I'm Learning to Love the 6-Pager
Planning in a post-strategy world.
I've been doing strategy work for over a decade now (since joining McKinsey in 2013) but never had a default memo template.
Until now.
After trying it on two separate client projects in the span of a week, I'm firmly convinced that Amazon’s 6-pager is the best way to write strategy. This post will explain why.
I've written previously about the power of frameworks like Wardley Mapping, 7 Powers and Bottleneck Analysis; I think the 6-pager is as valuable.
STUMBLING IN NARRATIVE SPACE
Not having a framework for this has been pretty ironic as I'm generally obsessed with frameworks and approach strategy in a fairly structured way too.
Strategy necessitates communication maybe more than any other area in the business. Without clarity and alignment on what the direction is, people won't move in the same direction.
For some reason I've always assumed that strategy memos have to be unique, narrative-driven write-ups. Reading the Ten Timeless Tests memo in McKinsey didn't help. It argues that strategies are all pretty unique and the universally applicable frameworks are more like conditions that a good strategy should have.
I'm not convinced that is true anymore.
Of course narrative *is* very important in explaining and motivating a strategy but a strategy needs to also be clear, actionable and supported by the right data. The 6-pager ensures we get these things right. Let me explain.
THE 6 MAGIC PAGES
Amazon splits their strategy memos in 6 sections:
Introduction. An executive summary.
Goals. A set of qualitatively written and quantitatively measured A→B goals for the next planning cycle.
Tenets. Principles to live by.
State of the Business. A snapshot of how the business is currently positioned and what performance was in the last period.
Lessons Learned. Key learnings from last period relevant for strategic planning.
Strategic Priorities. Each goal enriched with a set of initiatives and explained thoroughly.
For a simple example, please read The Anatomy of an Amazon 6-pager.
Many have explained the 6-pager but few understand why it’s so powerful.
THE 6-PAGER IS NOT STRATEGIC
Omission is the answer.
The 6-pager avoids strategy speak.
There is no section for “moats”, no section for “competitive or market analysis”, no section for market sizing and other types of fun busywork.
As informative and enjoyable as reading a Stratechery blog post can be, your company memos should not read like that. You can't afford to spend two paragraphs describing your 4-sided beautiful network-effect flywheel and why everything will be great in 11 years.
The most important thing is the goals, everything in the 6-pager is subservient to that. Compression leads to execution.
The state of the business and lessons learned sections form important context for goal formation and the strategic priorities link those datapoints with the chosen set of goals. Tenets are guiding principles that motivate goal choice and can even inform successful execution. The introduction is the narrative that ties it all together.
And because the goals are the primary output of the 6-pager, the strategy *is* the implementation guide. The memo doesn't complement the planning process, it’s the output of the planning process.
Going forward, we are defaulting to the 6-pager at Auditless and I'm sure our clients will be better off for it.
P.S. I can't resist to throw in an AI related take.
It’s perhaps more important than ever to ditch the long-form strategy memo.
If strategy is getting replaced by speed, the 6-pager is the minimum dose of strategy needed to point that speed in the right direction.