monthly EBITDA lift.

But they can't get it fully rolled out. 

They built it, tested it, and saw the lift. 

Then had to pull it back due to tech issues. Now they're paying another firm $15K monthly to fix it, but that team keeps missing deadlines. Meanwhile, the CEO's juggling fifty other "urgent" priorities—new product launches, inventory issues, team hiring.

We’ve seen this movie before.

What the hell are rocks?

If you read my issue on Core Focus a few weeks back, you know I'm a fan of selective pieces from EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System).

Not the whole playbook, but just the parts that actually move ecommerce companies forward.

Broadly, rocks are EOS's term for quarterly priorities. I think of them as our top 2-3 bets for the quarter.

Not to-dos. Bets.

When you make a bet, you're saying, "I'm willing to put time, money, and attention on this because I believe it'll pay off." Same with rocks.

You're betting these 2-3 things will move your business forward more than anything else you could focus on.

Rocks are contracts

When you and your team agree on 2-3 rocks for the quarter, you're signing a contract.

These are non-negotiables, no matter what shiny object walks through the door.

One important caveat on “non-negotiable”. It’s up to you to determine what “non-negotiable” means to you. For example, is a rock non-negotiable if your Meta account gets hacked? If there’s a fire at your 3PL? Some rocks are more non-negotiable than others. Be intentional about it.

Now, that checkout optimization I mentioned earlier? Should've been a rock. Clear ownership, weekly check-ins, and a finish line everyone agreed on.

Instead, it's competing with 47 other "priorities" for attention.

Most importantly, the contract gives your team permission to push back. When you're firing off different tasks every day, your team has no way to prioritize. Everything feels urgent to you, so everything becomes urgent to them.

With rocks, they can say: "We agreed these three things are the priority this quarter. Do you want me to pause the rock for this new request?"

Now you're making an actual decision instead of just adding to the pile.

You can do anything you want as an owner. But you can't do everything.

My rock template

This is where I’ve diverged from the standard EOS rock. Standard EOS rocks are vague. "Improve customer service." "Increase sales."

Not helpful.

My team and I add the following context to every rock:

• Minimum Viable Success — The bare minimum that counts as "done." No scope creep allowed.

• Nice-to-Have — The dream scenario if everything goes perfect.

• Anticipated Challenges — What could derail this? Staff leaving? Technical issues? Plan for it.

• 90-Day Work Plan — Week by week breakdown with clear ownership.

For our client with the checkout optimization rock, it could look like this: 

Minimum Viable Success: New checkout live on 50% of traffic by Sept 30.

Nice-to-Have: 100% rollout by Sept 30 and A/B testing.

Anticipated Challenges: Mobile traffic behaves differently than desktop. Server load issues during peak traffic. Customer service team needs training on new flow.

90-Day Work Plan: 

• Week 1-2: Finalize requirements with dev team

• Week 3-6: Build and QA

• Week 7-8: 25% traffic test.

• Week 9-12: Scale to 50% and measure results.

It should have a clear finish line with no arguing about what "done" means.

Where rocks go wrong

I've messed this up plenty.

• Founder owns too many rocks. Anytime I'm the owner of a rock, it usually doesn't get done. I'm too scattered. Give rocks to people who can actually focus on them.

• Rocks don't connect to your bigger picture.  If your rock doesn't tie to your 1 and/or 3-year target, it's probably not a rock. It's just a nice-to-have project.

• Skipping weekly check-ins. Rocks die in silence. All it takes is a simple weekly question: "On track or off track?" If off track: "Why? What help do you need?" That’s all it takes to keep it moving forward.

• Picking too many. Companies choose 8-10 rocks per quarter. They finish maybe 2. Better to choose 3 and actually complete them.

Now I know what to watch for. Doesn't mean I'm perfect at it, but at least I catch myself faster.

Start here

Last time, I walked through building a master issues list. If you missed it, that's step one.

Dump everything. Prioritize high/medium/low. Add level of effort. Choose your 3 highest-priority, highest-impact items.

Those become rocks.

Now this week, you can take those top 3 issues and turn them into actual rocks using the template above. Assign each one to someone who isn't you (if possible). Set the MVS and nice-to-have outcomes.

Founders love to plan. Beautiful roadmaps, detailed quarterly plans, color-coded project management systems. But I see many of them still putting out fires every day instead of moving forward.

A simple rock that actually gets done beats ten sophisticated initiatives that sit in your backlog.

What's the one project sitting in your backlog that would move the needle if you finally finished it? Hit reply and let me know!

— Sam

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