Designing Strategy
Designing Strategy
Go Deeper with Certificate Programs
Designing Strategy is part of a two certificate programs:
What You'll Get
Week 1: Introduction
Week 1: Introduction
Watch a sneak peek
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Designing Strategy—A sneak peek of the course
4 Video Lessons
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Strategy is a Creative Act For Everyone
- Making Choices—An introduction to strategy
- The Strategy Process Map—A framework for navigating strategy
- The Strategy Choice Cascade—A way to articulate strategy
1 Assignment
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Identify the Problem and Frame A Strategic Question: Outline the current Strategy Choice Cascade for your organization, describe the strategy problem that you’re facing, and craft a “How might we” question to articulate the problem.
5 Discussions
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What brought you to this course, and why have you chosen to learn the skills of designing strategy?
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Which steps of the Strategy Process Map do you feel most and least comfortable with? Why?
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Have you ever had a difficult time communicating a strategy or strategic possibility in the past? If so, why?
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Did anything surprise you about how Westrock uses the Strategy Choice Cascade?
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What choices are you making in your current role? Can you see how this might be considered strategy?
Week 2: From Problems to Possibilities
Week 2: From Problems to Possibilities
4 Video Lessons
- Setting the Stage for Strategy—Define a problem, frame a strategic question
- Framing a “How might we…” Question
- Invent the Future—Generate strategic possibilities
- Shape Strategic Possibilities—Apply “Where to Play” and “How to Win”
1 Assignment
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Generate Possibilities: Push your thinking to brainstorm new strategic possibilities that answer the question you framed for your organization. Articulate those possibilities in more detail using the elements “Where to Play?” and “How to Win?” from the Strategy Choice Cascade.
3 Discussions
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Framing a “How might we” question can sometimes feel tricky, but it shouldn’t be the thing that slows your strategy work down. What are some ways that you’ve found that can help you frame a question?
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What strategy possibilities did you come up with for your practice case? Are any particularly inspiring and/or radical that you’d like to share? How did it feel to brainstorm and dream big?
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Think about two organizations that compete with one another–how would you describe their choices? What’s unique about them?
Week 3: What Would Have to Be True?
Week 3: What Would Have to Be True?
3 Video Lessons
- What Would Have to be True?—The most important question in strategy
- Surfacing Conditions—Ask “What would have to be true?”
- Identifying Barriers—Choose what to test
1 Assignment
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What Would Have to Be True and Barriers: Think about the “What would have to be true?” conditions for each of your strategic possibilities, then identify your early hunches about which ones might be barriers.
2 Discussions
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Have you ever been in a situation where it was difficult to gain alignment? Were you able to move past this? If so, how did you get “unstuck”?
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Think of a choice that you’re facing in life or work, and the different options that you’re considering for that choice. How might asking “What would have to be true?” to make each a great option, help you to see them differently?
Week 4: Test to Learn
Week 4: Test to Learn
4 Video Lessons
- Prove It—Two words that can kill innovation
- Test for the Future—Design and conduct strategy tests
- Testing in Strategy
- One Example of a Guerilla Test
1 Assignment
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Test to Learn: Design and plan out strategic tests that you can conduct to learn more about the barriers you identified as part of the strategy process.
1 Discussion
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What types of guerrilla tests feel familiar to you? What are you most excited to try?
Week 5: Make a Choice
Week 5: Make a Choice
4 Video Lessons
- Making a Strategic Choice
- Make a Real Choice
- Look to the Future
- Telling the Story of Strategy
1 Assignment
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Decide: Look back across the entire strategy process and take stock of some of the big takeaways from the course, and think about how will you continue to practice strategy after the course is complete.
3 Discussions
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What do you think will be the most challenging part of deciding on your new strategy? Are you stuck between any possibilities?
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What are some ways in which this course has changed your view on strategy design? How will you use your new perspective, or how have you already started using it?
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Have you presented strategy work in the past? What is successful? What were some techniques or tips that helped or hindered this work for you?
Meet Your Instructors
Jennifer Riel
Partner & Global Director of Strategy at IDEO
Jennifer has led strategy processes at large public and private sector organizations around the world. She advises senior leaders at several Fortune 100 companies and teaches creative problem solving and innovation at the Rotman School of Management. She co-authored Creating Great Choices with Roger L. Martin.
Jennifer Riel
Partner & Global Director of Strategy at IDEO
Jennifer has led strategy processes at large public and private sector organizations around the world. She also serves as a strategy and innovation advisor to senior leaders at several Fortune 100 companies. She is an adjunct professor at the Rotman School of Management, where she teaches strategy, innovation, and integrative thinking.
She co-authored Creating Great Choices with Roger L. Martin. She has published articles in Harvard Business Review, the Globe and Mail, Businessweek, and Strategy Magazine. Jennifer received her MBA from the Rotman School of Management. Her undergraduate degree is in English Literature and History, from Queen’s University.
