🎮 The Next Input — Issue #011

⚡ The Briefing — 60 sec

• Nvidia cleared to resume H-20 chip sales to China. Fresh off a $4 T valuation, Team Green’s ceiling just lifted again.

• Google Discover adds AI summaries, rattling publishers’ traffic. Google keeps users on-page; search-adjacent clicks may shrink further.

• Trump pledges $70 B for AI at Houston energy summit. A war-chest that dwarfs current U.S. government AI budgets.

🛠️ The Playbook — Churn-Risk Early-Warning Radar

Mission Fuse Stripe billing, product-usage logs & Intercom sentiment to flag at-risk customers in Slack.
Difficulty Medium | Build time 40 min
ROI CS teams save ≈ 4 h/month and intercept churn before it happens.

🎯 The Arsenal — Tools & Prompts

Write a friendly 20-word LinkedIn DM to {prospect}. Reference {shared_topic}. End with a simple question.

🗺️ The Side Quest

Each week, we answer a question from a reader. This week, we're tackling a big one that came up after our "Company Brain" guide.

This week's question:

Answer:

This is the single most important question to ask before starting a "Company Brain" project. You've correctly identified that the AI's intelligence is completely dependent on the quality of its "food."

Most founders try to fix this by organizing the existing mess. That's a mistake. The core mindset you need is this:

You must be ruthless. The truth is, most of your files are drafts, duplicates, or dangerously out-of-date. You have to delete or archive first, and organize second.

Here is the five-step playbook for triaging your chaotic knowledge base and turning it into clean, reliable fuel for your AI.

First, Assemble Your Cleanup Crew

This isn't a solo mission. You need a small, effective team:

• The Ops Lead (or Chief of Staff): This person runs the playbook and project-manages the effort.

• One Rep Per Team (e.g., Sales, Product): These are your "subject matter experts" who know which documents are still "live" and which are ancient history.

• An IT Admin: This person has the keys to bulk-move files and fix permissions, handling the heavy lifting.

(Solo founder? You wear all three hats, but consider borrowing a virtual assistant for the repetitive clicking.)

The 5-Step Triage Playbook

Step 0: Create a Safety Net Before you delete anything, create a top-level folder named _QUARANTINE. Anything you "delete" during this process gets moved here first. You can permanently delete it in 90 days. This step eliminates the fear of accidentally losing something important.

Step 1: Dump the "ROT" (Redundant, Obsolete, Trivial) In your Google Drive, run a search for files not opened in the last 18 months. Select all and move them to _QUARANTINE. Next, search for obvious duplicates like "Copy of...". You will likely eliminate ~70% of your dead weight in a single afternoon.

Step 2: Label the Gold (Your "Source of Truth") Ask each team lead to list their top 20 most critical, must-keep documents. These are your "Sources of Truth" (SOT). Apply a simple, clean naming convention like YYYY-MM-DD-DocumentName-FINAL and, for bonus points, prefix them with SOT- so they always float to the top of any folder.

Step 3: Lock Down Sensitive Data Run searches for keywords like "salary," "passport," "contract," or "confidential." Move all matches to a new top-level _SECURE folder and immediately limit access to only the "need-to-know" user groups.

Step 4: Re-Shelve What's Left Create a clean, simple folder structure (e.g., /Sales, /Marketing, /Product). Inside each, create two sub-folders: /SOT (for your labeled, final versions) and /Working (for drafts). When you connect your AI, you will only grant it access to the /SOT folders. Drafts and messy work stay out.

The "Good Enough" Check

Don't aim for perfection. The goal is "two-click findability." If a team member can find any key document with one search or two clicks, you are done. Chasing a perfectly organized system is a waste of time. Start training your AI.

How to Keep It Clean

A cleanup is a project; good hygiene is a habit.

1. The Friday 1-Minute Dump: Every Friday, everyone gets a calendar reminder to drag their week's drafts into the /Working folder.

2. The Quarterly ROT Sweep: Every quarter, IT runs the same "not opened in 18 months" search-and-archive rule.

3. The New-Doc Form: A simple script can ensure all new official documents are automatically named and filed correctly from the start.

Do that, and your Company Brain gets a diet of clean, reliable fuel—no hallucinations, no hassle.

💡 Free Office Hours

Need churn-radar alerts or Drive-cleanup guidance?
Book a free 15-minute Office Hours slot—no sales pitch, just workflows solved.

→ Grab a slot: https://calendly.com/aaron-cylentis/the-next-input-office-hours

🕹️ Game Over

Automate one churn-risk task tonight—tomorrow’s retention chart will thank you.
Share your win; you could headline Issue #012.

— Aaron
Automating the boring. Amplifying the brilliant.

Received this from a mate? Subscribe here