Create an Odyssey
Create a record for the business you want to understand and improve.
Odyssey Learning Center
Learn Odyssey
Master the seven stages, classify business activities correctly, and get more from every Business Diagnosis.
The Seven Stages
Select a Stage
Click a stage below to open its guide.
Required
Optional Optimizer
Pivotal
Getting Started
Follow the shortest path from creating an Odyssey to maintaining a useful business record and receiving updated recommendations.
Complete the Questionnaire
Give Odyssey enough context to establish a meaningful baseline.
Run a Business Diagnosis
Review stage scores, the primary bottleneck, and recommended next actions.
Maintain the Timeline
Add meaningful developments and rerun the diagnosis whenever you need an updated view.
Framework Overview
The Odyssey Framework maps how a business creates value, moves it through the market, fulfills its promise, and captures enough return to continue.
The Core Value Path
Offer creates value. Distribution reaches the intended customer. Sales secures commitment. Execution fulfills the promise. Yield captures the return and helps fund the next Offer.
Optional Optimizers
Yardstick and Systems strengthen the value path. Yardstick improves visibility and decisions. Systems makes important work more repeatable and less dependent on improvisation.
Why the Order Matters
The stages are connected. Weakness earlier in the path can reduce the value of later effort, while a bottleneck can constrain the entire business even when other stages appear healthy.
The Seven Stages
- Offer — Create real value
- Distribution — Reach the intended customer
- Yardstick — Measure what matters
- Sales — Secure commitment
- Systems — Build repeatable capability
- Execution — Fulfill the promise
- Yield — Generate returns and reinvest
Classification Reference
Use this reference when you need to decide where a business activity belongs. This page is a lookup tool, not a replacement for the full stage guides.
Golden Rule
Classify by the verb, never the noun.
Decision Tree
Use this sequence when an activity appears to fit more than one stage.
What is the business primarily doing?
Describe the action with a verb.
Describe the action with a verb.
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Where does the main value transformation occur?
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How Scores Work
Odyssey uses questionnaire responses and checked timeline evidence to evaluate the seven stages, identify the primary bottleneck, and generate recommendations.
Evidence Strength
Evidence Strength measures how much business evidence Odyssey has available to analyze, out of 100 total points across three categories below. More evidence generally leads to more reliable Business Diagnoses.
Business Profile
30 Points
Complete your business questionnaire. Once the questionnaire is complete, you receive the full 30 points.
Timeline
30 Points
Add meaningful timeline entries as your business evolves. Entries with clear context and measurable outcomes contribute more than vague or low-information updates — for example, "Signed a new client, +$2k MRR" counts more than "had a meeting today."
Integrations
40 Points
Connect business systems such as Stripe, HubSpot, QuickBooks, or Shopify. Just connecting an account isn't enough on its own — it needs to actually have usable data (like transactions or contacts) synced in for it to count toward your score.
Overall Evidence Strength
Business Profile (30) + Timeline (30) + Integrations (40) = 100 points.
Higher Evidence Strength gives Odyssey more business evidence to analyze, helping produce more reliable Business Diagnoses.
Stage Scores
Each score is a structured estimate of the stage's current strength based on the available business evidence.
Offer
82
Distribution
58
Sales
37
Confidence
Confidence describes how strongly the available evidence supports the diagnosis. More complete and specific information usually produces a more reliable interpretation.
Primary Bottleneck
The bottleneck is the stage most likely to constrain progress or reduce the return on additional effort elsewhere.
Recommendations
Recommendations focus attention on the actions most likely to strengthen the bottleneck or unlock the next stage of progress.
Why Scores Change
Scores can change after questionnaire edits or newly checked timeline entries provide evidence of improvement, decline, or changed business conditions.
Business Profile
Complete your business questionnaire to give Odyssey the baseline context it needs to score accurately and generate relevant recommendations.
Answer Every Question
Business Profile is worth 30 points and is all-or-nothing — you receive the full 30 points once every question is answered.
Be Specific
Concrete answers about your business, customers, and processes give the diagnosis engine more to work with than general or vague responses.
Update as Things Change
If your business model, customers, or offer shift significantly, revisit your answers so your profile still reflects reality.
It's the Foundation
Business Profile context shapes how Timeline entries and Integrations data get interpreted, so an accurate profile improves the reliability of everything else.
Timeline Entries
Write entries that clearly describe what happened, why it mattered, and the measurable result whenever possible.
Vague Entry
Revenue went down.
Strong Entry
Revenue declined 18% after Google Ads paused for two weeks because a billing card expired.
Describe the Event
State what changed or what the business did.
Explain the Effect
Connect the event to the business outcome or operational consequence.
Assign the Primary Stage
Classify the activity by its primary verb and function.
Check and Rerun
Checked entries are included in the next updated Business Diagnosis.
Integrations
Connect business systems so Odyssey can verify your timeline with real operational data instead of relying on self-reported entries alone.
Connect a System
Link accounts such as Stripe, HubSpot, QuickBooks, or Shopify from your dashboard's Connected Data Sources section.
Let It Sync
Connecting an account isn't enough on its own — it needs to actually sync usable data, like transactions or contacts, before it counts toward your score.
Check Sync Status
If an integration shows as connected but isn't contributing to your Evidence Strength, it likely hasn't synced any usable data yet.
Worth Up to 40 Points
Integrations is the largest of the three Evidence Strength categories, and healthy synced connections contribute more than shallow or empty ones.
Frequently Asked Questions
Answers to common questions about the framework, classification, diagnoses, timelines, and account usage.
Why classify by the verb?
Tools, departments, and nouns can serve many functions. The verb reveals what the activity actually does.
Can an activity span stages?
Yes, but it should have one primary stage based on the main value transformation.
Why are Yardstick and Systems optional?
They optimize and support the value path rather than forming a required value transformation.
When do scores change?
Scores update when a new Business Diagnosis is run.