Strategy - Strategic Analysis Capability Build
Project Example | Nonprofit Strategy
Strategic analysis capacity building
Context
My client had charged a select group of staff with framing and supporting high-stakes strategic decisions by the executive team and board. These included questions such as, "What is our best source of growth? How should we respond to disruption in our space?" and "What is the best way to enter this new market?." Due to the complex and ambiguous nature of these strategic questions, the team had struggled to provide insightful and actionable analysis. As a result, the executive team spent more time than necessary debating the issues and decisions were ultimately made based on intuition and opinion rather than rigorous problem-solving. My client thus sought to build the capacity of its staff to conduct strong research, analysis and problem-solving in the context of strategic decisions.
Key Question
How can we build internal capacity to answer high-stakes, complex and ambiguous strategic questions?
Solution
I helped my client build capacity to use the hypothesis-driven problem solving
method to answer ambiguous strategic questions. Activities included:
- Development and delivery of a tailored training on hypothesis-driven problem solving.
- Coaching throughout real problem-solving tasks.
The key to success in this process lay in understanding strategic analysis as a problem-solving process. My client learned how to use the following powerful process to break an ambiguous problem down into analyzable parts:
Problem-Solving Step
1. Understand context and objectives
Description
Ensure you understand context and objectives so you can identify where hypothesis-driven problem solving is needed (to answer an ambiguous question) vs. where design is needed (where you.can rely on best practice).
Pro Question
Where should I problem solve and where should I design?
2. Define problem
Articulate a S.M.A.R.T. problem statement that, if answered, would produce the desired value.
Have I anchored the problem around the source of greatest value?
3. Structure problem
Use an Issue Tree
to break the problem down into Mutually Exclusive and Collectively Exhaustive (MECE)
parts.
Have I structured the problem to yield a practical answer?
4. Develop hypotheses
"Pick a box." Form a hypothesis about where the solution to the problem lies and articulate "what would we have to believe" sub-hypotheses.
Can I tell myself a plausible story in support of my hypothesis?
5. Plan analysis and work
Determine what analyses will test your "what we would have to believe" hypotheses. Determine what data is needed, who will conduct analyses, and by when.
I’m not “boiling the ocean,” right?
6. Conduct analyses
Determine the "so what" of your analyses. Do they confirm your hypotheses? Do they suggest you need to revise your hypotheses?
What’s the “so what”?
7. Synthesize findings
Tell a story to help stakeholders understand the implications of your findings.
What story do my findings tell?
8. Develop recommendations
State your answer to the problem. Employ design (using best practice, benchmarks, analogous inspiration, human centered design) to explain how the answer to the problem should manifest in real-world processes, tools, etc.
What will create the most value?
My client's staff successfully delivered actionable recommendations to enable decisions concerning nearly $500,000 in unrestricted funds by the executive team and board.
Want to learn more? I'd love to chat.
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