Corporate Vision Development

A roadmap is not a strategy! Yet, most strategy docs are roadmaps + frameworks. This isn't because teams are dumb. It's because they lack predictable steps to follow. This is where I refer them to Ed Biden's 7-step process: — 1. Objective → What problem are we solving? Your objective sets the foundation. If you can’t define this clearly, nothing else matters. A real strategy starts with: → What challenge are we responding to? → Why does this problem matter? → What happens if we don’t solve it? — 2. Users → Who are we serving? Not all users are created equal. A strong strategy answers: · What do they need most? · Who exactly are we solving for? · What problems are they already solving on their own? A strategy without sharp user focus leads to feature bloat. — 3. Superpowers → What makes us different? If you’re competing on the same playing field as everyone else, you’ve already lost. Your strategy must define: · What can we do 10x better than anyone else? · Where can we persistently win? · What should we not do? This is where strategy meets competitive advantage. — 4. Vision → Where are we going? A roadmap tells you what’s next. A vision tells you why it matters. Most PMs confuse vision with strategy. But a vision is long-term. It’s a north star. Your strategy answers: How do we get there? — 5. Pillars → What are our focus areas? If everything is a priority, nothing really is. In my 15 years of experience, great strategy always come with a trade-offs: → What are our big bets? → What do we need to execute to move towards our vision? → What are we intentionally not doing? — 6. Impact → How do we measure success? Most teams obsess over vanity metrics. A great strategy tracks what actually drives business success. What outcomes matter? → How will we track progress? → What signals tell us we’re on the right path? — 7. Roadmap → How do we execute? A roadmap should never be a list of everything you could do. It should be a focus list of what truly matters. Problems and outcomes are the currency here. Not dates and timelines. — For personal examples of how I do this, check out my post: https://lnkd.in/e5F2J6pB — Hate to break it to you, but you might be operating without a strategy. You might have a nicely formatted strategy doc in front of you, but it’s just a… A roadmap? a feature list? a wishlist? If it doesn’t connect vision to execution, prioritize trade-offs, and define competitive edge… It’s not strategy. It’s just noise.

We can’t predict the future. But we can approach it more systematically. That’s where futures thinking (or strategic foresight) comes in. And it’s a critical part of good strategic design. You’ll often hear futurists say: “Foresight precedes strategy.” That’s only true if we treat strategy as a fixed plan, built in a linear way. When we instead see strategy as a testable hypothesis, futures thinking becomes more powerful. The two start to shape each other. One of the hardest parts of futures work is that it asks us to question our own values and beliefs. At its best, it creates a scaffold that helps people think the unthinkable. Here’s how futures thinking shows up in my strategic design practice. FRAMING AND SCOPING Getting alignment early matters. Futures tools can be used for different challenges, so framing the right question is essential. Clear scope and shared intent give the work its best chance of success. SCANNING Often called horizon scanning. This is where we lift our gaze and look for weak signals of change. These early signs can point to larger shifts ahead. They form the raw material for scenarios, alongside drivers of change and, to a lesser extent, trends. UNDERSTANDING IMPACT Not all signals matter equally. We explore which ones could have the biggest impact, or where uncertainty is highest. Tools like impact wheels and probability–impact matrices help build shared perspectives and increase situational awareness. SCENARIOS Scenarios turn signals into stories about alternate futures. They help us test assumptions, surface risks, and spot opportunities. Importantly, they let us rehearse decisions before we have to make them. STRATEGY FORMULATION In a linear process, strategy is the end point. In a complex world, that rarely works. Rather than a single plan, I’m interested in strategy as a system. New information about the future feeds into decisions in regular cycles, not as a one-off exercise. This is only a personal snapshot. Each stage has more depth and nuance, and many practitioners would break this into more steps. Because I also work with a complexity lens, I’m less interested in futures as a way to design an ideal future and “close the gap”. For me, the real value of futures thinking is its ability to: - Broaden what we notice - Challenge hidden assumptions - Build resilience in strategic decision-making Futures thinking isn’t a silver bullet. But its value grows when it’s used alongside other complementary practices. It expands what we can imagine, while understanding complex adaptive systems helps us respond to what’s emerging in the present. #StrategicDesign #FuturesThinking #Strategy #DesignThinking #StrategicForesight

