Traction by Gino Wickman lays out a complete operating system for entrepreneurial companies. SynthBoard runs the structured boardroom that fits inside the method — especially for self-implementers and the issues that arrive between quarterlies.
Identify-Discuss-Solve the Traction way, with five lenses arguing the top issue from your L10.
Stress-test candidate rocks, V/TO updates, and accountability charts before they go to the leadership team.
Every session ends with a synthesis you can bring to the quarterly day — implementer-led or self-led.
Real questions. Multiple expert perspectives. Every time.
“Which of our candidate rocks survives a panel debate — and which is a wish in disguise?”
“How would a Traction-aligned panel run IDS on this issue?”
“What is the steel-man case against the new accountability chart we are drafting?”
“Where is our V/TO leaning on yesterday's market assumptions?”
“Should this issue go to the L10, the quarterly, or a SynthBoard session?”
Each expert thinks independently — they won’t just agree with each other.
The CEO
Holds the through-line on company strategy and stakeholder trade-offs.
The Operator
Turns strategy into the boring, sequenced work that actually ships.
The Strategist
Maps competitive dynamics and strategic options across multi-year horizons.
The CFO
Pressure-tests unit economics, runway, and capital allocation.
The Skeptic
Questions every premise. Finds blind spots others miss.
A synthesized recommendation from your team of experts — not just opinions, but structured analysis.
Moderate Agreement
Key Recommendations
Synthesized Recommendation
The candidate rock as written is a wish — too broad, no clear owner, 90-day completion implausible. Break it into two rocks: one for the structural decision (this quarter, owned by the COO), one for the rollout (next quarter, owned by the VP People).
Full analysis continues with detailed reasoning, trade-offs, and next steps...
Watch Out For
Expert Opinions
“Traction tells you when to meet. SynthBoard helps you decide what you actually decided.”
SynthBoard fits inside the Traction system — IDS-shaped sessions, V/TO stress-tests, rocks debates.
Traction structures the meeting. SynthBoard structures the debate inside it.
Traction quarterlies are 4x a year. SynthBoard is there for the issues that land on the other 350 days.
SynthBoard is free to start. Self-implementers can use it to tighten the system without paying for facilitation.
The questions people ask before they sign up.
No — Traction is a complete operating system with a meeting cadence, a vocabulary, and a 90-day discipline. SynthBoard is a structured boardroom that fits inside the method. Use it for the issues that need real debate, the V/TO stress-tests, and the candidate-rocks decisions.
For IDS on the hardest issues from the L10. For candidate-rocks debate before the quarterly. For V/TO updates before the leadership team sees them. For the issues that arrive between quarterlies and cannot wait three months. Traction holds the system; SynthBoard holds the debate.
Yes — and many self-implementers do exactly that. The Traction book is sufficient to run the system; an implementer adds facilitation skill and accountability. SynthBoard does not replace the implementer's human role, but it does materially raise the quality of the structured debate inside L10s and quarterlies.
Always, if the company is going to run it. Traction is the operating system; SynthBoard is a tool inside it. If your question is "should we adopt Traction at all," the answer depends on company size and leadership-team maturity — not on whether SynthBoard exists. Read the book first.
SynthBoard is free to start; paid tiers run low double-digit dollars per month. Traction is a $20 book. An implementer is $2k-$5k+ per day. The three layers — book, implementer, SynthBoard — are complementary, not substitutes.
No meeting structure, no shared leadership-team vocabulary, no 90-day rocks discipline, no V/TO template, no accountability chart system, no scorecard. SynthBoard is a structured debate tool that fits inside Traction; it is not the operating system.
Adjacent decisions, audiences, and methods inside SynthBoard.
The EOS-specific comparison.
ExploreThe implementer-specific comparison.
ExploreFor comparing facilitator categories.
ExploreOperations calls Traction would surface.
ExploreThe full comparison hub.
ExploreThe product manifesto.
ExploreConvene 24 expert Synths to debate it across rounds. Free to start. No card.