Build your perfect strategy

Don’ts and Do’s of Effective Strategic Planning Process

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Want to improve your product’s sales? Wonder if you can build the plan for your project? Or have doubts if you are creating the right and necessary solutions? Strategic planning with a well-developed roadmap will give you the answers to these questions. It empowers each department of your team with a clear vision of both your current position and your 1, 2, or 5 year long goals.

However, creating an effective roadmap is no easy task because of potential changes in stakeholders’ priorities or allocations. Today, we’re going to cover some crucial do’s and don’ts of strategic planning and how to improve your planning process. This way, you will know that you are on the right track and that all your spent time, efforts, and money will take you closer to the desired result. Are you ready? Let’s get started.

1. Don’ts:

– Don’t put an emphasis on dates

We are willing to bet that you are familiar with the following situation. Developers say, “The task will be completed through the second quarter“, the PM suggests, “We are going to finish by June 20th“, and the executive hears, “There is a chance that the product will be delivered by March“.

First off, it should be noted that it’s impossible to estimate the exact project release date on early stages. Moreover, there are a lot of unforeseen circumstances which you can’t factor into your roadmap – for instance, market changes or your team composition. That’s why setting precise deadlines in your plan often means you invite failure, so you’d rather omit dates completely or make use of flexible time frames such as quarters or months.

Setting precise deadlines in your plan often means you invite failure. Click To Tweet

– Don’t ignore communication between departments

Building your strategy - do's and don'tsUnfortunately, it is a common mistake for business owners to not take the knowledge and skills of colleagues from other departments into account. This might sound exaggerated, but without a good communication between various offices there is a chance that developers will be creating one product, sales managers will be selling another one, and marketing experts will be promoting something drastically different.

Don’t neglect policies that strengthen interdepartmental communication. Otherwise, this may lead to numerous internal conflicts and affect the productivity of your entire company.

2.Do’s:

– Keep your roadmap visualization minimalistic

Your roadmap should be as clean and persuasive as possible in order to get “sticky effect” in stakeholders’ minds. Imagine yourself on a meeting. You’re sharing fresh ideas, solutions, and comments about the project that will help you bring the product to the market. A clear visual roadmap is extremely important here in order for them to understand where you are heading, what your developers are creating, and which issues your product is solving.

– Improve employee engagement to increase profits and optimize performance

Create a right environment for the highest possible employee engagement at all departments, be it customer support team, sales team, marketing team, etc. The closer you are to them, the easier it is for them all to precisely perform tasks and achieve important goals. Collaboration is a fundamental pillar of this challenge, and it turns out to be a somewhat rare feature in most planning services.

Fortunately, there is one that nails it – Roadmap Planner! This service allows you to engage each member of your team in the work process, and will certainly help you add fresh ideas to your project. As an icing on the cake it is worth mentioning that the security of your data will be at the highest level, all your documents being encrypted with military-grade protocols.

Don’ts and Do’s of Effective Strategic Planning Process

Concluding thoughts

Ask yourself if you know where you are heading and how you are planning to get there successfully. It is extremely important to work towards the single winning result. If you stick to this idea and follow the tips we described in this article, you’ll be able to develop a high-level strategic plan with our productivity tool, Roadmap Planner.

This top-notch app offers you a lot of convenient features which help make better decisions and focus on what’s really important. It is a helping hand to aid you systematize goals, boost productivity, and determine the priorities of your team.

Download Roadmap Planner to ensure that every dime you contribute to your business will be well spent!

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