23andMe, once valued at $6 billion, is now filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Founder/CEO Anne Wojcicki has stepped down. Nearly 40% of the workforce is gone. And a recent buyout offer valued the company at a shocking $11 million. That’s a 99.82% drop in valuation. So, what went wrong? Let’s break it down: 1. The illusion of consumer healthtech. A sleek DNA test kit seemed innovative until it wasn’t. Customers paid once, learned they were 12% Scandinavian, and then… nothing. Their subscription service offered little value, and retention was impossible. 2. Data is an asset… until you lose trust. 23andMe had a 14 million profile genetic database. Then came the 2023 data breach - 6.9 million customer records exposed, $30 million in settlements. They lost their entire userbase’s trust - and never really recovered from it. 3. Betting big on pharma - and losing. 23andMe tried to pivot with a $300M drug discovery partnership with GSK. But drug development is slow & unpredictable. When consumer sales stalled, they had no fallback. 4. The stock market failure In 2021, 23andMe went public at a $3.5B valuation. But public markets demand predictable growth, not “We’re figuring it out.” Stock prices collapsed to just 0.5% of their peak. 5. No pivot strategy Every startup hits roadblocks. The successful ones pivot. 23andMe didn’t. They doubled down on a broken model, gambled on pharma, and ran out of time. 6. Leadership missteps and investor pressure 23andMe’s board backed risky bets, and investors demanded quick returns. When those bets failed, confidence crumbled, and poor decisions sealed the company’s fate. This failure wasn’t inevitable. It was preventable. In my 25 years in healthtech, I’ve seen how even well-funded companies can fail when they lose sight of what truly matters - building lasting value for both patients and providers. Technically, the Chapter 11 bankruptcy means that they’re ‘restructuring’. But I think the road to recovery from here will be extremely difficult for them. Do you think there’s hope for 23andMe? #innovation #failure #startups #healthcare

Imagine this: You, the visionary founder, see the big picture— Because it comes from you. It probably originated from a deep personal conviction. To you, it’s clear as day. But there’s just one problem: This vision, as vibrant as it is in your mind, isn’t understood by everyone in your organization. Not yet, anyway— It feels like you’re pointing at a giant cloud saying, “Do you see it? It’s there.” And your people don’t. Why? Because the vision can’t only live in you. Your challenge and opportunity is to embed the vision into the very fabric of the company. From the C-suite to the front lines. And that’s way harder than it sounds. I call it “vision adoption.” It's a big part of what we do for organizations. We lead the inception of your vision to its fullest understanding, acceptance, and integration into your operations, culture, and brand. It’s necessary for turning aspirations into reality. So what do you do? 1️⃣ Consistently Vision-Cast Clear, consistent messaging from you ensures that the vision is not only understood at all levels, but embraced too. Articulate the vision's relevance to each department and role. Make it part of your daily conversations. 2️⃣ Cultural Integration Work your vision into company culture through intention — it has to echo daily through your core values, behaviors, and rituals. The vision must be more than a dream. Employees have to experience it through your SOPs, decisions, and strategies down to the tiniest detail. It guides everything you do. 3️⃣ Leadership Engagement The only acceptable leadership style for a visionary company is leading by example — nothing else will ensure buy-in from your workforce. Every vision decision a CEO or executive team makes that isn't aligned with the vision will reflect 10x more intensely in the diminishing commitment of the regular employee. 4️⃣ Empowerment and Ownership Every team member — regardless of title — must see themselves as indispensable to the success of the vision. This is empowerment. That empowerment leads to innovation. And that innovation translates to proactive, self-initiated problem-solving aligned with the vision. And that’s pure vision adoption in action. It’s the difference between a vision only you can see... …and a vision that your whole company actively participates in realizing. Motto® 🏴

