Official skill · Strategy
Strategy choice cascade
Writes a strategy on one page as five linked choices, builds where to play and how to win as pairs, and tests the pair with a what-would-have-to-be-true list. Use it when A team needs a strategy on one page.
AI skill
Have your AI write your strategy as five linked choices
14 days free · No card needed
Works in Claude, ChatGPT, and coding agents. On Team and Business, the official skill in your pod updates itself when we improve it.
When to use it
- A team needs a strategy on one page
- Leaders are choosing between strategic options and keep arguing
- The strategy is a vision plus a list of initiatives
What you give it
- The scope (company, unit, product, function)
- Facts on customers, channels, competitors, and your strengths
- The options on the table
- Who decides and by when
What you get
The five choices on one page, a what-would-have-to-be-true table with tests and owners, and a choice or a dated test plan.
How it works
- Set the scope and the aspiration
- Generate where-to-play and how-to-win pairs
- Write what would have to be true for each pair
- Find the conditions to test first
- Choose the pair, or say what must be tested first
- Name the must-have capabilities
- Name the enabling management systems
- Check the cascade both ways
- End with decisions and next actions
Example
What you give it
We're a Kyoto company making handmade kitchen knives, 22 staff, sold through department stores in Japan (about 70% of sales) and our own web shop (about 30%). Department-store sales fell for three years running. Two options on the table: (A) sell to professional chefs in Japan, sharpening and repair service included; (B) sell to home cooks in the US and Europe through our web shop. A Tokyo competitor already sells abroad through Amazon. We have 3 master smiths; training a new one takes years. Our president, Ms. Mori, decides by the end of March.
What you get back (the start of it)
Strategy on a page: handmade kitchen knives
Decider: Ms. Mori · Decide by: end of March · Date: [date]
1. Winning aspiration
Be the knife maker that the people who cook with our knives every day would choose again, with a business that no longer depends on department stores.
2–3. Where to play and how to win
| Option | Where to play | How to win |
|---|---|---|
| A | Professional chefs in Japan, sold direct, with sharpening and repair | Differentiation: a handmade knife kept at its best for years by the people who made it; a service rivals selling through stores don't offer |
| B | Home cooks in the US and Europe, through our web shop | Differentiation: the maker's story and handmade quality, sold direct |
Chosen: not yet: see tests · Either option rules out: relying on department stores for growth.
The rest of this output, the full steps and the checks the AI runs before it answers are in your pod once you add the skill.
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Changelog
- v1.0.0 · · First release.
Sources
- Decoding the Strategy Choice Cascade - Roger L. Martin, 2023 (read 2026-11-04)
- On the Inseparability of Where-to-Play and How-to-Win - Roger L. Martin, 2020 (read 2026-11-04)
- What Would Have to be True? - Roger L. Martin, 2022 (read 2026-11-04)
- From Laudable List to How to Really Win - Roger L. Martin, 2020 (read 2026-11-04)
- Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works - Publishers Weekly review (read 2026-11-04)
- Five savvy questions for strategic success - Harvey Schachter, The Globe and Mail, February 2013 (read 2026-11-04)