Strategy Skill

Multi-perspective business analysis to guide technical investment decisions.

When to Use

• User needs business justification for a project
• Decision requires ROI or value assessment
• Need competitive landscape analysis
• Evaluating strategic alignment
• User says "should we build this", "what's the ROI", "business value", "market research"

Analysis Modes

Full Strategic Analysis (wicked-garden-product-strategy)

• Business impact & ROI
• Value proposition & differentiation
• Competitive landscape
• Market alignment
• Decision recommendation with confidence

Best for: Major investments, strategic decisions, go/no-go evaluations

ROI Analysis

• Cost vs benefit analysis
• Payback period
• Break-even analysis
• Quick financial assessment

Best for: Budget justification, fast approvals, comparative costs

Value Scoring

• Value proposition strength
• Differentiation assessment
• Customer benefit mapping
• Pricing guidance

Best for: Product positioning, feature prioritization, marketing alignment

Analysis Framework

1. Business Impact Assessment

Questions to Answer:

• What problem does this solve?
• Who benefits and how much?
• What's the cost of NOT doing this?
• How does it align with strategic goals?

Output: Impact score (HIGH/MEDIUM/LOW) with justification

2. ROI Analysis

Financial Model:

ROI = (Benefits - Costs) / Costs × 100%
Payback Period = Investment / Annual Benefit

Costs Include:

• Development time
• Infrastructure
• Maintenance
• Opportunity cost

Benefits Include:

• Revenue gain
• Cost savings
• Risk reduction
• Efficiency gains

3. Value Proposition

Framework: Jobs-to-be-Done

• Functional jobs (what tasks)
• Emotional jobs (how they feel)
• Social jobs (how they're perceived)

Differentiation:

• What makes this unique?
• Why choose this over alternatives?
• What's the defensible advantage?

4. Competitive Analysis

5 Forces Analysis:

• Competitive rivalry
• Supplier power
• Buyer power
• Threat of substitutes
• Threat of new entrants

SWOT:

• Strengths (internal, positive)
• Weaknesses (internal, negative)
• Opportunities (external, positive)
• Threats (external, negative)

5. Market Alignment

Market Assessment:

• Market size & growth
• Target segments
• Adoption barriers
• Timing considerations

Decision Framework

Score	Confidence	Recommendation
APPROVE	HIGH	Strong business case, proceed
APPROVE	MEDIUM	Solid case with caveats, proceed with monitoring
CONDITIONAL	MEDIUM	Viable if conditions met, address concerns first
REJECT	HIGH	Weak case, recommend alternative
REJECT	MEDIUM	Insufficient evidence, gather more data

Integration

With the memory layer (wicked-garden-mem)

Hand-off — open the wicked-garden-mem skill and run its store action with ROI analysis: {project} (kind=fact) to keep the strategic insight, and its recall action with strategic analysis {domain} as the query to recall past analysis; on Claude Code this is the Skill tool, on any other seat open the named skill from your catalog and carry it out inline, then continue here.

With wicked-crew

Called during clarify phase for value assessment:

• Validates project justification
• Provides business perspective
• Informs go/no-go decisions

With the harness's task list

Attach the analysis as evidence by appending ## Strategy Analysis + {analysis_summary} to the task description — the harness's task list where it has one (the wicked-garden-workflow skill's refs/integration.md carries the field list and the harness-specific Hand-off), else your working notes.

Output Structure

## Strategic Analysis: {Project}

### Decision: APPROVE | CONDITIONAL | REJECT
**Confidence**: HIGH | MEDIUM | LOW

### Executive Summary
{3-5 sentence business case}

### ROI Analysis
- **Investment**: ${cost}
- **Annual Benefit**: ${benefit}
- **ROI**: {percentage}
- **Payback Period**: {months}

### Value Proposition
{Why this matters to customers/stakeholders}

### Competitive Position
{How this compares to alternatives}

### Risks & Mitigation
| Risk | Impact | Mitigation |
|------|--------|------------|

### Recommendation
{Action items with priorities}

Quality Checks

• Quantify costs and benefits (no hand-waving)
• Be honest about uncertainties
• Consider alternatives
• Provide clear recommendation with reasoning

Discover available analytics/market integrations via capability detection. Fall back to qualitative analysis when no data sources available.