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Do startups need specific vision-strategies-actions plans?

A compass is a must in darkness

An early start is often described as a traveller navigating through the darkness.

• It's VERY uncertain that your business model, goals, and objectives would be welcomed in the market
• Even if they were excepted, it takes endurance and much patience. You're constantly tested with millions of questions as to whether the direction you're taking is correct or not. It's a mix of fear and curiosity. 

If we're consumed by darkness, we lose the will to finding the way. A compass gets rid of that fear. 

• TINGE OF SOUL has set up the company value-based vision, quantifiable strategies, and bite-size action plans to surmount challenges. We use the OKR (objectives and key results) framework to manage the compass.

What is a vision, strategy, and action plan?

Vision

A vision projects an ultimate state of being that the company tries to achieve. As the word suggests, it illustrates the blueprint of what each member on the team would like to become. It's essentially the needle of the compass.

* the ultimate state of being may be a version of your company you envisage. It could be a short-term state, or even a very long, 10-year-later state.

Ask yourself: "Who are our customers?", "Does our business model solve the problem statement we have defined?"

Strategy

The strategy puts together specific plans and methods to which you'd achieve the vision. To go toward the direction your "vision" has shown on the compass, you must move. Strategy shows the rules, methods, and speed at which you'd move effectively toward your vision.

Ask yourself: "How do I tackle the problem", "Which items should we prioritize?"

Action Plan

The action plan are the specific actions you take to achieve the strategy. They can be as specific as "toss a pebble ahead of you before taking a major step (pilot tests)", "wait 20 minutes before making the next move (reflection)" and such. They're short-term, measurable methods you take. We cannot stress enough how important it is to make your action plans concise, precise, and systematic. 

Ask yourself: "With our resources and time, what should we focus on?", "With this knowledge, how can I work backwards to meet the deadline?"

How do they relate to one another?

Vision sets the longer term goal, Strategy helps to segment the journey with mid-term plans, and Action Plan tells you how to get to each milestone before hitting the Vision. 

The three are interrelated and mutually complementary. This relationship is the key to staying on track in the dark.

OKR?

OKR helps TINGE OF SOUL set up key metrics to achieving milestones in a given timeframe. We define strategies that are more or less that everyone on the team has agreed on. OKR helps us quantify what we can, break down the issues by chunks, and help you visualize our budget size. We update our OKRs by the quarter. This helps to get rid of any uncertainty we have navigating through the market.

Do I need it?

We believe that companies that are just starting should start with this -- so you can define what to start with.

• If you're concerned about your directions, it could just mean that you're changing your directions too much and you have a broken compass. 

• These actions (or inactions) lead your company's waste in resources.

We hope this helped. We will continue to share more stories like these. Check in often and follow us to see more of these updates.