Strategy Questions

For those of you dealing with strategic thinking, brainstorming, project planning, etc.. this is a quick 10 minute braindump I did on questions that came to mind when I was asked- it's a little rough and in no particular order- but maybe it is helpful- any that you would add?


1. What are we trying to accomplish? What's the problem/un-met need?


2. Who are we doing this for? Do they really care about what we're setting out to do? Is there really a customer base for this? Is it a large enough need that justifies our investment of time, money, people?


3. Is this realistic, can this actually work, or is it "idealistic", looks good on paper but people won't respond to this or it just isn't practical?

4. Who on our team will be needed? Are they excited about it? What will they have to let go to take this on?

5. What additional resources/people/staff will we need to make this happen? Is the implementation team set?


6. Who is running point? At the end of the day, someone has to drive this and make the calls- who is it? Do they understand the target objectives, are they energized by it?

7. How will we measure success, what are the benchmarks along the way to know we're on track or need to change course?

8. Can we "test" our strategy in any way before launching fully into the plan?

9. What are the unknowns? Do we know what we don't know?

10. What other support will be needed/leveraged from the company/ministry? (Communications, marketing, legal, sales)

11. Has a timeline been established with tasks for each phase of the timeline? Who is the point person running the task/project management.... is that person in place to have specific deliverable steps identified, scheduled, executed, tested, and approved?

12. What are potential curve balls, deal-breakers to watch for? What are the IF this, THEN that scenarios to be aware of... initial Plan A's or Plan B's?

13. How long can we financially afford to carry out this plan? What is the payback?

14. What are the quality objectives? Is the standard of excellence being met? How will we know?

15. How will we measure our customer's response? What is the win? What adds value? What could/will that look like? Are we creating fans?

16. Is everyone on the team aware of their specific roles, priorities, timelines, and who they need to be communicating with?