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, resolve entries that need attention, and rerun the diagnosis for 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 the Business Profile, usable checked timeline entries, and available integration data to evaluate the seven stages, identify the primary bottleneck, and generate recommendations.
Evidence Strength
Evidence Strength reflects how much usable business information Odyssey has available to analyze. It considers your Business Profile, eligible Timeline entries, and available integration data. More complete and relevant evidence generally gives Odyssey a stronger basis for its Business Diagnosis.
Business Profile
Baseline Context
Complete your Business Profile so Odyssey has the baseline context it needs to understand your business.
Timeline
Ongoing Evidence
Eligible Timeline entries add context about meaningful changes, decisions, results, wins, and setbacks over time. Unchecked entries and entries in Needs Edit are not used as diagnosis evidence.
Integrations
Connected Context
Connect business systems such as Stripe, HubSpot, QuickBooks, or Shopify. A connection must contain usable synced data before it can contribute additional business context.
Overall Evidence Strength
Evidence Strength combines usable context from your Business Profile, eligible Timeline entries, and available integration data.
Higher Evidence Strength means Odyssey has more usable business evidence to analyze, helping provide a stronger basis for 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
65
Sales
37
Confidence
Confidence describes how strongly the available evidence supports the diagnosis. More complete, specific, and consistent information usually provides a stronger basis for interpretation. A stage can have a high score without having high confidence.
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 Business Profile edits or newly checked Timeline entries provide evidence of improvement, decline, or changed business conditions. New evidence does not automatically change a score if it mainly confirms the existing assessment. Positive or negative results elsewhere in the business also do not automatically mean every related stage should change.
Evidence and Stage Scores
Timeline evidence is evaluated according to the stage it represents. Results in one part of the business may provide useful context without directly changing the score of another stage.
When Business Information Changes
New Timeline evidence may sometimes differ from information in your Business Profile or earlier Timeline entries. Odyssey considers the available context when producing a new diagnosis, which is why keeping your Business Profile current and recording meaningful changes in the Timeline is important.
Business Profile
Complete your business questionnaire to give Odyssey the baseline context it needs to produce more informed scores and relevant recommendations.
Answer Every Question
Answer every required question so Odyssey has the baseline context it needs to understand and evaluate your business.
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
Timeline entries create a living record of what changed in the business. Clear, business-related entries provide more useful evidence for future diagnoses.
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
Select the stage that best represents the activity's primary function, or leave it unassigned for AI to classify.
Check and Rerun
Only entries that pass the AI check and are not in Needs Edit are included in the next Business Diagnosis.
Timeline Workflow
Learn how an entry moves from a new update to usable evidence in the next Business Diagnosis.
Every timeline entry follows a structured decision process before it affects the Business Diagnosis. Clear business-related entries and optional stage suggestions help AI follow the Odyssey Framework, resulting in more consistent and reliable recommendations. For the most meaningful insights, rerun the Business Diagnosis after accumulating several new timeline entries rather than after each individual update.
Stuck?
Delete the entry and create a clearer one. Timeline entries are meant to capture meaningful business events, not perfect writing. If an entry becomes difficult to resolve or is no longer relevant, simply create a new one instead.
Timeline Review Process
- Add a timeline entry describing a real business event, decision, result, or change.
- Use Check New Entries so AI can determine whether the entry is business-related and clear enough to analyze.
- If the entry passes, it becomes usable evidence for the next Business Diagnosis.
- If it is unclear or not sufficiently business-related, Odyssey asks for clarification.
- You may revise the entry up to three times during the clarification process.
- After three unsuccessful attempts, the entry moves to Needs Edit.
- An entry in Needs Edit remains excluded until it is successfully revised or deleted.
Two Types of Needs Review
Needs Review can contain either a Timeline Clarification or a Stage Suggestion. They are resolved differently.
Timeline Clarification
This appears when an entry is unclear, nonsensical, or not sufficiently related to the business. You may revise it up to three times. If AI still cannot determine that it is clear enough to analyze after the third attempt, the entry moves to Needs Edit and remains excluded until it is cleared or deleted.
