- Everyone has a different definition of strategy
- Everyone in your organisation has different context for strategy
- How you develop strategy in the first place
- Ensuring strategy is heard
- Ensuring strategy is understood
1. Defining Strategy
As Tim Herbig said in his keynote at Product at Heart, “for whom is strategy trying to solve what problem and how would we know it was solved?”
2. Setting Context for Strategy
3. Developing your Strategy in the Open
4. Ensuring your Strategy is Heard
5. Ensuring your Strategy is Understood
… as Petra Wille suggests in her excellent talk on storytelling, think about developing different ways to describe your strategy - 150 words like “We want to X, in order to Y, because Z”, 900 words that paint a more complete picture, and 2,400 words that tell the full story.
How do we Know our Strategy is Clear?
The best sign that your vision or strategy is landing is when your team starts actively referencing them — whether to justify a decision or to push back on an idea. Success! Your vision and strategy are now directing daily decisions!
Living and Breathing Strategy Stops it from Stagnating
As Arne Kittler points out, the more senior you are, the more your emphasis on providing clarity influences the everyday culture in your organisation that "makes it easy, safe, and ideally rewarding for anyone asking for clarity to do so".