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The Strategy Map

The Strategy Map is the first artefact of the 2Y3X method. It is a single-sheet, three-year, five-segment radial diagram, drawn out at a two-day off-site by the company's Growth Lab Team.

What it looks like

1. People 2. Customers 3. Sales and Marketing 4. Process 5. Financials (a.k.a. Financial and Corporate)

- Year 3 (outermost): the destination state. - Year 2 (middle): what must be true a year before the destination. - Year 1 (innermost): the items that become tasks on the 2Y3X Roadmap.

How to build one

  1. Start with the unifying goal. A three-year goal that everyone in the GLT can rally behind. Felix's bias is to pick something bigger than the team thinks possible. Goals that are technically conservative (e.g. grow 15% a year) produce timid choices in every other segment.
  2. For each segment, write the Year-3 destination state. What does the People segment look like at the end of Year 3? What about Customers? Sales & Marketing? Process? Financials?
  3. Work backwards to Year 2. What must be true a year before Year 3 to make Year 3 achievable?
  4. Work backwards to Year 1. What must be true at the end of Year 1 to make Year 2 achievable? These items become candidates for the 2Y3X Roadmap.
  5. Pull the Year-1 items into the 2Y3X Roadmap, ordered and weighted against the company's SWOT.

Worked example (from the book)

In Chapter 3 Felix uses a People-segment unifying goal of being recognised as one of the Sunday Times 100 Best Companies to Work For. That goal connects directly to the Sales & Marketing segment, because happier staff lead to happier customers, which leads to lower churn and higher referral-driven revenue.

The SWOT and the Strategy Map

A SWOT (4–5 items per quadrant) sits beside the Strategy Map. Critical weaknesses (e.g. a single customer accounting for 40% of revenue) reshape priorities in the Strategy Map and may force the elevation of lower-priority but de-risking work.

Strategy Map vs Roadmap

The Strategy Map is about what the company is trying to do over three years. The 2Y3X Roadmap is about who is doing what this year.

Both are single sheets. Both are revisited on a predictable cadence (the Strategy Map annually, the Roadmap quarterly).

See also