Needs Edit
Entries move here after three unsuccessful clarification attempts. They remain excluded from future Business Diagnoses until successfully revised or deleted. Use Needs Edit to revise entries until they are clear enough for AI to analyze or delete them if they are no longer needed.
Stage Assignment
- You may choose a stage or leave it blank.
- If left blank, AI assigns one automatically.
- If AI believes another stage fits better, the entry appears in Needs Review with a Stage Suggestion.
- Stage Suggestions are advisory only.
- You may accept the recommendation or keep your original stage.
- The business owner always has final authority.
You can manually assign or change a stage right on the Timeline page, directly from the entry itself. Open the … menu on any entry and select Assign Stage:
Then choose the stage from the list. The currently assigned stage is highlighted:
Changing a stage manually updates how that Timeline entry is classified, so your current Business Diagnosis becomes out of date. The Timeline button changes from Timeline Checked to Rerun Diagnosis, letting you know a fresh diagnosis is available.
Business Owner Authority
AI helps organize business activity, but the business owner has final authority over stage assignments. Once the review is resolved, the retained stage becomes part of the evidence used in the next Business Diagnosis.
Once an entry's stage is resolved, that stage determines where the entry can directly affect diagnosis scoring, whether the stage was selected by you or assigned by AI.
Included in the Next Diagnosis
- The current Business Profile
- Usable timeline entries that have passed the AI check
- User-selected stages, including retained choices after an AI recommendation
- AI-assigned stages when the user left the stage blank
- Available integration data that has synced successfully
Not Included in Your Business Diagnosis
- New timeline entries that have not been checked
- Entries currently in Needs Edit
- Deleted timeline entries
- Integrations that have not synced usable data
Timeline Status Button
The Timeline Status button changes automatically as your timeline progresses. Its color and label show the next step in the workflow.
🟡 Check New Entries
You have one or more saved timeline entries that haven't been reviewed yet. Clicking this button checks only the new entries for eligibility, clarity, and stage suggestions. It does not run a new Business Diagnosis.
🔴 Needs Review
One or more entries require either clarification or a decision on an AI stage suggestion. Open Needs Review and resolve the pending items before rerunning your Business Diagnosis.
🟡 Rerun Diagnosis
Your new entries have been checked, any review items have been resolved, and your timeline has changed since the last Business Diagnosis. Clicking this button updates your scores, recommendations, and analysis.
🟢 Timeline Checked
All timeline entries have been reviewed, no action is required, and your latest Business Diagnosis already reflects your current timeline.
Example Workflow
You run a Business Diagnosis, then add three timeline entries. After selecting Check New Entries, one entry requires clarification. Once it is resolved, the button changes to Rerun Diagnosis. Rerunning analyzes all eligible new evidence and updates the diagnosis.
Review Progress
The Needs Review page summarizes your total review items, completed items, remaining items, and entries moved to Needs Edit. The progress bar shows how much of the current review queue you have resolved.
Workflow Tip
Record important changes as they happen and use Check New Entries whenever you've added new entries. After several new entries have accumulated and any review items have been resolved, click Rerun Diagnosis to update your scores, recommendations, and analysis.
Timeline Workflow at a Glance
- Add timeline entries.
- Click Check New Entries.
- Resolve anything in Needs Review.
- Continue recording business changes.
- After several new entries accumulate, click Rerun Diagnosis.
- Repeat throughout the life of your business.
Business AI
Ask questions about your own business and receive tailored advice grounded in your Business Profile and Timeline entries.
Advice Built Around Your Business
Business AI uses the context you've provided about your company instead of treating every question like a generic business question.
Uses Your Business Profile
Your Business Profile gives Business AI the baseline context it needs to understand what the business does, its maturity, customers, operations, and current situation.
Uses Timeline Evidence
Timeline entries give Business AI additional context about what has changed over time, including wins, setbacks, experiments, operational changes, and measurable results.
Ask Practical Questions
Use Business AI to explore priorities, bottlenecks, tradeoffs, next steps, or other questions where advice should reflect the actual context of your business.
