The question of strategy

Definition of strategy:

‘A set of ideas that inspire a move to a position of advantage over a meaningful period of time.’

To transpose that into bullets:

• 1-A set of ideas
• 2-that inspire
• 3-a move to
• 4-a position of advantage
• 5-over a meaningful period of time

This is the definition of strategy or strategic that I work with. It’s not supposed to be the “be all end all” definition of strategy. Take it or leave it. But I find it useful in my area of work for asking the questions:

• Is this is actually a strategy?
  Is this actually strategic?

But are those the right questions? By common practice, yes. Almost always when we create, propose, or implement a strategy, the beneficiary is us.

But as product owners, we need to go deeper – we need to ask: is this actually strategic for our customers?

To elaborate, is it?

a set of solutions (ideas) to problems that our customers have
that inspire them, or help them imagine a different state of affairs,
to move or transform into a different kind of business
so they improve their competitive advantage
over a period of time that lets them capitalize on all of the above

A strategic solution needn’t do sh*t for the owners of the solution – it needs to do something  for the people using it.