Why We Built SLM explained what we optimize. Here's the machinery that does it.
Three movements: Capture → Convert → Compound.
Capture: Strategic Leverage Review
After you complete a Bounty task, you run a Strategic Leverage Review. For Standard tasks, you run it monthly. A structured audit through 9 dimensions to identify what you built but haven't extracted yet.
The 9 dimensions:
While building our Clay integration, we noticed 3 other tools had similar user bases. That observation turned into 3 partnership conversations.
First few reviews are awkward. By the 10th, your team starts spotting opportunities automatically. The designer ships something and immediately sees what belongs in the design system. The marketer finishes a campaign and spots the reusable framework. The QA engineer debugs an issue and recognizes the pattern worth documenting.
Everyone goes through the same 9 dimensions. Marketing might extract more from distribution channels and external content. Product might extract more from experiments and tools. QA might extract more from process improvements and automation. But everyone audits all 9 because leverage shows up in unexpected places.
You convert every opportunity into a task labeled leverage with a specific hypothesis: "This should save 3 hours per demo" or "This should generate $15K revenue." Not vague aspirations—measurable predictions.
Convert: Bounty → Standard → AI Agent
Identifying leverage doesn't capture it. You need to make it reusable through a specific maturity progression.
Bounty: High variability, figuring out what works. Standard: Documented template, proven process. AI Agent: Automated execution.
You cannot skip stages. Bounty → AI Agent means automating chaos.
Our interactive demo went from 8 hours (fumbling through Arcade) to 3 hours (following rough documentation) to 90 minutes (refined template) to 20 minutes (AI generates draft, human polishes). The template improved because Person 10 found edge cases Person 1 missed and updated the documentation. Person 11 got a better process. That's how templates compound—they get smarter through use.
For content, you serve multiple audiences with the same research. Customer discovery becomes handbook entry plus external post. One extraction, multiple distributions.
Compound: Three metrics
Task time on Standard work should trend down. If the 10th execution takes as long as the first, your templates aren't working.
Bounty/Standard ratio shows knowledge capture. Early months: 70% bounty, 30% standard (you're learning). Month 12: 20% bounty, 80% standard (you've built leverage). If flat, you're just repeating discovery work.
Strategic Review ROI tracks tasks labeled leverage. You compare hypothesis to actual results. Completion rate above 70% with results matching hypothesis = working. Below 50% completion or results way off = wrong opportunities or bad prioritization.
Here's what this looks like: First sales demo prep took 6 hours of research and deck building. After template: 2 hours. After AI agent handles research: 30 minutes reviewing and customizing. We now prep 12 demos in the time 1 used to take. Same team size.
How the loop works
Each cycle reduces future cost. Strategic Review after a Bounty identifies what worked. You convert it to a Standard template. Next execution takes half the time. That freed capacity lets you handle more work without hiring.
The alternative: finish work, move on, lose the learning. Three months later someone solves the same problem from scratch. Your competitor documented it after the 5th time and automated it after the 10th. They're handling 10x your volume with half the headcount.
Capture identifies what you learned. Convert makes it reusable. Compound verifies it's working.
That's the difference between companies that scale and companies that just get busier.
Next: Our ClickUp Setup — how labels, automations, and cross-functional views make Capture → Convert → Compound operational.