Strategic Planning

Tactics = how you execute today (ad spend, sprint goals, channel choice). Strategy = where you're going in 2-5 years and why (market positioning, competitive moat, resource bets). Tactics flow from strategy; strategy without tactics is a fantasy. Common failure: teams execute flawlessly on tactics but lose sight of strategy—they win quarter-to-quarter but drift from their long-term thesis. Fix: write your strategy down (make it falsifiable), align quarterly tactics to it, review both together in recurring cadence.

OKRs fail when: (1) you inherit 30 initiatives and call them OKRs (OKRs should be 3-5 per org max), (2) you define Key Results as activity (make 10 calls) not outcome (increase pipeline by $2M), (3) no one tracks them after launch (set it and forget it). Fix: ruthlessly prioritize (say no to 90% of ideas), define outcomes not outputs, track weekly in a public dashboard, kill underperformers mid-quarter, celebrate learning from misses not just hits.

Annual formal strategy review is minimum; quarterly tactical adjustments are essential. Set strategy for 3-5 years, re-baseline quarterly: (1) external scan (new competitors, market shifts), (2) internal scan (actual vs. planned progress), (3) hypothesis testing (did our bets pan out?). If >3 assumptions failed, revisit strategy not just tactics. Adjust tactics freely; change strategy only when evidence contradicts your original thesis, not on a whim.

Wardley map = visual inventory of your value chain (all components needed to deliver value) plotted on axes: (Y) visibility to customer, (X) maturity (novel → product → commodity). Use it to: (1) identify which components give you competitive advantage (novel custom, not commodity), (2) spot where competitors can commoditize you, (3) plan buildvsbuy decisions (commodity = buy, novel = build). Example: Netflix's streaming strategy depended on custom encoding (novel) + AWS infrastructure (commodity). Started when neither existed; got both before market catch-up.

Write a 1-page strategy statement: (1) Customer who/what/why, (2) Competitive positioning (why us vs. alternatives), (3) 3-year financial target, (4) Top 3 priorities, (5) 2-3 key bets (R&D areas). Share as narrative, not slides. Tell the 'before' (problem today), 'after' (success in 3 years), and 'path' (what changes). Use metaphor/analogy (e.g., 'we're the Spotify of X'). Repeat it 10x across channels. Measure comprehension: ask 5 random people what your strategy is; if answers diverge, rewrite.

Yes. Spend 2-4 hours brainstorming 3 futures: (1) base case (your forecast), (2) upside (market doubles, you win), (3) downside (budget cuts, competitor launches). For each scenario, identify the 3 moves that would trigger your strategy shift. Example: if AWS cuts prices >30%, you can't defend on-prem. Document these 'circuit breakers' now. Revisit quarterly. Startups win by adapting faster, not by sticking to the plan—scenario planning gives you early warning systems.

5-20 pages max. Executive summary (1 page), market/competitive analysis (2-3), 3-year roadmap with milestones (2-3), financial model (1-2), appendix (sources, detailed assumptions). Long documents don't get read; they live in your drawer. Short plans force tradeoffs. If you can't fit your strategy on 10 slides, you don't understand it. That said, keep detailed working documents (deeper analysis, data sources) for your team; the 10-page plan is the 'for everyone' artifact.