What is the 1-1-90 method?

A way to roll out continuous improvement: 1 area, 1 pain point, 90 days, then expand what worked. It comes from Angad Singh and the LeanSuite team, and this worksheet is the one-page plan for it.

How do I choose the area?

Score two to four candidates from 1 to 5 on five questions: a team that wants it, data you can see, a supervisor on board, big enough to matter and small enough to finish. Start with the highest total.

What makes a good pain point?

One specific problem with a place and a number you can measure this week, written as one sentence. Quality is a topic. Changeovers on one line taking too long, with a number of minutes, is a pain point.

Do I need LeanSuite to use the worksheet?

No. The worksheet is free and works on paper or in Excel. LeanSuite is one way to run the pain point and the expansion once you have picked them.

What happens after day 90?

Decide with your own numbers: expand to the next areas, run another round on the same area, or stop. If you expand, the people from the pilot area train the next teams and each new area keeps its own before number.

Free template

Updated October 3, 2026

1-1-90 method worksheet

A 1-1-90 method worksheet is the one-page plan for starting continuous improvement in one area: one area, one pain point and 90 days, then expansion. The method comes from Angad Singh and the LeanSuite team, and the worksheet keeps the whole plan on one sheet: a grid to score candidate areas from 1 to 5, the pain point written as one sentence with a before number and a target, the owner and team, checks for days 30, 60 and 90, and the plan for the next three areas and who trains them. The Excel version also works out the checkpoint dates from day 1 and how much of the gap to the target is closed, and has a worked example.

Free to use: print it, copy it and edit it for your team. Enter your name and work email once to download.

The 1-1-90 method worksheet: an area scoring grid with five questions scored 1 to 5, a pain point sentence with before and target numbers, owner and team, day 30, 60 and 90 checkpoints, and an expansion plan with a day-90 decision. — Area scoring gridPain point sentenceOwner and teamDay 30, 60 and 90 checksExpansion planDay-90 decisionWorked example in Excel

When to use it

When to use the 1-1-90 worksheet

Before a continuous improvement rollout, a lean program or new software starts in a plant, when you need to pick where to begin.
When a program was started everywhere at once and stalled, and you want to restart it in one place.
When a leader asks what the first 90 days will deliver, who does the work and what happens next.
When a pilot area has proved itself and you need to plan the next three areas and who trains them.

How to fill it in

1
Name the team, the owner and the sponsor
Write the plant or team, one owner who answers for the result and one sponsor who clears blocks. In Excel, day 1 sets the dates of the day 30, 60 and 90 checkpoints.
2
Score up to four candidate areas
Score each area from 1 to 5 on five questions: a team that wants it, data you can see, a supervisor on board, big enough to matter and small enough to finish. Start with the highest total; on a tie, the higher score for data you can see wins. Excel scores up to five areas.
3
Write the pain point as one sentence
Use the frame on the sheet: the area, what goes wrong, the before number with its unit, and the target for day 90. Write how the number is measured and where it comes from. If it needs two sentences, it is two pain points, so pick one.
4
Measure the before number in week 1
Use a number you measured, not one you remember. A rough count on paper in week 1 is better than an exact figure in week 10. Measure it the same way every week.
5
Check days 30, 60 and 90 with the sponsor
Tick each check, write the number so far and what you found or decided. Day 30 is set up and measure, day 60 is finding the causes and fixing them, and day 90 is the standard and the decision. Excel works out the gap closed.
6
Plan the expansion before day 90 ends
Name the next three areas, why each one is like the first, who from the pilot team trains it and when it starts, plus other plants if you have them. Then tick the day-90 decision: expand, run another round on this area, or stop.

The 90 days

What to check at day 30, 60 and 90

The checks printed on the sheet and in the Excel version. Day 1 is your start date, so day 30 is 29 days after it. The three stages follow the same three phases as the 90-day model area plans.

Days	Focus	Checks	Ends with
1 to 30	Set up and measure	Pain point sentence and before number written down. Owner and team named, weekly meeting booked. The number measured every week since day 1. First small countermeasure started.	A before number, a team and a first change running
31 to 60	Find the causes and fix them	Main causes found with the team, for example with 5 Whys or a fishbone. Countermeasures in place, or scheduled with an owner and a date. The number is moving toward the target, or we know why not.	The main causes found and countermeasures in place
61 to 90	Write the standard and decide	Standard written, and followed without help for two weeks. Result written next to the before number and the target. Next three areas and who trains each one named. Decision made and signed: expand, run another round, or stop.	A standard, a result and a decision

1 to 30
Focus
Set up and measure
Checks
Pain point sentence and before number written down. Owner and team named, weekly meeting booked. The number measured every week since day 1. First small countermeasure started.
Ends with
A before number, a team and a first change running
31 to 60
Focus
Find the causes and fix them
Checks
Main causes found with the team, for example with 5 Whys or a fishbone. Countermeasures in place, or scheduled with an owner and a date. The number is moving toward the target, or we know why not.
Ends with
The main causes found and countermeasures in place
61 to 90
Focus
Write the standard and decide
Checks
Standard written, and followed without help for two weeks. Result written next to the before number and the target. Next three areas and who trains each one named. Decision made and signed: expand, run another round, or stop.
Ends with
A standard, a result and a decision

A filled-in example

Illustrative, not a benchmark

An example: a food packaging plant (illustrative, with made-up numbers; the same as the Excel example sheet). Not a benchmark and not a result to expect.

Choosing the area: Line 3 packaging scored 21 out of 25, Line 1 labeling 18, the receiving dock 15 and the maintenance crib 13. On Line 3 the team wanted the fix (5) and the data, the supervisor, the size and the scope each scored 4.
The pain point as one sentence: In Line 3 packaging, changeovers take too long and nobody can see why: 52 minutes per changeover today. We want 35 minutes per changeover by day 90.
How it is measured: a stopwatch from the last good case to the first good case, written on the changeover log and reviewed every Friday.
The number so far: 52 minutes at day 30 (the baseline over 12 changeovers), 46 at day 60 and 38 at day 90.
Gap closed at day 90: (52 minus 38) divided by (52 minus 35) is 82% of the gap closed.
The expansion plan: Line 4 packaging, Line 2 packaging and Line 1 labeling, each trained by someone from the Line 3 team or Line 4, and a second plant in month 7.

The standard was written and followed for two weeks, and the team decided at day 90 to expand with 82% of the gap closed. The rest of the gap stays on the Line 3 board.

Common mistakes

Writing a topic instead of a pain point
Quality or downtime is a topic. A pain point has a place, a thing that goes wrong and a number. If you cannot write the number, you cannot check day 90.
Skipping the before number
Without it, you cannot tell at day 90 whether anything changed. Measure it in week 1, even as a rough count on paper, and measure it the same way every week.
Picking the area you already like
Score every candidate with the team, not only the one you had in mind. The scores are there to separate the area that is easy to like from the one with a clear problem and a team that wants it.
Skipping the day 30 and day 60 checks
The sponsor looks at the pilot on these days. If a checkpoint gets skipped, that is a sign the pilot is drifting.
Leaving the expansion plan for later
Name the next three areas and who trains them before day 90, while the pilot team still has time and attention for it.

Download the template

Free to use: print it, copy it and edit it for your team. Enter your name and work email once to download.

Run this template in LeanSuite

LeanSuite's 90-day pilot runs this method with our team doing the setup: your first module is live in under a week, and at day 90 you decide with your own results.

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