A Short Checklist for Evaluating Any Operational Template

Free, structured templates are everywhere, and they're inconsistent in quality. Before adopting one — ours or anyone else's — run it through these five questions.

1. Does it solve one problem you can state in a sentence? If you can't describe what it's for that simply, it's probably trying to do too much.
2. Could you start using it in the next five minutes? A template that needs a setup phase before it's useful is adding a new problem, not solving the old one.
3. Does it survive an actual messy week? Exception cases and half-finished handoffs are where untested templates fall apart.
4. Is the structure honest about what it tracks? A tool that hides complexity instead of organizing it will eventually get abandoned.
5. Would a second person on your team understand it without explanation? If it only makes sense to the person who built it, it isn't a system yet — it's a habit.

A template that clears all five is worth keeping. One that doesn't is worth rebuilding — or replacing.