If you read our earlier piece on how product or company vision could be made actually useful to development teams, not just something printed on an office wall next to the free coffee, you’ll be happy to know we’re about to dig deeper.
Welcome to strategy : the most abused and misunderstood word in tech after “agile” and “story points.”
Let’s take a beat and start from a shared place:
Most of us want the same things.
We want to build good products. We want to feel proud of our work. We want our efforts to add up to something bigger. That’s not controversial, that’s human.
So how do we get from that shared motivation to a real, working strategy?
Let’s fix that.
Let’s be clear up front: vision is where we want to go.
Strategy is how we’ll actually get there.
If your strategy doesn’t affect day-to-day work, you’re not doing strategy. You’re writing fiction.
Vision vs. Strategy: Stop Confusing the Map with the Destination
Here’s a quick metaphor:
Vision: “I want to be healthy and fit.”
Strategy: “Eat clean-ish 90% of the time, stay in a slight calorie deficit, lift heavy things, and do some cardio.”
Simple. Vision = motivation. Strategy = direction.
Now imagine this alternate “strategy”:
“I’ll weigh exactly 73.5kg.”
That’s not a strategy, that’s a weirdly specific wish that sucks all the life out of the goal. It’s measurable, sure. But it doesn’t lead you. And it doesn’t make you want to change anything.
Now think about your product strategy. Is it saying, “We want to dominate the XYZ market by 2026”? Or is it actually telling people how to do that?
Because if it’s the former… well, hope isn’t a strategy.
In Software, We Keep Getting This Wrong
Let’s say your company vision is:
“We want to help organizations create value in and with their products by aligning teams through shared understanding.”
Sounds solid. That’s the mountain peak.
But now your “strategy” says:
“We will become the leading provider of scenario-driven alignment tooling by 2026.”
Snooze. That’s just the vision again, but in Times New Roman.
Now let’s see what an actual strategy looks like:
“We identify real product development challenges teams face today and use Scenario-Based Development to offer custom-fit solutions — tailored to the team, context, and product, not a one-size-fits-all playbook.”
That’s not fluff. That’s a direction. A commitment. A filter for decision-making.
It tells you what to do and what to ignore. And, as Jonathan Haidt would remind us, that’s what actually creates moral alignment in groups — clear, shared commitments that help people feel part of something coherent and purposeful.
Why Most Strategies End Up Collecting Dust
There are four big reasons most software “strategies” quietly die in Slide Deck Purgatory:
- They’re too generic to guide decisions.
- They don’t map to product development reality.
- They lack moral clarity – no one knows what matters more than what.
- They’re built for executive optics, not team alignment.
As Haidt points out in The Righteous Mind, people don’t act on pure logic. We follow social and moral intuition. We want to know who we are, who’s with us, and what game we’re playing together.
So if your “strategy” doesn’t clarify what matters and how we act on it, people won’t follow it. Not because they’re bad employees, but because they’re humans.
So… What Is a Strategy Then?
In Scenario-Based Development, strategy isn’t a deck or a buzzword. It’s a chain of thinking that starts with questions.
Start here:
Core Strategy Questions
Who is this strategy for?
- Are you speaking to dev teams? Product managers? Customers? The board? Don’t blend all audiences into one soupy mess.
How does this strategy translate into the work people actually do?
- Will it change how we plan sprints? Prioritize features? Review bugs? If not, it’s not a strategy — it’s PR.
What direction are we committing to reach the vision?
- “Invest in learning fast through scenarios” is a direction. “Be the best” is just a tagline.
What are our next steps in that direction?
- These aren’t stories or tasks, but they lead there. Think: new practices, shifts in architecture, changes in focus.
How will we know we’re making progress?
- Not just metrics, but signals. Are our teams getting more aligned? Are product decisions getting faster? Are outcomes improving?
The Next-Level Strategy Questions (Now We’re Getting Serious)
Here’s where we upgrade to strategy 2.0 — the stuff most “strategies” never even touch:
- What are wedeliberately not doing?
Strategy is about choices. Saying no to something you could do is what makes a strategy real. Haidt’s insight? Groups stay aligned when they have clear boundaries. This is that boundary.
- What are theactual constraintswe’re navigating?
Don’t plan in fantasy. Time, budget, team experience, legacy systems — your strategy needs to grapple with all of it.
- What is our unfair advantage?
Don’t try to beat everyone at everything. Pick your edge and double down.
- Whatmoral logicties this together?
Yes, seriously. Why should people care about this strategy? Does it align with how they see themselves – as professionals, as teammates, as builders of something meaningful?
This is how you make a strategy stick. You give it teeth and a heart. You make it feel right, not just sound smart.
Why This Actually Works
Because strategy isn’t about being clever but it’s about being coherent.
As Haidt says: people don’t follow spreadsheets. They follow stories, tribes, and moral maps. They want to know:
- What game are we playing?
- What does winning look like?
- Who’s on my team?
- What kind of player am I expected to be?
When you treat strategy like a one-directional transmission from the CEO’s brain to everyone else’s inbox, you lose all of that.
But when your strategy answers those questions in real, usable terms, people act differently. Teams align faster. Decisions get easier. You stop wasting energy on side quests that don’t serve the mission.
Final Thought: Strategy Should Change Behavior, Not Just PowerPoint Slides
Look, this isn’t about shaming companies.
Most people want to do strategy better. They just think the job ends at vision statements and “pillars.”
It doesn’t.
A good strategy:
- Says where we’re going
- Makes clear how we’re getting there
- Helps people say “yes” or “no” faster
- Aligns action with identity
- And makes the right thing feel like the obvious thing
So if your team can’t answer the question, “How does our strategy affect what we’re doing this week?”, it’s time for an upgrade.
Want help designing a strategy your teams can actually use?
Let’s talk. No fluff. No framework-for-the-sake-of-frameworks. Just strategy that works — because it makes sense and feels right.
Scenario-Based Development: because your team deserves better than slideware.
