connecteddale

Strategy Coach = Clarity + Alignment

9-Point Strategy

The 9-Point Strategy walks a raw idea through nine questions, from the itch behind it to the first concrete action, so a founder can tell if it's a business or just an idea they like the sound of.

Nine numbered boxes run in order, left to right, from the itch to the first move.

1 Name the itch 2 Name the customer 3 Name their real problem 4 Name what they do today instead 5 Name why they'd switch 6 Name the smallest test 7 Name your resources and gaps 8 Name who else must say yes 9 Name the first move
The nine points, worked in order then revisited.

Reach for this when…

How to run it

  1. Start from a clearly framed strategic challenge, not a vague ambition.
  2. Work through the nine points in order: the itch, the customer, their real problem, what they do today instead, why they'd switch, the smallest test, your resources, your allies, the first move.
  3. Write down real answers, not the polished version for an audience.
  4. Revisit earlier answers as later questions surface new information.
  5. Leave with one action you can start this week.

A worked example

Situation. Dawit Bekele ran Abyssinia Mart, a small retail chain in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and had been talking for a year about opening an online arm without ever starting.

Applied. Working through the nine questions with his coach, question two stopped him cold: who exactly was the online customer, and how were they different from the people walking into his stores.

Result. He couldn't answer it cleanly, which was the real reason he'd stalled. He rebuilt the idea around a narrower customer before touching a website.

1 Frame the challenge 2 Work the nine questions 3 Write real answers 4 Revisit as you learn 5 Name the first action
IslaMart: question four, the real customer, was where Ramon actually got stuck.

The catch

It's a sequence for an individual founder working an idea, not a full strategic-planning process for an existing multi-stakeholder organisation - used on the wrong scale it feels either too slow or too glib. Some questions land hard only with an experienced facilitator asking the follow-up, not just reading them off a sheet. It rewards honesty; skimmed answers produce a tidy document and no real movement.

If you can fill in all nine points in one sitting without getting stuck anywhere, you haven't been honest on at least one of them.

Origin: Dale Williams