Design with Strategic Intent

Another good post by Jorge Arango. My notes:

• Designers rarely know what strategy is, or how to talk about strategy with stakeholders.
• Strategy is not a vision or a goal.
• Strategy is a set of actions (what we’ll do, and what we won’t do) in order to win or overcome a challenge.
• Design can help stakeholders make strategy tangible, and become valuable partners.

Questions to ask yourself about your strategy:

1. What is our winning aspiration? (How does the world look like if we win?)
2. Where will we play? Who are we serving? What channels will we use? What parts of the experience/value chain are we changing?
3. How will we win? What’s unique about our approach compared to other attempts?
4. What capabilities, skills and resources do we need to put in place? What activities need to be performed?
5. What management systems are required? How will we deploy and maintain them?

Suggested reads:

• Good Strategy Bad Strategy
• Playing to win
• HBR on strategy
• Dark Matter and Trojan Horses
• UX Strategy