Truman delivered First Lesson on In-Depth Review in 2024.Mandatory for all staff, at the foundational skill level. Comes with 2 Candies (Yu Lu's 5-year in-depth review of entrepreneurship at Someet + full-web research report on review tools).
I. Core Mindset
"An organization capable of producing high-quality reviews can basically do everything well." — Wang Xing
The essence of review
Review is "going through what has been done all over again from the start". "I make a living by summing up experience." — Mao Zedong Liu Chuanzhi introduced review into corporate management at Lenovo in 2001, and it was iterated to version 3.0 in 2019.
Why this first lesson
Findings from course polishing research in 2023:Far too many teams have too weak an awareness of review and spend too little time on it, leading to huge waste.
- Reviews become a mere formality
- They turn into summary meetings / praise meetings / criticism meetings / buck-passing meetings
- The most essential insights behind them are not extracted, and experience is wasted in vain
II. 5-Part Course Structure
Part 1: Build negative aesthetic
What counts as an unqualified review:
- After project ends → go for a meal and thank each other ❌
- Fixed 3-minute review at the end of weekly meetings ✅ (beginner level)
- Project manager sends a summary email ❌ (only one person writes it)
- Organize monthly review meetings ✅
- CaseStudy on major mistakes ✅
- Year-end review ✅
Part 2: Understand value
- Review is about "developing the habit of post-event review and reflection"; specific methods are secondary
- Cultivate sensitivity (recall how many reviews you have done in the past 3 years)
- Cultivate depth of thinking
Part 3: Advanced improvement (in-depth review iceberg diagram)
4 levels:
| Level | Description | Focus |
|---|---|---|
| Entry: casual chat after the event | No need to apply any model/tool | Develop the habit of post-event review and reflection |
| Beginner: sort through the process | Speak with facts, sort out the ins and outs | Develop the habit of speaking with facts |
| Intermediate: structured analysis | Follow review logic, start from the gap between "expectation and reality" | Develop the habit of structured thinking |
| Advanced: growth-oriented reflection | Reflect on yourself, cultivate yourself through events | Changing yourself is the ultimate way of learning |
Part 4: High-level application
How to cultivate a review atmosphere in the team — review culture building (see cases in Part 3 for details).
Part 5: Re-understand
Why must we do reviews? The fundamental value for individuals and teams.
III. 5-Step Review Method (Lenovo / Yitang version)
| Step | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 1. Sort out the process | Truthfully restore the action process / key matters / important nodes / ins and outs |
| 2. Review goals | Examine the original expectations.Strictly distinguish between "purpose" and "goal": purpose is the direction your eyes are fixed on; goal is the marker that lets you tell at a glance how well you have done |
| 3. Evaluate results | Put "expectations and results" together for comparison |
| 4. Analyze causes | After comparison, analyze the reasons why "expectations" and "results" are consistent or inconsistent |
| 5. Summarize lessons | Form conclusions from the above analysis, generalize them, select feasible plans and put them into action |
5 Principles of Review
| Principle | Core |
|---|---|
| Seek truth from facts | Do not draw false conclusions from false problems |
| Open mind | Maintain information interaction with the outside world (be able to take in different opinions) |
| Self-reflection | Focus on what you have actually learned |
| Candid expression | Speak directly, and speak nicely |
| Draw on collective wisdom | A single spark can start a prairie fire |
Review vs Summary
Summary: sorts out the event process, key points and milestones. Review: in addition to the actions included in a summary,conducts hypothetical inquiry into actions that did not happen, explores the possibility and feasibility of other actions, and finds new methods and ways out.
Core difference:Deduction.
