Playbook Catalog
✦ Click any bullet point or select text for an AI explanation
Click Playbooks in the navigation bar to open the playbook catalog, which shows everything available on the platform.
Types of Playbooks
Backtick has three distinct kinds of playbooks, each serving a different purpose:
| Playbook Type | Visible To | Who Can Read It |
|---|---|---|
| Public | Everyone — appears in the public catalog | Anyone, no account needed (some plays may require sign-in) |
| Premium | Everyone — appears in the public catalog | Requires an active premium subscription |
| Team | Team members only — never in the public catalog | Active members of that team |
Public playbooks are authored by Irv Shapiro and the Backtick team. They cover the frameworks, strategies, and hard-won lessons from building and scaling technology companies. Any visitor can browse them; registered users can interact with the built-in AI.
Premium playbooks appear in the same public catalog but unlock exclusive content — deeper frameworks, more detailed plays — that require a premium subscription to read. A single premium subscription unlocks all premium content across every playbook on the platform.
Team playbooks are private to your organization. They never appear in the public catalog and are only accessible to members of your team. Use them for your company's SOPs, onboarding guides, culture documents, and how-we-work playbooks. As a founder, you can start reading Backtick's public playbooks for inspiration, then author your own team playbooks to pass those frameworks on to your team.
Browsing Playbooks
Each playbook card shows:
- The playbook title and current version
- A short description of what the playbook covers
- An intro video when one is available
Access Levels
Individual plays within a playbook can have their own access requirement:
| Access Level | Who Can Read It |
|---|---|
| Public | Anyone — no account needed |
| Members | You need to be signed in |
| Paid | You need to have purchased access, or been given access by an administrator |
Playbooks that require sign-in will show a prompt to create a free account if you aren't already logged in.
Searching
A search bar at the top of the catalog lets you filter playbooks by title or topic. Type what you're looking for and the list updates as you type.