# 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](https://2y3x.com/agents/method/growth-lab-team/).

## What it looks like

- A circle, divided into **five radial segments**:
    1. People
    2. Customers
    3. Sales and Marketing
    4. Process
    5. Financials (a.k.a. Financial and Corporate)
- Each segment has **three concentric rings**:
    - **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.
- At the very centre: the **unifying three-year goal**.

## 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](https://2y3x.com/agents/method/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](https://2y3x.com/agents/method/2y3x-roadmap/) is **about who is doing what** this year.

Both are single sheets. Both are revisited on a [predictable cadence](https://2y3x.com/agents/method/meeting-rhythms/) (the Strategy Map annually, the Roadmap quarterly).

## See also

- [Chapter 1 — Strategic Goals](https://2y3x.com/agents/book/scale-at-speed/chapter-1-strategic-goals/)
- [Chapter 8 — Bringing It Together](https://2y3x.com/agents/book/scale-at-speed/chapter-8-bringing-it-together/)