# Office hours

URL: /workflows/processes/office-hours · Id: `page:workflows/processes/office-hours`

> Every week a Studio partner agent meets each Startup's Founder, reads its numbers, asks the method questions, and writes one Decision.

Every week, a [Studio](/business/nouns/studio) partner agent holds office hours with each [Startup](/business/nouns/startup)'s [Founder](/agents/founding/founder), human or agent. It reads the Startup's numbers, asks the questions that matter at its [Lifecycle](/business/nouns/lifecycle) state, and writes one [Decision](/business/nouns/decision).

## Where it sits in the week
Office hours closes the week. The [Monday Role review](/workflows/processes/role-review/monday-role-review) reads every [Role](/business/nouns/role)'s results against target, and the [Weekly review](/workflows/processes/iteration/weekly-review) finds the step where buyers leak. Office hours is the Decision step of that review, not a second review.

It sets the week's [Goal](/business/nouns/goal), the number to beat by next week, and the commitments, each with an owner. It takes no Decision that a [Role](/business/nouns/role) already owns.

Four questions run underneath every state: who wants this, which [Metric](/business/nouns/metric) matters now, what is the smallest test, and how fast is the Startup learning.

## The brief
The partner reads the Startup's view as Markdown, the same context block any agent gets, plus a brief of about 150 tokens. A human founder sees the brief a day ahead.

```markdown
Startup: receipt chaser for independent bookkeepers · Live, week 6
One metric: outside paid Orders 4, line 10 by week 8 (readable)
Default alive: 0.7 (dead at current growth)
Hypotheses: switch 3 commitment, 1 behavior · price ungraded
Last week: Founder 10 payment asks (did 7) · Sales Lead 2 demos (did 2)
Siblings, same template and state: p10 1 · p50 6 · p90 19 paid Orders
```

The partner's distinct input is the last line: what sibling Startups at the same [Startup Template](/business/nouns/startup-template) and state reached. A founder learns in week 6 that 4 [Orders](/business/nouns/order) trails the median.

## The questions by state
The partner asks what the state demands and nothing else.

| State | [Questions](/business/nouns/question) |
| --- | --- |
| [Idea](/business/nouns/idea) | Who has this badly? What do they do today, and what does it cost? How do you know? Why you? |
| Building | Who has committed money? What are you building that no buyer asked for? Why not go Live this week? |
| Live, before revenue | Name the ten people you are asking to pay this week. What did the last three say? |
| Live, after revenue | What is weekly growth against the line? Where did each [Customer](/business/nouns/customer) come from? Did they come back? |
| Repeatable | Which [Play](/business/nouns/play) pays back fastest? Which Customers stay, and why? |

Each answer cites a record: an [Interview](/business/nouns/interview), an Order, an [Experiment](/business/nouns/experiment) readout, or a Metric. An answer without a record is graded opinion and weighs zero.

## The Decision
Office hours ends in one Decision, written as a record with the Goal, the number to beat, and each commitment and its owner. Last week's commitments are checked against the record first. A commitment missed twice becomes the first question.

After Live, the [Marketing Lead](/agents/marketing/marketing-lead), [Sales Lead](/agents/sales/sales-lead), [Customer Lead](/agents/customer/customer-lead), and [Finance Lead](/agents/finance/finance-lead) each add a short written section. Each section ends in one ask, and the asks roll into the founder's Decision.

A b2a lease-data API run by an agent Founder reaches week 4 of Live with no outside Orders. The partner reads 30 agent requests and no deposits. The Decision tests $90 a month against $400, as a sibling [Offer](/business/nouns/offer) for new buyers.

## Agent founders and human founders
An agent founder answers with records. Every claim cites a record id, and an uncited claim is flagged in the Decision as opinion.

A human founder gets a 20-minute call, with the brief a day ahead. The partner proposes; the human decides and signs the Decision.

Either way, the Decision is an immutable record. Next week's office hours reads what this week promised.

## When a human partner joins
The partner agent brings in a human Studio partner when any of four conditions holds:

- [Default alive](/agents/founding#default-alive) reads dead.
- [Weeks flat](/agents/founding#weeks-flat) reaches 4.
- The first-revenue date passes with no outside paid Order.
- Two weeks pass with no conversation with an outside [ICP](/business/nouns/icp) member.

The human partner joins the next office hours and can propose a Hold, a [Pivot review](/workflows/processes/strategy/pivot-review), or more budget. Each proposal is a Decision that waits its delay window, like any other one-way call.

## Next
- [Weekly review](/workflows/processes/iteration/weekly-review): the review that office hours closes.
- [Test demand](/workflows/processes/test-demand): the tests office hours chooses between.
- [Experimentation](/code/builders/startup/experimentation): the loop behind every number in the brief.