Often in business, we get caught working without an intentional strategy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Though there are many causes, it is important to understand that you are always operating with a strategy, it\u2019s just that without intention<\/em>, that path will yield uncontrollable results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Believe me, I have heard the pushback many times over: \u201cBut Josh, creating a strategy is hard. It\u2019s such a vague task.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s right, and it\u2019s wrong. People make strategy more complex than it needs to be, but that is not a great excuse for not being intentional. In the end, it\u2019s important to articulate a strategy in order to understand how to operate, and to define what you need in order to succeed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In retrospect, the greatest product and business strategies seem brilliant. Let\u2019s lower the bar for ourselves – our goal is not to create the next Moneyball. At first, we just start. (Later, Michael Lewis will figure out how to tell our story.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the early 1900s, Henry Ford decided to double workers\u2019 hourly pay to $5, and simultaneously shorten their workday to 8 hours. These seem like paltry benefits now, but they were groundbreaking at the time. Can you imagine the feedback from Ford\u2019s CFO? Ford was working against the strategic thesis that improving workers\u2019 work conditions would increase productivity and loyalty. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Ford realized that they would win the market in part by having a happier, longer tenured workforce who could afford the product they were making. It\u2019s a pretty easy bet to have made in retrospect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When forming a strategy, Jeff Bezos asks the question, \u201cWhat\u2019s not going to change in the next 10 years?<\/a>\u201d This is a great place to start. For Amazon\u2019s customers, there is no doubt that even lower prices will be welcome change 10 years from now. Same with faster shipping.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thinking back on the Ford example above, the question might be \u201cwill workers desire higher pay in 10 years?\u201d Obviously, the answer to that is yes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n For Netflix, a critical bet was made on customers preferring streaming over DVD rentals, and you can imagine that at some point someone said, \u201cwe made movie consumption easier by shipping DVDs to customers\u2019 doors. Will consumers prefer even less friction in the future?\u201d Of course they would. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Ideally, you are starting from a place of ample user research and analytics so that you understand what your users desire, and what behaviors are here to stay.<\/p>\n\n\n\nLet’s start with an example<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
What\u2019s not going to change?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Roger Martin\u2019s Simple Strategy Framework<\/h2>\n\n\n\n