Setting Up Your Strategy Workspace
Before you write a single strategy document, it helps to have a place for the inputs to live. This reading covers the minimal setup used throughout the rest of this course.
A Single Source of Truth
Pick one document or workspace that holds the current strategy — not five slightly different decks across five stakeholders. Everything else should link back to it, not duplicate it.
Tracking Assumptions Separately
Keep a running list of assumptions the strategy depends on, separate from the strategy itself. When one of those assumptions turns out to be wrong, you update the list first and the strategy second.
A Lightweight Decision Log
Every time a real strategic call gets made, write one line: what was decided, and why. Six months later, this is the difference between remembering your reasoning and re-litigating it.
Practical Review Checklist
Before moving on, confirm that you can:
- State the primary objective in one clear sentence
- Identify the assumptions that still need evidence
- Choose a small set of meaningful success measures
- Explain the process to another person without hidden steps
- Record what should be reviewed during the next iteration
Conclusion
None of this needs special tooling. A shared doc with these three habits will outperform an elaborate strategy template that nobody keeps up to date.