Creating a Strategy: Week 8
Create a Path to Get There: Identify Your Priorities
Post 8 in our 12-week series on Creating a Strategy
Last week’s review and reflection have us poised to dive into the last and most crucial part of creating a strategy: making it real.
Once you know where you are and you’ve determined where you want to go, you can create a path to get there. The path you define will start you on your journey; you’ll then be looking for signs, signals, and contextual indicators to guide you as you progress.
In the coming weeks, you will identify your priorities, explore them, listen and learn, refine them, and determine which to move forward with; you’ll create your path and determine how to tell your story.
Identify Your Priorities
To create your path forward, you need to identify your priorities. Start with the idea themes you narrowed to in Part 2. Prioritize which you want to focus on first.
- Which are the most viable?
- Which are the most feasible?
- Which are the most desirable to your buyer?
- Which are the most interesting to you?
- Which help you meet your business goals?
- Which are the most interesting and the riskiest, and should be tested first?
- Which are the least risky (aka. the low-hanging fruit) and do you want to move them forward?
There are many ways to evaluate and identify which ideas should move forward. One simple but helpful tool is a 2x2 comparison matrix. A common comparison axis can be effort vs. impact:
To complete a 2x2 like the example above, place your ideas or idea themes on the matrix based on how much effort it will take to accomplish them and how much impact they might have on your customers or your business. This isn’t scientific, use your best judgment and be honest.
If you want to learn more about 2x2 comparisons, check out our resources.
You can also evaluate ideas based on their impact on customer segments, your existing business goals, or the value they might generate. Contact us to learn more about additional evaluation methods, and we’ll help you work through it.
When evaluating your priorities, remember that you shouldn’t select more than three top priorities. Whatever idea themes you don’t select as top priorities, you can revisit them later.
Take this week to select your top three priorities. Next week, we’ll focus on exploring them further.
Are you late to this 12-week series? It’s never too late to catch up:
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