The Biggest Hurdle in Strategic Projects

by Jeff Humble

Dear Reader,

Strategic projects can fall into a million difficulties, but one hurdle takes down more designers than any other, and the sooner you prepare for it, the better.

What is the hurdle? It’s the possibility that your strategic deliverable will be ignored entirely.

Why strategic projects fail…🦗

We often start strategic projects with too much optimism.

After bumbling around for a few months trying to figure out how to align your work with all the existing visions, OKRs, and strategic plans, you might regret calling yourself a "strategic" designer.

To complicate matters, you want the whole team to adopt your plan, which is challenging even for something as small as a team-level strategy.

For example, a UX strategy is easily ignored if not done well.

The biggest hurdle in strategic projects is the last hurdle...the one where people start adopting your strategic deliverable.

After months of work, all you get is crickets 🦗🦗🦗

What can you do?

Bring your decision-makers and teammates into the strategy process! If it's a big project, they’re probably creeping on your work already.

Somebody let that CEO in before they creep the whole team out

You might as well let them in.

Here are three specific tips that will help you do that:

1.) Build a coalition for the project.

Start the project by building a coalition of people who care about the outcome and share the work. When people participate in a project, they’re usually more invested in the outcome.

2.) Stay a few steps ahead of the team.

Even if you’re taking a collaborative approach, that doesn’t mean you must go the same speed as everyone else. Your focus should be on designing the project plan, and it helps to know what the project process looks like. Use my Strategy Canvas if this is your first strategic project.

3.) Frame the problem together.

One of the biggest reasons people ignore your strategy is that they don’t "feel" the problem. Prioritize the research before the solution...just like in regular projects. Once everyone involved agrees on the problem's diagnosis, you can move on to the treatment, a.k.a. your strategic solution.

Those tips should help you avoid those crickets.

For more guidance, check out my strategy course if you want to improve your strategic skills.

Together, we go through the process, and I provide feedback every step of the way. It’s one of the best ways to gain experience designing strategies before you do it for real.

Learn more about the course here.

(This article originally appeared in Jeff's blog)