The 90-Day Strategy Canvas

What it is for

A new role and a new quarter ask the same question: what matters most now, and what will you stop doing to make room for it?

In a new role, nobody has handed you a scope yet. Most new leaders spend their first 90 days absorbing work. The canvas makes you spend them choosing which work matters. At the start of a quarter you already own the scope, so the job is to check whether the context has changed, and redraw the canvas if it has.

Blocks 1 to 3 follow Richard Rumelt's strategy kernel. Block 4, what we will not do, is the one most leaders skip, and where most strategies fail: not in the thinking, but in the saying no.

Who should use it

• Leaders in their first 90 days of a new role, before anyone hands them a scope.
• Leaders after a reorg, a smaller team or a change in their own hours.
• Anyone whose manager asks "what's the plan?" Answer with the canvas, then discuss.

It works for any function. The worked example follows a new Head of Marketing on day 45.

How the two editions differ

• New role edition. You are still learning the business, so the diagnosis comes first and takes longest. It runs on a 90-day clock: diagnose in days 1 to 30, decide in days 31 to 60, deliver in days 61 to 90.
• Quarterly review edition. You already own the scope. Test whether last quarter's diagnosis still holds, then redraw blocks 2 to 4 with what you learned.

How to use it in 30 minutes

1. Diagnosis, 10 minutes. What you have heard and seen, then the crux in one sentence. If your crux is "we need more resources", keep digging.
2. Guiding policy, 8 minutes. One or two choices that attack the crux. Could a colleague predict your no's from this alone?
3. Coherent actions, 7 minutes. Three to five actions, each with an owner, a date and one number.
4. What we will not do, 5 minutes. What you will stop, pause or hand over.

That is a first draft, not a strategy. It is done when your manager has agreed to block 4.

Common questions

Is the canvas free?

Yes. It is licensed CC BY 4.0: use, adapt and share it, and credit David Pires.

What is in the PDF?

Three pages: the canvas, a how-to guide and a worked example.

What is the strategy kernel?

Richard Rumelt's idea from Good Strategy / Bad Strategy (2011): a good strategy has a diagnosis, a guiding policy and coherent actions. Block 4 adds the trade-offs.

Should I fill it in alone or with my team?

Alone first, then with your manager, then with your team.

How do I know it is ready to share?

It fits on one page, someone could predict your no's from block 2, every action has an owner, a date and a number, and your manager has agreed to block 4.