Strategic Thinking#

Strategy is choosing what not to do as much as what to do. End with explicit bets and guardrails.

When to use#

• Choosing a direction for a product, team, company, technology platform or career under real constraints.
• Competitive positioning, "where to play and how to win", roadmap narrative, portfolio trade-offs.
• Leadership or board-style narrative that links goals to constraints.

Skip: step-by-step implementation detail, or choosing between two concrete options on named criteria.

Before you start#

1. State in one block: Strategic question (one sentence) and Pass (Intent, Landscape, Advantage, Options, Choice, Risks and Cadence).
2. Gather first. Read the roadmap, docs, metrics or market notes you can reach before writing Landscape. Never invent market facts; say what is unknown. Ask up to 3 questions only for goals and non-negotiables that tools cannot answer.
3. Light path. Small ask: 1-2 lines per phase, 2 options, same order.
4. If the user wants a memo or deck storyline, add a Short story after Risks and Cadence (5-7 sentences: tension, insight, decision, proof path).

Phases#

1. Intent#

Win definition: which outcome, by when. Non-goals: what is explicitly out of scope.

2. Landscape#

Forces that matter: customers, competition, technology, regulation, economics. Use Implication: bullets, not encyclopedic lists. Keep short when information is thin.

3. Advantage (or Honest gap)#

Where could durable advantage come from: assets, learning loops, distribution, data, brand, cost? If none is credible, say so and pivot to how to build one.

4. Options#

2-4 genuinely different strategies:

Option: ... - Bet: ... - Cost: ... - Kill signal: ...

5. Choice#

Name one primary option (parallel bets only if clearly justified). Say why now and what you are deferring or rejecting.

6. Risks and Cadence#

Top 3 risks with mitigations. Then a near-term focus, a longer-term thesis and a review trigger (a metric or event that forces a rethink). Match the horizons to the domain: 90 days and 12 months suit a business plan; an architecture or career decision may need different spans, so state the spans you chose.

Pitfalls#

• Platitudes ("innovate", "customer-centric") with no mechanism.
• Options that are really one option in different words.
• A Choice that introduces a strategy not in Options. Label it a revision if so.
• Advantage claimed with no evidence. Use Honest gap.

Worked example: references/example.md.

Checklist#

• Strategic question and Pass stated
• Intent includes non-goals
• Options use Bet, Cost, Kill signal
• Choice explicit, with what is deferred or rejected
• Risks and Cadence: top 3 risks, stated horizons, review trigger