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Expertise · 02

DEVELOPING STRATEGY

I co-led the development of corporate strategy for major consumer goods, medical device, telecom, steel, and airline companies. This involved multiple discovery research lenses (users, trends, competitors, industry, analogies) and deep client engagement that I have outlined below.

Process

Seven steps from insight to migration map

The work moved through a disciplined sequence…from primary research to a strategic migration map the client could act on. Each step is outlined below.

  1. Insight Generation

    It is critical for strategy teams to engage directly in primary user research to generate meaningful insights – the more stakeholders are engaged, the more robust their conversations and thinking will be throughout the project, especially during collaborative workshops. I leveraged exploratory lenses such as customer empathy and the confluence of trends to generate compelling insights as the basis for seeding a strategic dialogue amongst client stakeholders.

  2. ‘From’ / ‘To’ Pathways

    The insights generated from customers, confluence of trends and other exploratory lenses inform not only the current state of the business, but also its future directions…framed as movements from where the business is today toward where it could go.

  3. Detailed Projections

    Next, we conducted a deeper exploration of the ‘From’ / ‘To’ pathways through further stakeholder engagement, pressure-testing each direction in greater detail.

  4. Strategic Design

    These directions could then be combined to form a strategic design that served as a meaningful foundation for the strategy ahead.

  5. Long-Term Vision

    The strategic design served as the launchpad to stimulate a robust dialogue among client stakeholders about the long-term vision for the business.

  6. Strategy Selection

    This process created several potential visions. In order to clarify the vision, the core team narrowed down the options…testing assumptions along the way.

  7. Strategic Migration Map

    The chosen strategy provided an aspiration for the company to follow and guide its innovation approach. There are parallel tracks for different functions/divisions of the company (marketing, technology, and so on). Fail fast and learn quickly!

Artifacts

The ‘From’ / ‘To’ method

At the heart of the work is a simple, powerful device: framing strategy as a set of movements…from where a business is today, to where it could go. Below, a medical device engagement reimagined across three strategic dimensions simultaneously.

Strategic architecture titled 'Empowering Patients to Live Their Lives': three interlocking From / To shifts moving a medical device company toward Segment Specific Delivery Collaborator, Intuitive Control Enabler, and Metabolic Information Aggregator.
Three interlocking ‘From / To’ shifts that together define a new strategic posture…from single-purpose device to multi-sensor aggregator, from minimal lifestyle impact to full patient control.

Artifacts

From insight to roadmap

Selected outputs from the engagement, in process order.

'Have to Believe' assumptions slide listing what the team must believe about themselves to select each strategic architecture option.
‘Have to Believe’…pressure-testing each strategic direction by surfacing the assumptions that must hold true.
Listerine PocketPaks: Customer Insight and Orthodoxy example slide showing how consumer insight ('gargling is unpleasant') combined with a challenged orthodoxy ('mouthwash is only in a bottle') led to a breakthrough product.
Customer insight meets challenged orthodoxy…the Listerine PocketPaks example showing how questioning ‘the way things are’ opens up new strategic possibilities.
Domain Pathway map for a Korean telecom, plotting a journey from existing personal and enterprise sharing platforms toward new customer segments and global expansion.
A domain pathway map…plotting the progression from existing competencies and markets toward entirely new territories.
Green Car homepage: the Korean car-sharing service that emerged as a launched business from this strategic work.
Green Car…the car-sharing business that emerged as a direct output of the strategic work, later acquired by Lotte.
Cover of the Human Centered Innovation Project Toolkit, showing workshop participants and the title 'Human Centered Innovation / HCI Project Toolkit'.
The Human-Centered Innovation Project Toolkit…the practitioner guide co-developed to embed these methods inside client organizations.

Detail

A migration map, up close

For the curious: a detailed migration map of the parallel threads that move an organization toward its strategic aspiration. Best viewed full size.

Dense migration map titled 'High level migration threads / Segment Delivery and Data Asset Builder', showing dozens of parallel initiatives across Market Development, Disease and Treatment Knowledge, Device and Technology Capability, and Operations / Scale.
A high-level migration map…dozens of initiatives, sequenced across parallel threads toward a ‘Segment Delivery and Data Asset Builder’ aspiration. Click to view full size.