innovative product? In an agency environment it starts with a brief. The client usually has the basic idea of the product or service it would like to create or at least the problem that it wants to solve. Often it might have an idea for the solution without completely understanding the true source of the problem, and it needs help with really clarifying both the problem space and the opportunity. So in the agency context, we begin by downloading the knowledge from the client, synthesizing what it knows and what the market tells us, and then coming up with a clear destination and a roadmap to get us there. In the case of a tech startup, things are a little bit more fluid and iterative. The approach is more or less the same, but less time and effort is spent on consensus building across the client’s organization. More time is spent on refining and optimizing. There are less artificial time constraints, but often more resource constraints, so we must be very lean in our thinking. In my current startup, the vision is clear and set, but the strategy has evolved and continues to evolve. Our initial vision came from us observing a certain kind of behavior that people were exhibiting around the way they were using email where email wasn’t the most efficient solution. We thought something could be done about that. We didn’t immediately know the perfect solution, but we had a very clearly articulated problem. We were not sure if the solution was a different kind of email app, or note-taking app, or even a task-management tool. So, step number one is to clearly identify (or make an educated hypothesis) about the opportunity space, or the problem that you are addressing for the end user. Based on this knowledge, we then form a strategy, a plan of action for the solution. In our case, we began to come up with a few different solutions that we believed were possible alternatives. But we didn’t know for sure until we really began designing, and prototyping. When we understand more or less what we wanted to design, we could do a more focused competitive analysis, looking at other similar products and talking to people who used those products. And based on that knowledge we tweaked our prototypes until we basically ended up with one solid solution. The lesson is that strategy is iterative just like everything else. You come up with a hypothesis, you create a plan, and you move forward until you learn new information, reposition the hypothesis, and adjust the plan. Strategy is a living experience. 10. What are important skills or mindsets for a strategist to have? Or what makes you good at your job?