danielpradilla Strategic Story Builder
Turn a prioritised initiative list into a strategic narrative - the story that explains not just what you're building but why, why now, and why this sequence.
Required Inputs
Ask the user for these if not provided:
- Prioritised initiative list (with rough timelines)
- Current OKRs or strategic priorities (1-3)
- Audience (board, leadership team, all-hands, investors)
- Competitive or market context (optional but improves output significantly)
Process
- Identify 2-3 natural strategic themes from the initiative list
- For each theme: articulate the problem, the customer it serves, and the metric it moves
- Build the progression narrative: how does Q1 set up Q2? How does H1 set up H2?
- Write executive summary in under 100 words (the version someone can repeat)
- Anticipate the 3 hardest questions a sceptical board member would ask - draft answers
- Identify what's NOT on the roadmap and why
- Validate - Confirm every initiative maps to a theme. If an initiative is orphaned, either create a theme for it or flag it as a narrative gap.
Output Structure
Product Strategy Narrative: [Period]
The One-Paragraph Context: [Market moment + key challenge + our response - for the CFO, not the engineer]
Strategic Theme 1: [Name]
- The problem: [customer pain in plain language]
- Our response: [initiatives in this theme]
- The metric it moves: [specific and measurable]
- Why now: [timing rationale]
Strategic Theme 2: [Name] [Same structure]
The Progression Story: [How each quarter sets up the next - this is the narrative arc]
Executive Summary (under 100 words - shareable): [Version someone can quote at a board meeting]
Questions to Prepare For:
- [Hard question] → [Prepared answer]
- [Hard question] → [Prepared answer]
- [Hard question] → [Prepared answer]
What's Not on the Roadmap (and Why): [2-3 items - shows strategic discipline, not just prioritisation]
Tone
- Write for a CFO, not an engineer
- Lead with outcomes, not features
- Every sentence should answer "so what?"
- Avoid jargon - if you can't say it plainly, the strategy isn't clear enough yet
Quality Checks
- Executive summary is under 100 words and can stand alone
- Every initiative in the input maps to a strategic theme
- Each theme has a specific, measurable metric (not "improve engagement")
- Progression story shows causal links between quarters, not just chronological listing
- "Not on the roadmap" section includes at least 2 items with clear rationale