Business-Specific Context
Business AI is designed for tailored business advice. Better Business Profile and Timeline context gives it more information to work with when answering your questions.
Scenario Engine
Explore how a major business decision could affect your business over time through conditional projections based on your current business context and stated assumptions.
Start With a Scenario
Describe a decision or change you are considering, then add the key assumptions Odyssey should use when evaluating it.
Use Current Business Context
The Scenario Engine starts from your current Business Diagnosis and Business Profile. You can also choose whether to include eligible Timeline evidence for additional context.
Four Projection Horizons
Compare conditional projections at 6 months, 1 year, 2 years, and 5 years to see how the possible effects may change over time.
See What Could Change
Each horizon can show a projected Business Score, projected stage scores, a possible primary bottleneck, assumptions, benefits, risks, and confidence.
What Scenario Confidence Means
Confidence reflects how strongly the available business context and assumptions support the projection. Longer-range projections generally carry greater uncertainty.
Projection, Not Prediction
Scenario Engine results are conditional projections. They show what could happen if the scenario and assumptions unfold as described; they do not claim to predict what will actually happen.
Company Analysis
Analyze a company through the seven Odyssey stages using publicly available business information.
Analyze a Company
Company Analysis evaluates a company across Offer, Distribution, Yardstick, Sales, Systems, Execution, and Yield to provide a structured seven-stage view.
Uses Public Information
Unlike a Business Diagnosis for your own Odyssey, Company Analysis is based on publicly available information rather than your Business Profile or private Timeline entries.
Separate From Your Odyssey
Running a Company Analysis does not change your own Odyssey, Business Score, stage scores, Business Profile, or Timeline.
Review the Seven-Stage View
Use the analysis to examine how the company appears across the framework and where its relative strengths, weaknesses, or bottlenecks may be.
Public-Information Analysis
Company Analysis is a structured assessment based on available public information. It is separate from the private evidence used to diagnose your own Odyssey.
Public Odysseys
Share selected parts of an Odyssey publicly while keeping control over which business information visitors can see.
Make an Odyssey Public
Turn on Public Sharing when you want an Odyssey and its eligible public Timeline entries to be viewable through its public page.
Choose What You Share
Public Information settings let you control whether visitors can see the business website, latest Business Score, latest diagnosis date, and shared entry count.
Control Community Features
You can separately choose whether public Timeline entries show likes and comments.
Public Timeline
Your public Timeline has its own shareable page. Only eligible entries intended for public viewing appear there, while private business context remains separate.
Public Activity
Sharing settings also show public activity such as Timeline views, likes, and comments so you can see how visitors are engaging with the Odyssey.
You Control What Is Public
Making an Odyssey public does not mean every piece of business information is automatically shared. Use the Public Sharing settings to choose what visitors can see.
Integrations
Connect business systems so Odyssey can analyze available operational data alongside your Business Profile and timeline evidence.
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 a connected integration is not contributing to Evidence Strength, confirm that it has successfully synced usable business data.
Add More Business Context
Successfully synced integrations can provide additional operational evidence for Odyssey to consider. A connection must contain usable synced data before it can contribute to your business context.
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.
Why wasn't my timeline entry included?
An entry is excluded when it has not been checked, is still awaiting clarification, is in Needs Edit, or has been deleted. It becomes eligible after it passes the AI check.
Why did AI recommend a different stage?
Some activities can reasonably fit more than one stage. AI recommends the stage it believes best represents the primary function, but you may keep your original selection.
Can I rerun a diagnosis without accepting a stage recommendation?
Yes. Stage recommendations are advisory. Keeping your original stage does not prevent the entry from being used or block the next Business Diagnosis.
What happens after three unsuccessful clarification attempts?
The entry moves to Needs Edit and is excluded from the next Business Diagnosis until it is clarified successfully or deleted.
What is the difference between a Timeline Clarification and a Stage Suggestion?
A Timeline Clarification means the entry is not yet clear or business-related enough to analyze. A Stage Suggestion means the entry is usable, but AI recommends a different stage from the one you selected.