Strategy breakdown

A metric map tells you what moves your numbers. Strategy decides which levers you'll actually push — and commits to what you expect to happen. This lesson breaks an objective down into testable bets.

1. Start from an objective

An objective is the outcome you're driving this quarter: grow MRR by 15%.

2. Break it into pillars

A pillar is a theme — a part of the problem worth its own attention. For MRR you might choose:

• Win more (new revenue)
• Grow accounts (expansion revenue)
• Lose fewer (reduce churn)

Pillars keep a big objective from becoming one vague pile of work.

3. Turn each pillar into hypotheses and actions

Under a pillar, write:

• A hypothesis (Ideas/Hypothesis card) — a bet: "Annual plans increase expansion revenue."
• An action (Work/Action card) — the work: "Ship annual billing."

4. Tie each bet to metrics — the impact contract

This is the step that makes strategy measurable. For each action or hypothesis, fill in an impact contract:

• Target metric — what it should move (Expansion MRR).
• Leading metric — the early signal (annual-plan adoption).
• Guardrail — what must not get worse (churn rate).
• Expected direction and size, a baseline period, a measurement window, and your confidence.

What you've learned

Objective → pillars → hypotheses/actions → impact contracts. Every piece of work now points at a metric and carries an expectation you can check later.

Next step

Now make it a habit: review these bets on a dashboard cadence.