IV. Dual Dimensions of Review (Logic + Action)
Expectation = what it is / why / how to do it Result = logic dimension + action dimension
Logic dimension
- Phased status + results of various measures
- Verify whether the originally assumed "expectation-measure" causal relationship actually exists
- Goal progress / purpose achievement / various indicators of measures
Action dimension
- Actions taken in the process of achieving the goal + key problems encountered + team collaboration
- Examine real execution capability
- Focus on actions, micro-level "execution management", discuss details
V. 4 Types of Review
| Type | Applicable scenario | Corresponding to Confucius |
|---|---|---|
| Personal review | Personal first-hand experience, improve leadership / professional capability / execution capability | Cultivate oneself |
| Team review | Single-team or multi-team collaboration | Regulate the family |
| Project review | Long-term/large-scale projects, functional work | Govern the state |
| Business/strategic review | Business unit/company level | Bring peace to all under heaven |
Full-process review vs key-point review
- Full process: go through the entire process from start to finish according to the review model
- Key points: focus on key points determined in advance, requiring one week of preparation before the meeting
VI. 6 Key Points of Review
- Review is for the purpose of learning, ultimately aimed at improving cognition
- Based on facts, study real problems
- Sort out and restore the course of events, do not only look at results
- The logical starting point is purpose(why you did this thing in the first place)
- Participants who experienced the event firsthand must be present(non-firsthand participants serve as questioners and advisors)
- Time-consuming and labor-intensive, requiring internal and external motivation to push forward
VII. 3 Core Skills for Effective Review
| Skill | Function |
|---|---|
| Review facilitation | Host controls the field / guides in-depth dialogue |
| Systems thinking | Find "leverage solutions" and "root solutions". "Break through Rashomon, do not act like blind men touching an elephant" |
| Knowledge extraction | Precipitate review conclusions into team knowledge |
Beyond Review — Break Through 3 Major Limitations
| Limitation | Breakthrough method |
|---|---|
| Learning from action: personal experience is limited | Learn more from and refer to others' experience |
| Learning from oneself: groupthink / cognitive ceiling | Exchange ideas more with experts / conduct cross-team and cross-professional communication |
| Learning from the past: being a Monday-morning quarterback | Ask "Does this explanation help predict the future?" Apply first principles / multiple mental models (Charlie Munger) |
VIII. AAR (US Army After Action Review)
US military system, originating from the Vietnam War.6 steps:
- What was the intent? Original intent / purpose
- What happened? What happened / how it happened / why
- What have we learned? What was learned / what to do if done over / what advice to give others
- What do we do now? Short-term / medium-term / long-term actions
- Take action Take action
- Tell someone else Share with more people
IX. Candy 1: Yu Lu's 5-Year In-Depth Review Case from Someet
Yu Lu(Yitang course product manager, the startup project before joining Yitang).
Project data
- Someet(S should be capitalized), offline socializing for young people in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou
- Raised 2 rounds of financing = $5M+, operated for 5 years,fell at the Pre-A round
- Users 457,407 / activity participations 46,543 / initiators 4,172
- Launched 20,000+ activities
- Business cooperation: NetEase / Didi / Taobao / Uber / Wanhetianyi / Hong Kong Madame Tussauds, etc.
- 2017 "Huxiu Most Respected Brain Hole Award"
6 stages
| Stage | Time | Key tasks |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Pre-judgment | 2015.1-3 | Choose direction / determine values |
| 2. MVP | 2015.4-7 | Iterate activity model / secure angel round |
| 3. Team | 2015.8-2016.1 | Team framework basically took shape |
| 4. Replication | 2016.2-9 | Replicate to Shanghai and Guangzhou |
| 5. Membership & marketing | 2016.10-2018.7 | Membership system launched / marketing trial and error |
| 6. Split and endgame | 2018.8-2020.3 | Activity volume declined / marketing spending rose |
4 keywords
Values, choice, best practices, diseconomies of scale.
2 core thinking questions for important decisions
- When mission values conflict with business goals, how would you choose?
- Add condition: the company is already heavily in debt. Add another condition: either choice may cause partners to leave.
X. Candy 2: Full-Web Research Report on Review Tools
The full-web review tool system researched by the teaching and research PM. 4-level rating S/A/B/C:
S-level Must read:
- "Review: In the Review 3.0 Era, How to 'Go from Breaking to Establishing'" — Full decryption of Lenovo's official review method
A-level Best to read if you have time:
- "Review Work Method" (Alibaba) — 4 forms: personal / business / group / cross-level
B-level Optional reading:
- "Review - Thinking Drill Practice Edition for Past Events"
- "Review+ (3rd Edition): Turn Experience into Capability" — 25 "pitfalls" and countermeasure suggestions
- "Review Master: The Underlying Logic of Self-Awareness and Self-Improvement" — daily review / monthly review / annual review
- "Review: The Self-Guiding Rule for Solving Life Problems"
C-level No need to read for now:
- "Review: Thinking Drills for Past Events" — cases of Lenovo surpassing Dell, etc.
- "Five Major Review Tools and Practical Application" — project review canvas / fishbowl meeting / U-shaped canvas / future search / 4F team canvas
- "Review Coach" — 4-step review method + fishbowl / U-shaped / future search
Feishu review template
- GRAI review method
- Project review
See also
- wiki-content-replication(memory)— review ideas for content replication
- Yitang opportunity pre-judgment methodology — opportunity pre-judgment methodology (pre-judgment upfront)
- yitang-evaluate-roi-loop(Skill)— ROI decision dynamic training
- yitang-master-business-model(Skill)— business model
- Wang Kai collection / 2024-2026 intensive reading of cutting-edge AI papers and reports — Aschenbrenner Situational Awareness (review perspective of "counting OOMs")
- newtype knowledge system and full evolution of Life OS — newtype knowledge system (review is the core of knowledge precipitation)