Act as a strategic-planning facilitator. Help me build an evidence-based plan, not a list of projects. Organization and planning scope: [ORGANIZATION AND SCOPE] Planning period and desired outcome: [PERIOD AND OUTCOME] Current performance and external evidence: [CURRENT STATE AND EVIDENCE] Resources and non-negotiable constraints: [RESOURCES AND CONSTRAINTS]
Stakeholders and decisions already made: [STAKEHOLDERS AND DECISIONS]
Produce a strategic planning packet of 1,000-1,300 words. Use these sections in order: 1) planning premise and decision boundaries, 2) current-state diagnosis with facts versus assumptions marked, 3) 3-4 strategic choices, 4) evaluation table using impact, feasibility, time to signal, risk, and strategic fit, 5) recommendation and explicit trade-offs, 6) 3-5 strategic objectives with measurable outcomes, 7) initiatives and 90-day milestones, 8) scorecard of leading and lagging measures, and 9) risks, dependencies, and review cadence.
Make objectives outcome-based, not activity-based. Every initiative must link to one objective and identify a named role type, a leading indicator, and a decision point. Do not infer customer demand, financial impact, competitor conduct, legal requirements, or capacity beyond my inputs. Where a decision relies on an assumption, state the validation method, owner role, and deadline.
Before answering, check that the plan makes real choices about what not to prioritize. Check that no metric is presented as a baseline or target unless I supplied it. Ask up to 3 clarifying questions only if a required input is missing.Fill in
| Placeholder | What to enter | Example |
|---|---|---|
| [ORGANIZATION AND SCOPE] | Describe the organization or team and exactly what the plan covers. | A 40-person nonprofit’s digital fundraising and donor-retention program. |
| [PERIOD AND OUTCOME] | State the planning period and the measurable result the plan should pursue. | January-December 2027; increase unrestricted online donations by 20% without increasing donor churn. |
| [CURRENT STATE AND EVIDENCE] | Provide current results, customer or market evidence, prior initiatives, and known problems. | Email provides 62% of online gifts; monthly donors give 3.1 times more annually; the donation form abandonment rate is 54%; donor interviews cite unclear impact updates. |
| [RESOURCES AND CONSTRAINTS] | List available people, budget, systems, deadlines, risks, and non-negotiable limits. | Two marketers, one developer for six weeks, $70,000 paid-media budget, and no new CRM this year. |
| [STAKEHOLDERS AND DECISIONS] | Name the roles involved and any choices that have already been made. | Development director, marketing lead, and finance manager; leadership has approved improving recurring giving but not hiring. |
How to use
- Paste the prompt with evidence from your planning documents, dashboards, customer research, and resource plan.
- Have the AI mark every gap as an assumption; add evidence before treating its recommendation as settled.
- Review the evaluation table with decision makers and choose the options you will explicitly defer.
- Follow up with: “Create a quarterly review agenda that uses this scorecard and identifies decisions we must revisit.”
Variations
Annual planning workshop
Use to prepare a facilitated planning session.
Design a half-day strategic planning workshop for [TEAM] focused on [PLANNING DECISION]. Inputs available are [EVIDENCE]. Participants are [PARTICIPANTS], and constraints are [CONSTRAINTS]. Produce a timed agenda, pre-read request, exercises, decision criteria, facilitator questions, and tangible outputs. Include a method for separating facts, assumptions, and opinions. Do not decide the strategy for participants or invent evidence. Check that every activity produces an input to a final decision.
Strategy scorecard
Use after objectives are chosen and you need a measurement system.
Build a strategy scorecard for [STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES]. Current measures and baselines are [CURRENT METRICS]. Team roles and data limitations are [DATA CONTEXT]. Output a table with objective, outcome measure, leading indicator, baseline if supplied, target if supplied, data owner, reporting frequency, and decision triggered by movement. Do not invent targets or baselines. Flag vanity metrics and measures no one can act on. Ask up to 3 questions only if needed.
Initiative prioritization
Use when too many projects compete for limited capacity.
Prioritize these proposed initiatives: [INITIATIVE LIST]. Our objective is [OBJECTIVE], and our capacity and constraints are [CAPACITY]. Score each initiative for strategic fit, expected impact, confidence, effort, time to learning, dependency risk, and reversibility. Present a ranked table, recommended now/next/later list, and a short explanation of what to stop or defer. Do not fabricate estimates; mark missing information. Check that high-effort projects cannot outrank smaller tests without a stated reason.
Tips
- Start planning from the outcome and constraints, then decide initiatives; starting from last year’s project list preserves legacy work.
- Use leading indicators for work you can still change, such as qualified opportunities, activation, or repeat-use behavior, alongside lagging results.
- Keep a short decision log showing what was chosen, what was deferred, and the evidence that would cause reconsideration.
- Do not assign numeric targets just because the AI supplies them; targets need a baseline, economics, and accountable owner review.
FAQ
Can I use this prompt for a one-person business?
Yes. Replace team roles with the hats you wear and make capacity constraints explicit so the plan stays feasible.
How many strategic objectives should a plan have?
Usually three to five. More objectives often conceal a project inventory rather than a set of priorities.
What if we lack market data?
Use the plan to identify the highest-value unknowns and low-cost validation steps. Do not turn assumptions into facts.