Framework

SENSE AI Agents for Startup Strategy

SENSE is a five-move strategic intelligence layer: Scan, Evaluate, Navigate, Simulate, Execute. It turns agent work from a productivity shortcut into a sourced claim that changes a watchlist, an assumption register, or a Monday decision.

The moves
5

When to use it

Use SENSE when you already have models in the loop and still decide from anecdote. The unit of work is one sourced claim with a confidence grade, not another unread summary.

The moves

  1. 01

    Scan

    Collection with a thesis: watch the competitor surfaces, regulatory dockets, and customer signals your strategy actually depends on.

  2. 02

    Evaluate

    Turn raw signal into a sourced claim with a confidence grade, instead of another summary nobody can act on.

  3. 03

    Navigate

    Make the claim change something real: the watchlist tightens, the assumption register updates, the strategy moves.

  4. 04

    Simulate

    Rehearse the future before it arrives: ask what would happen if, and pressure-test the plan against it.

  5. 05

    Execute

    Meet a decision or it never happened: a one-page brief in the Monday review, an alert the moment it matters.

90-day install

Install in ninety days

A weekly dump is not a layer. SENSE has no Decide phase: the system prepares the choice, a person owns it. The unit of work is one sourced claim with a confidence grade. Ninety days is Diagnose, Deploy, then Evaluate-and-decide. Watchlist, assumption register, cadence, and kill rule are artifacts inside those gates, not a second calendar.

  1. 01

    Diagnose

    Is this a standing system, or a briefing nobody acts on? Name the competitor surfaces, dockets, and customer signals the strategy actually depends on.

  2. 02

    Deploy

    Install the watchlist, the assumption register, the cadence, and the kill rule. Use the worksheets already on this site. Do not invent a second kit.

  3. 03

    Evaluate and decide

    Expand, adjust, or kill in writing. Skip Simulate and you execute into a void. Confidence grades here are working marks, not a psychometric scale.

SENSE worksheets90-day layer (essay)

The book

Available now

AI Agents for Startup Strategy

How Founders and Operators Deploy Agentic AI to Move Faster and Think Smarter

Open the book
The article The worksheets The series

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Terminology

SENSE here is the five-move protocol from AI Agents for Startup Strategy. It is not a product, sensor brand, or generic "sense-making" slogan.

Citation

SENSE (AI Agents for Startup Strategy). Len P. van der Hof, Systems for the Strategic Self. https://lenvanderhof.com/frameworks/sense/

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