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Four key Strategy takeaways
1. It’s a set of choices
2. You work backwards from a client-centric problem
3. It’s fundamentally creative
4. You seek to influence, but recognize you don’t control the Outcome
Planning
Planning, by contrast, is a fundamentally analytical and internal-centric approach to laying out a series of activities.
Planning involves sequencing how you will bring certain internal organizational resources (people, time, software, knowledge, money) to bear in ways you hope will accomplish a seemingly-sensible set of “initiatives.”
Outputs
The result of these planning activities are known as “Outputs” — lines of software code written, interfaces designed, software upgrades implemented, platforms “lifted and shifted.”
The important contrast with Strategy is to recognize *Planning is always within your control*. Perhaps this is what makes it preferred by many in business — there’s a great sense of comfort in focusing on only that which you can control.
If you have a Product Manager title, yet spend all your time in meetings with stakeholders, planning activities, and creating Roadmaps and budgets, you’re really a Project Manager.
Four key Planning takeaways:
1. It’s a sequence of activities
2. It’s Internal-centric
3. It’s fundamentally analytical
4. You are in full control the Outputs you create
Boost Your Product Management Skills Through Strategy, Planning, and OKRs
Michael Goitein
So what does it take to combine Agile and AI well?
**1) Strong fundamentals to create clarity**
Know the customer problem you are solving, the outcome you want and what you are not doing right now.
**2) Tight feedback loops to turn effort into learning**
Short cycles, real signals and a willingness to change the plan based on what you learn.
**3) AI used as an assistant to the loop, not a substitute for judgment**
Use it to draft, explore options, pressure test and accelerate analysis. Keep the decision making with the team.
If you want a simple practice you can try this week, use these four questions in your next planning or discovery conversation:
• What are we trying to learn in the next 5 days?
• What is the smallest test that could teach us that?
• What did we expect to see, and what did we actually see?
• What will we change based on what we learned?
That is Agile. It is a learning system. AI just raises the stakes, and raises the upside, for doing it well.
A Practical Way to Learn Faster This Week
Jeff & Josh | Sense & Respond Learning
**Frame a leapfrog question**
Once you’ve identified a strategic problem that is clear, impactful, and based on your customers' behaviors, your next step in the strategic process is [framing a question to guide your thinking](https://www.ideou.com/blogs/inspiration/why-leadership-is-not-about-having-all-the-answers?_pos=4&_sid=ef4547913&_ss=r). A common mistake Roger sees people make in this step is [framing a catch-up question](https://rogermartin.medium.com/the-tragic-futility-of-investing-to-catch-up-aaf4b5c90e0f)[.](https://rogermartin.medium.com/the-tragic-futility-of-investing-to-catch-up-aaf4b5c90e0f)
You want to pursue a strategy that’s worth pursuing. Catch-up measures, like investing $300 million to get your distribution system “up to par,” are often less effective than expected, while leapfrog measures lead to greater returns than planned. Instead of asking how you might catch up with a competitor, ask how you can win in the marketplace.
Strategic Planning: How to Get Started
IDEO U
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