Your startup’s vision evolves with you. And you should let it. ‘Cause when I first started Supersourcing, our vision, Mayank’s and mine, was clear - to provide best IT services solution to business, and it actually served as our compass. But as we’ve grown and evolved, I’ve come to see that a vision isn’t static, it evolves with you and your brand. We learned: 💡 A static vision can hold back growth. An evolving vision, however, adapts to market changes, keeping your startup relevant. 💡 Having a flexible vision has allowed us to align every decision with Supersourcing’s core purpose while remaining open to new opportunities. 💡 Embracing a dynamic vision drives creativity, helping us explore new possibilities and find solutions we might have overlooked. 💡 An evolving vision unites your team, creating a shared goal that adapts as you scale. Honestly, adapting and staying resilient have shown us the importance of an evolving vision. It’s a blend of foresight and flexibility that keeps us on course through challenges. As Supersourcing has grown, so has it’s vision. And we can now confidently say it’s about growing with purpose rather than sticking to a rigid plan. How has your startup's evolving vision impacted your growth? Share your experience! #startup #vision

“I’ll know we’ve succeeded together when my title of CEO no longer means ‘Chief Everything Officer.’” That was my client’s answer when I asked him what success looks like from our consulting work together. For many, the title of “Chief Everything Officer” is an unavoidable rite of passage when you’re a founder. So how do you relinquish the title? Step one: Uplevel your direct reports. Investing in top-level talent can feel daunting but it’s a necessary step forward when running a rocketship of a company. The next step is a bit more difficult… That’s vision permeation. How can successfully translate your vision into the day-to-day of your company in a way that motivates action and drives decision making (versus vision getting lost in a corporate game of telephone…)? Here are some tips… 1. Define the organizational processes that support your vision. You may have heard “vision without execution is just hallucination,” but “Vision without defined processes can lead to faulty translation.” Without providing your team the “rules of the game,” it’s hard for them to play. 2. Define how you will manage the growth of your vision. When you tell your team to focus on executing a vision, but you don’t spell out how resources, time, and priorities will shift to accommodate that, you create a rich breeding ground for overwhelm or confusion. Pay careful mind to “Zombie Ventures,” things that were a core focus at one point but should be officially (and publicly) killed. 3. Define your tolerance for failure. When executing a new vision, experimentation and failure are inevitable. Explain to your teams how failure will be handled, or they’ll be afraid to take big swings. Lay out what you can’t afford to fail at (because it will break things) and be clear what will be celebrated even if it doesn’t hit the mark at first. 4. Align measurement and reward systems. If you are asking people to get creative and bravely attempt new feats make sure rewards acknowledge those efforts. Make these acknowledgements as consistent and public as possible. 5. Define various growth paths within your organization. Typically, succeeding in an organization means “all roads lead to management.” But not everyone wants to (or should) be a manager. Create promotion paths that reward folks for expertise and ownership. #vision #growth #leadership

Transforming How We Think About Collaboration: The 'Collaborative Innovation' Approach 🪄 🎯 𝗕𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗻 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗔𝘂𝗱𝗮𝗰𝗶𝗼𝘂𝘀 𝗚𝗼𝗮𝗹𝘀 Instead of seeking lowest-common-denominator agreement, start with a powerful vision that attracts committed changemakers. 👥 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗦𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺 𝗥𝗲𝗽𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 Rather than "open door" meetings, carefully select participants to ensure the whole system is in the room — from grassroots to grasstops. 🔄 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗹-𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝗖𝗼-𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 Move away from "develop-then-present" to working together in real-time, leveraging collective intelligence. ⚡️ 𝗘𝗺𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗲 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗧𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 Stop pushing for false harmony and start using differences as catalysts for innovation. ✨ 𝗘𝗮𝗿𝗹𝘆 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝘁𝗼𝘁𝘆𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗴 & 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 Build the strategy through action rather than endless planning sessions. What's powerful about this approach is how it transforms resistance and diversity into sources of innovation. It's not about getting everyone to agree — it's about weaving different perspectives into transformative interventions. Insights from Russ Gaskin, CoCreative and Ashoka's Leading Multi-stakeholder Collaborations course💡 🤔 How do you navigate the tension between inclusion and focused action in your collaborative work? #SystemicChange #Collaboration #Innovation #Leadership #CollectiveImpact

