New services and products appear daily in small and large companies. Good ideas happen among development teams too, and our question for you is: Is one good idea enough to launch something innovative? Before you can even respond, we have something to say: Without good strategic planning, any good idea can turn into just a suggestion during a meeting.
The market is driven by the law of supply and demand, while competition between companies encourages the development of new solutions. For your business to stand out, grow and become a reference, the first step that must be taken is strategic planning.
What is strategic planning?
Strategic planning is a process that determines how a project will be structured, organised, put into practice, and measured.
This process can be applied in a complete institution, with annual goals for the company. But it can also be applied to specific projects that will be developed by work teams.
In both cases, strategic planning has the same objective: to be a guide for directions and actions that must be followed by everyone involved in the search for results.
How to develop a strategic planning
As it is a guide, strategic planning is organised in stages. Each one of them must be well defined so that the actions linked to the process are clear and objective.
A classic strategic plan has the following steps:
1 – Mission, vision, and values
Defining the mission, vision and values of your company or project is the first step. Forget those comics hanging on the wall that you may have seen in any company.
Your company’s mission or project is why this idea should go forward. What do you intend to deliver?
The vision related to your business, or solution under development, is what makes it something different, and what drives you to gain space in the market. Where do you want to go?
Values are those non-negotiable principles for your company. What limits does your strategy accept to reach?
It may take you and your team a while to define these points, but believe me, they are fundamental to what lies ahead. Invest time and responsibility in this step.
2 – Analysis of internal and external environments
How is your company seen in the market today? And the team, how do you see the company? Conducting an analysis of the internal and external environments has to do with the competition, but it also has to do with the company’s climate.
Survey the strengths and weaknesses, vulnerabilities, and strengths of your business. In this step you will have the opportunity to see the gaps you need to adjust before any launch and to value what is working.
3 – Setting goals and objectives
This will be the step in putting the plan’s structure on a trail of achievements. Once you have established what you want to do and have the structure for it, it is time to define when and how.
Set short-, medium- and long-term goals with your team. Survey the qualitative and quantitative necessary to get started. And go to the next step.
4 – Definition of the action plan
Knowing what and how, now is the time to draw when. Defining the action plan includes assigning those involved their tasks.
This is the strategic planning stage to map the technological tools and solutions and human resources that are already available and those that need to be part of your routine for the plan to achieve the expected results.
5 – Measurement and monitoring of results
The process of creating the strategic planning includes monitoring the deliverables and the structure of the entire process to record progress and to align deviations throughout execution.
When this follow-up is done throughout the work, it will be more coherent to adjust the slips while the work is being developed, rather than leaving it to look for the error only in the final delivery.
In addition to making the main adjustments, measuring, and monitoring the results will provide the team with the information and data necessary to analyse whether what was delivered at the end of the process is in accordance with the initially established objectives.
How to assemble a strategic planning for technology businesses
If you have a technology company, you should establish as a rule the development of a strategic plan for new projects.
By following the steps presented, it will be possible to identify and document the ideas. With strategic planning, you will face the projects to honestly analyse if that idea has a real chance of becoming a great solution.
Do you and your team have a project to develop? So, gather those involved and begin to identify and record the objective, how and when each person should be involved, the deliverables they should make and the deadlines for doing so. In this process, applying agile methodologies like Google Design Sprint is a great idea.
Survey the digital tools and platforms you already use, which ones will be useful to make the work better distributed, and how you can share teamwork.
The secret is to keep the communication going
The biggest challenge to develop a good strategic plan is to establish real and achievable goals, the more aligned with your market, the greater the chances of reaping positive results.
Keeping active and clear communication between the teams involved will be a differential. If everyone has the same vision, it will be more possible to put the mission into practice while respecting the values and culture of your business.
