Write the business question without naming any tool. If you cannot, it is not a strategy yet; it is a shopping list.
For each bet, write the current number before the target number. If you do not know the current one, that is your first task.
Fill "what we will NOT do" with real proposals circulating in the company. Saying no to something concrete is what turns the sheet into a decision.
Put a name in "who measures" for each bet before thinking about the vendor.
Set the review date no more than 90 days out. Any further and nobody will remember it.
The most common mistake: filling the bets with tools ("roll out Copilot") instead of problems with a number. The tool is the how, and the how can change.
The line that is almost always missing
"What we will NOT do." A page with three bets and no "no" is a wish list. The committee knows there is a strategy when it sees what was left out and why. If you cannot answer which problem, which number and who measures, you do not have a strategy: you have a subscription.
Vic Sol · Decision Desk · vicsol.org/resources/ · Free to use with attribution. This sheet structures a conversation; it is not legal, financial or audit advice.
Open the .docx in Word (or the .xlsx in Excel) or print it before the meeting.
Fill the fields with the team; leave the blanks visible, they are the discussion.
Close with one owner, one date and one next action. Nothing else.
Prompt
Generate this sheet for your case
Paste this prompt into ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini together with your proposal, process or policy. It reproduces the sheet with your data and flags what is missing.
Act as a strategy director at mid-sized companies who has watched AI licences get bought with no problem behind them, and who insists that every strategy starts with a business question and ends in numbers with an owner.
Context I am giving you:
- Company and sector: [e.g. manufacturing company, 500 people]
- AI tools already paid for and who uses them: [ ]
- Business problems that hurt today, with their current measure if I have it: [e.g. "quotes take 3 days"]
- AI proposals circulating in the company (what someone wants to buy or build): [ ]
- Current "AI strategy" document, if any: [paste text or write "none"]
What I need: an AI strategy on a single page with exactly these fields, in this order:
1. The business question: one problem with its current measure, naming no tools.
2. Bets 1, 2 and 3: for each, what we will try and the number that has to change (from what to what). If the context only supports two bets, deliver two and tell me.
3. What we will NOT do: two or three circulating proposals that this strategy rules out for now, with a one-line reason each.
4. Who measures: one role per bet (I will add the name).
5. Suggested review date, no more than 90 days out, and what gets decided that day.
Output format: a table with the columns Field · Content, followed by one line with the three questions the presenter must be able to answer: which problem, which number, who measures. Maximum 350 words. No introduction.
Rules:
- Do not invent current figures or targets. If a problem's current measure is missing, write [MEASURE PENDING] and tell me how to get it this week.
- Do not propose tools in the bets; describe the problem and the expected change.
- Mark every assumption as an assumption.
- If critical information is missing, ask me at most 3 questions before answering.
- Answer in plain, direct business English, with no sales adjectives.
What to check in the answer:
Does each bet have a current number and a target number, or did it settle for "improve efficiency"?
Does "what we will NOT do" rule out real proposals from your company, or did it invent generic renunciations?
Can the business question be understood without mentioning AI? If it only makes sense with the tool inside it, ask for a rewrite.
Vic Sol