[Brand new episode] Your product vision is probably wrong - here's why. Former Google Head of Data & Technology Partnerships Alap Ghosh reveals a counterintuitive truth: great product vision starts by finding reasons to say NO, not YES. In this episode, Alap breaks down his battle-tested 5-step framework for developing winning product visions while avoiding the confirmation bias trap that kills most startups. In our conversation, we discuss: 🔸 The 5 stages of Product Vision Development 🔸 How to conduct effective Deep Discovery 🔸 The three-layer approach to competitor analysis 🔸 Creating compelling elevator pitches that work 🔸 The critical difference between Product Vision and Product-Market Fit 🔸 Much more Listen now 👇 Link in the comments below Some key takeaways: 1. Deep Discovery isn't just about customers - it's a three-pronged approach covering customers, competitors, and market/industry dynamics. The best founders master all three. 2. Smart competitor analysis splits into: - Direct competitors (Same problem, same solution) - Lateral competitors (Similar problem, different solution) - Indirect competitors (Different problem, same solution) 3. When identifying target segments, start with what you know. The Zepto founders succeeded by targeting segments where they had existing relationships and easy access to potential customers. 4. Your elevator pitch needs to work for three distinct audiences: - Prospective customers - Team members - Investors Each requires a different emphasis while maintaining the core vision. The most surprising insight? Successful product vision often starts with understanding your limitations rather than your ambitions. #ProductVision #StartupStrategy #Leadership #ProductManagement #Entrepreneurship #behindthefeaturethursday

These days, many CROs and sales leaders reflect upon the past 12 months and come up with resolutions for the new year. I personally find one task particularly helpful - reflecting about projects, tasks, or activities to stop immediately. In other words, to back up our strategies as leaders we need to apply focus by giving our teams permission to stop irrelevant activities. We demonstrate authentic #leadership by reinforcing words with actions, and stop projects and initiatives that do no longer align with our priorities. The benefits? Focus. Distractions and excuses are removed. Employee engagement is improved, and life should become more fun for people who see friction removed from their role. Here are some specific tactics I have found most helpful to make this happen: 💡Describe the vision with clear supporting goals. It’s impossible to align the team against specific tasks and tactics if there’s no line of sight to the overall objectives of the business. CROs need a vision that their sales teams can rally around which is inspirational, simple and clear. It needs to demonstrate believable impacts on the customer experience which link to measurable economic outcomes. In other words, “if we behave in this way, we create value for our customers and value for us”. 💡Formally audit current initiatives and activities. businesses are a chamber of ‘great ideas’, many of which sprout arms and legs in the form of informal or formal projects. And, often, these projects have loose (if any) goals, lack project management and dilute critical resources. 💡 Review KPIs: is every KPIs you set and review aligned to the goals and activities you said were important? If not, cease their existence immediately! there is no point painting a compelling vision for the business, ceasing initiatives and activities, but still reporting KPIs that reflect deprioritised topics. 💡Walk the talk: it’s critical for CROs to be acting and communicating in ways that are aligned with desired changes. As role models, and in a similar vein to KPI setting, CROs should act as a reinforcing mechanism by personally ceasing activities and aligning to the overall agenda. More ideas and practical tips for Spring Cleaning in the Forbes expert collection attached in the comments below.