Most teams inflate the plan from competitor spend, best-in-class percents, and vendor quote stacks — before anyone writes the real cost floor for the job. The floor is physics plus law: compute, energy, materials, and required validation you can’t skip. Analogy isn’t a floor.
In this episode: what belongs in the floor and what doesn’t, how teams inflate around it, a Lumen Ops freight-reconcile picture (~$280k analogy plan vs ~$6k honest floor), and a light Meridian-style monitoring bridge. One subtractive move: delete competitor-benchmark padding (or the analogy-first budget workshop). Fill the Real Cost Floor Worksheet before you commit.
Links
Free Real Cost Floor Checklist: https://whop.com/checkout/plan_p8yhpEjWMvAXk
Full Product Roadmap Cost Floor Worksheet ($19): https://whop.com/checkout/plan_FeDlfY1laLD9r
Coaching Session ($1500 / 90 min): https://whop.com/checkout/ch_Yqj4lJFboaEIC77/
YouTube: (add video URL)
Is your organization interested in differentiated innovation? The world is changing quickly. If you’re not adapting to those changes, you’re not innovating. Seeking reassurance from consultants fails, nearly always (sometimes they get lucky). I work with organizations who are serious about attacking problems using first principles. Many have been burned once, and they don’t want it to happen again. Is that you? (my availability is limited).
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Slaying the Sacred Cows of Innovation
