Strategy No Tragedy

.Read prequel article Products are People too

Imagine you could catch a fish every time you cast your line in the lake, imagine you could make a basket every time you shoot your basketball, imagine you could make a friend every time you tried, imagine you could get a contract every time you negotiated for one. If that's not happening yet, then it's important you read this article.

We all have strategies we employ in our daily lives which dictate our approach towards achieving our goals, most strategies are so ingrained that they have become instinctive and show up in everything we do. Our exposure, knowledge, experiences, and beliefs influence the strategies we employ to deliver a result. ?

Strategies are very important and show up in unexpected places, I recall a conversation with a friend who is a counselor where she explained the importance of love strategies in managing relationships, how we all have strategies for showing love for example some buy gifts, go the extra mile to help, hugs and say kind words while showing our best sides and minimizing inadequacies.

When we do these things, it’s because we want to be loved but some relationships between loved ones have suffered because they have been using strategies that can only work on themselves, to love their partners. The objective of being loved was correct, but the strategy was inherently flawed because their partners are different from them and require a different strategy.

In this same light, when we are not achieving the result we expect, we should look first into our strategies, in some cases, we assume our customers will think and act like us, so we create an effective strategy for the wrong customer "ourselves". The strategy you create will always determine the type of result you produce for example when you do everything right and you still don't get the results you want.

Creating a strategy for your product or service removes elements of uncertainty and provides you with a clear direction needed to deliver quality results that reflect the important values you wish to amplify in your product or service.

To create an effective strategy, you need to focus on these 3 important areas.

1. Determine Your Current Position: For you to develop a strategy towards your goal, you need to clearly understand where you currently are. Strategizing without examining where you currently are, is like booking a taxi without knowing your pickup location (if you are in doubt, try booking a ride without GPS or any location info). You need to know where you are to determine where you need to be and how you will get there.

To know where you are, you sometimes have to get the right stakeholders involved from the start, considering both internal and external resources, identify key issues, customer insights, and industry and market data to get a clear picture of your position in the market and in the minds of your customers. Some tools such as S.W.O.T and P.E.S.T are useful in determining where you currently are.

2. Determine and Prioritize What Is Important: Once you have identified your current position in the market or industry, it is time to determine objectives that will help you achieve your goals. Your objectives should be in line with your mission and vision. Prioritize your objectives by asking important questions.

Your objectives should be distinct and measurable to help you reach your long-term strategic goals and initiatives. Potential objectives can be anything from revenue-driven to customer satisfaction-driven or performance-driven. When all your objectives are put together they must deliver the result you want.

SMART goals are useful to determine a timeline and identify the resources needed to achieve the goals, as well as key performance indicators (KPIs) to make your success measurable aiding in continuously improving your performance. Usually, at this point, you start to determine and weigh your Key Result Areas (KRA) for the management of your product.

3. ?Plan to Achieve Your Objectives: This step requires determining the tactics necessary to attain your objectives and designating a timeline and clear communication of responsibilities, basically, this is your plan to achieve the determined objectives you’ve set above. Strategy mapping is an effective tool to visualize your entire plan. Strategy maps make it simple to view business processes and identify gaps for improvement.?

Truly strategic decisions usually involve trade-offs in opportunity cost e.g. you may decide to reduce the funding behind your call center so that you can inject more funding into quality control and user experience. At the end of the day, your values, culture, and beliefs would help you prioritize your choices.

Check out what's not delivering the results you wish for in your relationships, business, and life as a whole, then review and revise the conscious and unconscious strategies involved. Unconscious strategies are very pervasive because they go unnoticed with only their effects being apparent over time, it may show up in lack of promotion, poor leadership, bad habits, etc. Sometimes you may need to get some help with the knowledge and experience needed to make that change that will deliver the objectives you want, but taking that first step is important.

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