I share the story of how a strategy session went off track — and what it reveals about why strategy work often goes wrong.
This article is a part of our Leadership Series — reflections on inspiration, influence, and the choices that shape meaningful achievement.
I Was Invited to a Strategy Session
“This map of the London Tube looks so cool.”
“It sure is, I think it would be a great guide for our strategy work.”
“I think so too. We can design our strategy in a way that fits into the map.”
I had been invited to join a group of CX experts to design a learning curriculum for CX practitioners.
That conversation was exactly how the session kicked off.
In an earlier meeting that I’d missed, the group had landed on the map of the London Tube system.
And — because they liked the way it looked — they’d chosen it as the starting point for designing a CX learning curriculum.
While this is a particularly extreme example, it is also both:
• a real story involving experienced CX professionals
• representative of how many projects kick off in practice
This Was the Wrong Starting Point
By starting with a clever image, the project lost focus early.
Rather than taking an open, structured, and disciplined approach to strategy, the discussions narrowed to whether ideas fit into the London Tube map.
What was missing was a clear, shared definition of what success was meant to look like — before any design work began.
Here’s a Better Strategic Starting Point
When I teach CX and strategy, I often turn to business strategy frameworks — because they help people start at the top before moving into execution.
USAA is widely recognized for its disciplined approach to strategy and execution.
Greg Marion, VP of Enterprise Strategy at USAA, describes the four parts of a business strategy as these:
- Vision: Where are we headed?
- Who: Who do we choose to serve?
- How: How do we serve the people we‘ve chosen to serve?
- Metrics: How will we track our progress?
In strategy and CX management courses, we do end up deep diving into each of the four parts — but I always begin by introducing this framework.
So that day, after hearing the conversation about the London Tube map, I shared the framework with the CX people there. And asked the group if we could restart the discussion.
So the first question we needed to answer was the vision question.
What’s the vision for the learning and development curriculum you’re putting together for the industry — and if all your aspirations come true, what will that look like?
We needed that upstream anchor before we moved on with downstream decisions. Not just to inspire everyone.
A vision matters because it sets the conditions for what fits — and what doesn’t — before execution begins.
The next question was: Who are we going to serve?
- People new to CX?
- Experienced practitioners?
- Specialists in areas like VOC or Human Centered Design?
- Non-CX people?
- Customer service people?
Once we knew what success looked like — and who we were serving — the next question was around how we could serve the people we had chosen to serve.
We had to think about how we were going to operationalize the CX curriculum:
- What was the product?
- How would it be delivered or distributed?
- Was it going to be one-on-one learning or group based?
- Would certification be involved?
And finally, how will we know what we’re doing is working? Or learn that we need to adjust?
That’s where metrics matter.
I’m a strong believer in selecting and defining metrics up front, before the initiative begins.
Why This Approach Works
This approach is not only more structured — it’s more outside-in.
It considers where we’re headed and what success will look like, who we’re serving, how we plan to serve them, and how to measure our progress along the way.
Imagine how much differently the conversation would have gone if the group of CX experts had used a strategic framework to guide the development of the CX curriculum.
In this story, the initial strategy discussions didn’t fail because people lacked ideas.
They failed because they started in the wrong place.
Thank You for Reading
I regularly share stories, strategies, and insights from our work across Contact Centers, Customer Service, and Customer Experience. If this resonates, I’d love to stay connected.
You can drop me a line anytime, or subscribe on our site.
Daniel Ord
[email protected]
www.omnitouchinternational.com