Roger Martin
Strategy Advisor & former Dean of the Rotman School of Management
Roger is a trusted strategy advisor who's worked with CEOs of companies including Procter & Gamble, Lego, and Ford. He has published 11 books, including Creating Great Choices and Playing to Win, and is recognized as a leading management thinker. Roger has an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Roger Martin
Strategy Advisor & former Dean of the Rotman School of Management
Roger Martin is a trusted strategy advisor who’s worked with CEOs of companies worldwide, including Procter & Gamble, Lego, and Ford Motor Company. In 2017, he was named the world’s #1 management thinker by Thinkers50, a biannual ranking of the most influential global business gurus.
He has published 11 books, including Creating Great Choices co-authored by Jennifer Riel, The Design of Business, and Playing to Win with A.G. Lafley, former CEO of Procter & Gamble.
Roger is Professor Emeritus and former Dean of the Rotman School of Management. A Canadian from Wallenstein, Ontario, he received his AB from Harvard College and his MBA from Harvard Business School.
FAQs
We offer three types of courses: self-paced courses, cohort courses, and certificate programs. Cohort courses run on a set calendar, with fixed start and end dates. Course learning is self-paced within those dates and requires approximately 4-5 hours per week over 5 weeks. Courses consist of videos, activities, assignments, access to course teaching teams, and feedback from a global community of learners. There are also optional 1-hour video Community Conversations, held weekly by the teaching team.
All of our cohort courses are fully online, so you can take them from any time zone, anywhere in the world. With our cohort course experience, while you'll be learning alongside other learners, you'll still have the flexibility to work at the pace that fits your own schedule. There aren't mandatory live components, so you don't have to worry about having to log in at a specific time. At the same time, you'll have access to a teaching team who will answer your questions and give feedback on your assignments throughout the course.
Cohort courses run on a set calendar with fixed start and end dates. You will be learning alongside other learners, but still have the flexibility to work at a pace that fits your own schedule—there aren't mandatory live components. In cohort courses, you'll have access to a teaching team who will answer your questions and give feedback on your assignments throughout the course. Self-paced courses allow you to start, learn, and finish a course completely on your own schedule. Since courses are on-demand, there's no community experience of going through the material with other learners. In on-demand courses, there is no teaching team providing feedback on your submissions.
Upon completing a course, the certificate and digital badge for the course will automatically become available to you on your profile page within 24 hours. There, you can view your certificate, download it, and access your Credly badge. We've partnered with Credly, a leading digital credentialing platform, to provide learners with a digital badge that they can share on social media, email signatures, or add to their LinkedIn profiles or resumes.
IDEO U courses are not currently eligible for university credit.
You'll need a stable internet connection and a device (computer, tablet, or phone) with a modern web browser such as Chrome, Firefox, Safari, or Edge. Some course activities may work better on a computer than a mobile device. You'll also need to be able to view videos, which requires a browser that supports HTML5 video.
Once you enroll in a course, you can access it by logging into your IDEO U account at ideou.com and clicking on your profile icon in the upper right corner. Then click on "My Courses" to see all of your enrolled courses. Click on the course you want to access to go to the course page. Your courses are always available in your account, even after the course end date.
We offer a 10-day satisfaction guarantee for our cohort courses (starting from the course start date). If you're unhappy with the course for any reason, reach out to us within 10 days of the course start date and we'll give you a full refund. To process a refund, contact us.
Yes, we do! We offer group pricing when you purchase 5 or more seats for the same course. Contact us at learner-success@ideou.com to get a quote.
Collaborate with a Global Community
Work with Expert Coaches
Our teaching team has extensive applied industry knowledge. They'll help deepen your understanding and application of the course content by facilitating written discussions, live video moments, and assignment feedback.
Expand Your Network
Join virtual live discussion groups for deeper conversation, reflection, and connection led by teaching team members and available multiple times a week across time zones.
Receive Feedback
Gain tips, techniques, and a downloadable feedback guide; and share and receive feedback on assignments from peers.
What Others Are Saying
Designing Strategy
“Traditionally strategy is about creating a plan and roadmap for getting to a desired future state. This approach to strategy will help you make decisions today! It’s more about the choices you make today based on signals of the future than about the future itself.”
Designing Strategy
“This course was tremendously valuable in terms of explaining the concepts and walking us through practice and real-life case scenarios. I found myself applying what I learned in my day-to-day without even thinking about it. It has changed the way I think on a deeper level.”
Designing Strategy
“The concepts are solid, the faculty is credible (if not outright impressive), and the material is presented in an effective and efficient way. The learning community is engaged and supportive, and the tech tool is professional.”
Designing Strategy
“This course brought a new perspective to traditional strategy building sessions. The concept of seeking external validation prior to selecting a strategic choice will challenge old ways of thinking.”
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Enroll As a Team
The practice and application of design thinking, innovation, and creativity is highly collaborative and team based—which is why we believe that learning is better together. Take a course as a team and develop new skills and mindsets, have deeper discussion during course kickoff and debrief sessions, and build a shared understanding.
