Migration guide
Running EOS / Traction alongside Primer
Rocks, Scorecard, and the Level 10 meeting. Primer runs the data; you keep the rhythm.
Respecting the system you already run
EOS earned its place in thousands of founder-led companies the hard way: it works because the meeting rhythm is sacred and the Scorecard is weekly. Primer is not trying to replace the V/TO, the People Analyzer, or the Level 10 meeting, those are your practice and they stay intact. What this guide shows is how Rocks and the Scorecard map into Primer's goal and metric model so the data side of EOS gets a proper home while the meeting rhythm keeps running the same way it does today.
Translating EOS concepts into Primer
Every EOS vocabulary word Primer can model, it models directly. The two it cannot, the V/TO and the Level 10 meeting, are flagged honestly.
| Source concept | Primer equivalent | Translation note |
|---|---|---|
| Rock (quarterly priority) | operational or strategic goal | Due date at quarter end, with origin tracked as self defined or co authored. |
| Scorecard | the Metric Stack | Scorecard metric → metric with weekly per metric cadence. Red/green flags → tiers. |
| Measurables on Scorecard | metric with tagged as leading or 'lagging' | EOS prefers lead measures; Primer encodes the preference in schema. |
| Rock owner / Scorecard owner | goal owner + metric owner | 'Who' stays with each row, matching EOS accountability discipline. |
| V/TO + Level 10 meeting | (out of scope) | Primer does not replace your meeting artifacts. Keep your V/TO document and your Level 10 agenda untouched. |
Three ways to try Primer alongside what you already run
None of these ask you to give anything up. Pick the lowest cost option you can get away with. Your own data will tell you what fits.
Path 1: Concurrent
Run Primer concurrently
Keep your Scorecard spreadsheet and your Rock tracker. For one quarter, let Primer also carry the same Rocks and Scorecard metrics. Score both. Most EOS integrators report that the spreadsheet fades after two quarters because the Primer view is cleaner and leads the Level 10 meeting better, but this is your call, not ours.
Path 2: Combine
Combine inside Primer
Load every Rock as an operational goal and every Scorecard row as a weekly metric. Your Level 10 meeting now opens Primer instead of a spreadsheet. The V/TO stays in whatever tool you already keep it in, we do not encroach.
Path 3: A/B test
A/B test the Scorecard
Pick one department, the one most invested in lead measures, and run their weekly Scorecard in Primer while the rest of the company stays on the spreadsheet. Compare the Level 10 reviews after a quarter.
What Primer contributes beyond the standard EOS model
EOS is intentionally spreadsheet-friendly. Primer is where you gain when the company outgrows the spreadsheet.
Tier rubric for Scorecard health
EOS is typically red/green on the Scorecard. Primer's five-tier rubric separates 'we just met the number' from 'we crushed it' so the Level 10 conversation has more resolution.
Weight across Rocks
EOS treats all Rocks as equal weight by convention. Primer's explicit weight lets the leadership team say, in writing, which Rock matters most this quarter.
Cascade and dependency
cascaded origin plus typed goal dependencies turn 'this Rock depends on another team finishing their Rock' from a meeting note into a queryable relationship.
Commitment workflow
the resolution workflow turns Rock target-setting into a draft → aligned → committed negotiation with a history. Useful for distributed leadership teams who cannot always be in the same room.
Snapshot lock at quarter start
Once the quarter's Rocks are committed and the cycle snapshot lock is set, targets cannot be quietly moved. Rock drift is one of the most common EOS failure modes; Primer solves it at the schema layer.
Customization suggestions, code you may want to modify
EOS practitioners are protective of the vocabulary, rightly. Here are the customizations customers most often make so Primer sounds like EOS in their instance.
Label operational goals as 'Rocks' in the UI
A trivial copy change. The EOS vocabulary shows up everywhere a goal type is displayed.
Scorecard layout component
A single table with one row per metric and one column per week of the quarter. Classic EOS Scorecard shape, rendered from the metric history table.
Level 10 meeting header
Add a a Level 10 meeting page route that loads the current Scorecard at the top and leaves room for Issues, To-Dos, and Headlines underneath. Your facilitator gets a ready-made agenda.
Issue-to-goal link
Add a simple Issues table that can reference org_a goal. When a Level 10 surfaces an Issue about a Rock, it persists against that Rock permanently.
Quarterly Rock PDF
Export every Rock + its Scorecard metrics as a single PDF your EOS Implementer can walk the leadership team through. Mirrors the spreadsheet hand-off they already expect.
You bought a perpetual source license. Every part of Primer is yours to change. These are suggestions, not requirements.
Let your team discover what fits
The meeting rhythm is yours to keep, always. All Primer can offer is a better data layer underneath it. Run a quarter and see whether the Level 10 meeting feels tighter.
Try it with your next Rock
Load one Rock and its Scorecard metric into Primer. Use it in the next Level 10. Decide from there.