Collaborative Product Design

Chapter 5. The Strategic Landscape

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The Strategic Landscape

For a strategy workshop, service-line managers, the IT team, and one lonely marketer packed themselves into a conference room. It was a savvy group. Each manager delivered high-performing services across channels including mobile, web, and in stores. They had a vision of where they wanted to be, goals to get them there, and an understanding of problems they faced.

IT wanted to minimize services. Marketing wanted to push the technology envelope. Retail wanted to reduce wait time with simpler stores, and Merchandising wanted to pack stores with trinkets. They had vision, but they had different visions. They didn’t have a single, clear vision that everyone shared.

That’s strategy: the single, bright line everyone in the organization can see, understand, and follow together. When everyone shares the same goals and vision, then each part of the experience machine works in harmony with the others. And, although they may not be building the right things, at least they’re building the same things.

Shared vision and goals help teams stay aligned, so they work better together. Shared vision and goals help your team work with the broader organization. This chapter disassembles strategy into its component parts, so you can identify where your team may be misaligned and get everyone working together again.

Strategy breaks into three parts:

• Goals, drivers, and barriers: three parts of the strategic landscape
• Four types ...