Consider this progress-tracking example. The Net Promoter Score (NPS), a score that measures customer satisfaction, is low. One of the main causes of this is poor error handling. For our strategy, we have identified twenty poorly handled errors with the highest impact and decided to make these easier to understand. It will take a lot of these fixes to improve the NPS score. After three months, we seek feedback and find the new error message format hasn’t been well received. The strategy has failed. Tracking leading indicators in each MVI could have helped us see this earlier:

• A leading indicator is a predictive measure

  • Each MVI fixes one or two error messages and can be released independently. For each MVI, we track the number of calls to the helpdesk regarding the particular errors. We can predict that if each MVI reduces the number of calls, with enough of these fixes, we will see a change in the overall NPS score. As the results come in, we find that the number of calls has not changed. We can tell very quickly that the strategy isn’t working.

• A lagging indicator is the final result

  • In the Strategic Area, we track the NPS Score. We will measure this every three months to see the cumulative effect of our changes. This is the result we care about. We don’t want to measure the NPS score every time an MVI is released as it’ll annoy customers, is too much effort and, with small changes, is unlikely to change.

Strategic Area Canvas

This canvas will help you structure your Strategic Area. Detailed instructions are provided below it.

Canvas guide

Problem definition

Using the problem statement format

• The problem of [description]

• Affects [persona]

• The impact is [ideally quantified]

The problem that this strategy solves. This should be based on research rather than assumption. If this change is customer-focused, then the problem statement should reflect what customers are experiencing rather than what people assume they are experiencing. In other words, don’t assume someone has a major issue, you should go and check.

The impact of the problem is very important, and this should ideally be quantified. Quantification is a good indicator of the strength of evidence you have.

Company KPI

Linking this strategy to a KPI makes your priority explicitly clear why you are doing it. In some cases, you can make a direct, measurable impact on a company-level KPI, such as by reducing costs. For example, you reduce the run costs of your database hosting by half. In some cases, you can’t. For example, many different activities are going on to increase sales, and you won’t be able to see how much yours has made the difference.

Objectives and Key Results

Using the OKR format

• Objective - a single sentence that summarises your strategy

• Key Result - From [X] to [Y] by [Z] date (committed / stretch)

The objective should be an easy-to-understand sentence that sums up your strategy. Key Results can be “committed” where outcomes are guaranteed or “stretched” if they cannot be. An example of a stretch target would be increased sales. You cannot guarantee what a customer will do.

Target persona

The type of person or company that you are targeting with this strategy. This is typically your current Ideal Customer Profile as defined in the Product Positioning stage. Leave this empty if it is not relevant. For example, you are upgrading the version of a tool.

Work purpose

What is this strategy for?

• Mandatory work - Keep the lights on, legal, compliance

• Protect market position - Avoid sales loss and churn

• Reduce operational costs - Software build and run, customer support, etc.

• Growth - Competitive advantage, increased revenue

Investment period

If high-level estimates are possible, then use these. In most cases, you won’t have these, and an investment period reflects this reality. Additionally, strategy usually requires testing and learning to achieve the expected outcomes (OKRs). This is very hard to estimate. Where this is the case, you have an investment period to be clear on how much time you are prepared to spend on this before re-evaluating.

Prioritised MVI backlog

A backlog of work items that the delivery teams will work on. These MVIs are released independently, and the order of them can change based on feedback.