Strategy Explorer Template

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The Strategy Explorer is an integrated canvas-based method for strategy development. It allows you to create strategies for a wide range of subjects on a single page – quickly and intuitively, alone or in a team, for business and beyond.

Whether you want to develop a strategy for an established business, a startup, a non-profit organization, a product, or even for yourself as a freelancer or for your next career move: check out the Strategy Explorer! It helps you to tackle the relevant strategic questions in a structured and focused manner and allows to quickly produce solid results. At the end of the process, you will be able to formulate the most promising way forward crisply and to the point, providing orientation for yourself and all relevant stakeholders.

The Strategy Explorer process consists of six steps:

Title and Subject: Why and for what do you want to develop a strategy? It is very important to be clear about this starting point, as the precise definition of the subject determines who your competitors are.
Vision and Mission: Both are crucial for strategy development but are frequently mixed up or misconceived. What is the purpose of your subject and which overarching goals do you strive to achieve?
Situation & Trends: Almost every possible subject is governed by external factors which are outside of its own control. Therefore, it is important to understand the environment and the relevant influencing factors: what is the current situation and which developments can be identified?
SWOT – Now what? Which insights can be derived from the observations in the environment and how are you going to deal with the identified strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats? Concrete conclusions are required in the “Now what?” part. They will provide significant input for the potential next steps. A specific strength of the Strategy Explorer is the creation of logical chains which are visible at all times.
Big Steps: These are the possible crucial steps towards the goal, comprising general strategic alternatives for the way forward as well as significant steps into the right direction. The field “Big Steps” allows for a simple prioritization of the potential steps.
Strategy: The available options must be assessed and the most suitable ones be used to construct the most promising way into the future. The formulation of a concise strategy sentence in this step creates clarity about the future direction and is an ideal basis for all further activities.

The Strategy Explorer Template in Miro comes with concise instructions and loads of helpful resources, like links to video tutorials and articles on each of the six steps.

For those who want to perfect their usage of the Strategy Explorer and learn how to best facilitate strategy workshops with their teams, please check out the Strategy Explorer Online Master Class in November: https://strategy-explorer.xyz/en/strategy-explorer-online-master-class-en/

Dr. Stefan Pastuszka

Strategy & Innovation Coach@SP. - Strategy & Innovation

Stefan Pastuszka is an expert for strategy development, innovation and the communication of complex subjects. He helps organizations to tackle their challenges with clarity and structure, thus enabling better decision making for a successful future. His clients range from founders and start-ups to large corporations. Stefan believes in the power of co-creation and is convinced that everybody and every organization needs a strategy for something. Thus, he invented the Strategy Explorer method.