Reader resources
The companion kit for The Strategy Cycle
The Strategy Sketch Starter Kit, 7 templates and worksheets, the full Vera worked example, and the audiobook companion.
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The Strategy Cycle
Book Companion Resources
Start here
If you only take one thing from this page, take this.
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The Strategy Sketch Starter Kit
Sketch a working draft of your product strategy in about an hour. The chapter that teaches the sketch, a timed worksheet you can print and fill in, and the pressure-test for checking whether what you wrote is any good. Includes the value thesis template and the Vera example.
Download the starter kit (1 MB)
Tools & templates
The worksheets and grids referenced throughout the book, in the order you meet them.
- Numbers 3, 5, 6 and 7 are tabs in a single Google Sheet, which opens as a copy you own so you can edit it freely.
- The sheet also has two bonus tabs: the 10 criteria for a strong strategy (Chapter 7), and Hamilton Helmer’s 7 Powers with examples of each.
- Number 4 is an Excel file, because the chart it builds for you doesn’t work right in Google Sheets.
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01
Value thesis template
The one-sentence argument: who you serve, what they struggle with, why they pick you, and why that's hard to copy. Included in the Starter Kit above.
In the Starter Kit -
02
Vera: an end-to-end story
The full walkthrough of Vera's trip around the strategy cycle, from first sketch to live strategy. About a 25-minute read.
Read the story -
03
Context canvas
Organize what you believe about your situation, then rate how confident you actually are in each belief.
Open in Google Sheets -
04
Addressable strategic challenge (ASC) exercise
Rate every challenge on importance and addressability, compare scores across the squad, and find where the crux is hiding.
Download the Excel file (17 KB) -
05
Segmentation worksheet
Score candidate segments side by side: can you find them, reach them, win them, and are they worth it?
Open in Google Sheets -
06
ABC differentiation grid
Make your A, B, and C choices against the alternatives your customers would use instead of you.
Open in Google Sheets -
07
Strategy grid
Rank your themes, then name the leading metric you can move and the lagging one you expect it to drive.
Open in Google Sheets -
08
Strategy style matrix
A 10-question diagnostic. Find out how you tend to approach the mental side of strategy, and where that helps or hurts you.
Take the diagnostic
Listening to the audiobook?
Every figure and table from the book, in order, with the printed page numbers so you can follow along.
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The Audiobook Companion
All 30 figures and 16 tables, plus the recommended reading list, the differentiation and defensibility supplements, and the stakeholder input email. Linked contents so you can jump to whatever the narrator just mentioned.
Download the companion (4 MB)
Have a “but what about…?” question? Browse the FAQ — the most common objections and edge cases, answered.