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Playbook · Strategy and influence · 7 steps
Defining a target state and roadmap
Turn a strategy into a target architecture and a sequence of steps people can fund.
“Plans are worthless, but planning is everything.”
- 1Operating Model (Standardisation and Integration)Which operating model does the target state serve?Decide how standardised your business processes must be and how tightly units must share data; the architecture follows from that choice.Open
- 2Capability MappingWhich capabilities change, and which stay as they are?Describe what the business does, independent of how, by whom, or with which system.Open
- 3Three HorizonsDoes the roadmap fund the core, the emerging and the options at the same time?Manage the core, the emerging and the future at the same time, with different goals, measures and funding for each.Open
- 4One-Way vs Two-Way DoorsWhich steps are hard to reverse and deserve the most scrutiny?Match decision rigour to reversibility: decide reversible choices fast and irreversible ones carefully.Open
- 5Cost of DelayIn what order do the steps deliver the most value soonest?Quantify what it costs not to have something yet, then prioritise by value lost per unit of time.Open
- 6Exit Strategy (Lock-in as a Design Input)Which new dependencies are we taking on, and how would we leave each one?Decide how you would leave a vendor or platform before you commit, and trade the switching cost consciously against the value the dependency brings.Open
- 7The Pyramid PrincipleCan we state the target state in one sentence and three reasons?Start with the answer, then give the few reasons that support it, then the evidence for each.Open