Goals look good on a slide. Strategy tells a team what to do on Monday morning, and what to stop doing.
Every team I have worked with had goals. Far fewer had a strategy.
Increase engagement. Improve the experience. Become the market leader. These statements sound ambitious. They look good on a slide. But they do not tell anyone what to do on Monday morning.
Richard Rumelt explains why in Good Strategy Bad Strategy. He writes, “Many bad strategies are just statements of desire rather than plans for overcoming obstacles.”
That line describes a lot of design roadmaps.
Rumelt offers a clear alternative. “The kernel of a strategy contains three elements: a diagnosis, a guiding policy, and coherent action.” Each part has a job.
First, the diagnosis. What is actually going on? Not what we hope is going on. In design, this means research, data and honest observation. Why are users leaving? Where does the experience break down?
Second, the guiding policy. This is the overall approach to the challenge. It does not list every task. It sets direction and rules out options. For example, we will simplify onboarding before we add new features.
Third, coherent action. These are the concrete steps that carry out the policy, and they must support each other. A redesign that fights the engineering plan is not coherent. Neither is a campaign that promises features the product does not have.
The hardest part is not the framework. It is the choice.
Rumelt is direct about this. “Good strategy requires leaders who are willing and able to say no to a wide variety of actions and interests.” Saying yes to everything feels generous. In reality, it spreads attention so thin that nothing meaningful gets done.
Designers face this constantly. Every stakeholder has a request. Every feature seems important. Strategy is what helps you decide which problems deserve your best work and which ones can wait.
A strategy without a choice is just a wish list.
Michael Porter captured this perfectly when he said, “The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do.”
Diagnose honestly. Choose a direction. Act in ways that reinforce each other. And have the courage to say no to the rest.
