Your Strategy Goal Says 'Years' but Your Plan Says 'Month'
When a strategy's ambition and timeline live in different universes, everything built on top crumbles. Here's the mismatch most strategists miss.
A Smart Way to Pressure-Test Your Product
Someone brought me a launch strategy for a product that doesn't exist yet. What caught my attention: the author didn't just paint a perfect picture. They built out the backstory, the mythology — and were upfront about the product's problems.
Most strategies read like a glossy brochure. Everything works. Clients line up around the block. Reality doesn't play that way. When you put a product's limitations right next to its strengths, that's not weakness — that's maturity. A client who sees you understand the risks trusts you more than someone promising the moon.
It took me a minute to realize the product doesn't launch until 2030. My first reaction was: "Where do I buy this?" That's actually a decent test for any product concept. If the person reading your strategy reaches for their wallet — the concept works.
What to do: when you're building out a product strategy for a client, add a "Limitations and Risks" section. Not to scare anyone — to show you thought past the first slide.
Campaign Goals: Scale Has to Match the Timeline
The author set a goal: become the generic name for every product like it. Ambitious. The problem — the strategy covers one month.
Becoming a household name isn't a months-long project. It takes years. Google didn't become a verb after a single ad campaign. Uber didn't replace "cab" in one quarter. Between the ambition and the plan, there's a canyon.
This is one of the most common mistakes I see in strategies. The goal is written for investors — sounds massive. The plan is written for a project manager — fits a sprint. They exist in completely different time universes.
The rule is straightforward. If the goal spans years, the strategy spans years. If the strategy covers a month, the goal covers a month. "Launch an awareness campaign and hit the first 1,000 mentions" — that's a monthly goal. "Become the generic name for the category" — that's not.
What to do: before you finalize a strategy, ask yourself one question — can I actually hit this goal in the timeframe I've laid out? If the answer is no, either extend the timeline or shrink the goal. A mismatch in scale isn't a small thing. It's the foundation — and when that cracks, everything above it crumbles.
