Creating a Strategy: Week 9

Create a Path to Get There- Look, Listen and Learn

Post 9 in our 12-week series on Creating a Strategy

You’re so close to completing your strategy — can you feel it? This week is filled with exploration and learning. Enjoy!

Look, Listen and Learn

You must now take your top priorities from last week and explore them. (If you missed it, check out Week 8, here.)

For each priority idea:

• Look, is there a market for it? Look at the competition and look at possible customers, pricing, and business models.
• Talk with your current and potential customers about each, and listen to their feedback.
• Learn everything you can about the market, what’s working, what’s not, how you might fit in, and how your organization might add this new idea. (Stay focused here, and be mindful of rabbit holes that distract from your original intention.)

Throughout this work, consider:

• What are you learning about each of your top ideas?
• How does that impact how you think about them?
• What changes need to be made based on these new insights?

Keep track of what you’re learning, keep track of your responses, and leave time for reflection. You’ll need to sift through everything you see and hear and learn to inform your decisions in the next step.

You’ll know you’ve completed this step when:

• You have a well-rounded understanding of the space in which your new idea might exist.
• You have refined your point of view of each of your ideas based on the inputs of outside influences.
• You know what this idea might mean to you and your organization.

Next week, we’ll use this information to refine your ideas and make key decisions.

Need a refresher on previous weeks?

• Week 1: Unique Value Proposition, Current Customers, and Current Market
• Week 2: Competition, Current Challenges, Initial Ideas, and Aspirations
• Week 3: Exploration, Understanding and Empathy
• Week 4: Synthesis and Mapping
• Week 5: Ideation
• Week 6: Narrow and Focus
• Week 7: Review and Reflect
• Week 8: Identify Your Priorities

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This Design Thinking for All newsletter is from Northome Group. At Northome Group, we put the tools and techniques of design thinking to work for you and your organization. We’re on a mission to empower individuals and unlock excellence through education, coaching, and easy-to-use resources. If you have questions or comments, hit us up at hello@northomegroup.com.

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