SHELF No. 02
Strategic thinking
Defining the problem, finding insights, writing the brief, all that.
Resources and Tools
13 RECORDSPREVIOUSLY FILED
Strategy's Trilemna: Speed vs Precision vs Significance
LinkedIn Sent
Having less time doesn’t make strategy less impactful. It simply forces a trade off.
The BUMP Framework for Brand Strategy
Mark Pollard Sent
I wanted to devise something I could talk a business owner through in minutes.
40+ of the best people I know in the world of strategy and ideas
Salmon Labs Filed
Very kind of Rob to include me in this list, thanks man.
Coglode Cookbook
Coglode Filed
The latest behavioural research distilled, applied and combined to make better strategic decisions
Creative Brief Cheat Sheet: Templates, Examples, How To's
Ad Aged Sent
“The brief tells you the what. It doesn't answer the how. That's where the work comes in.”
Thinking Tools
Wikiversity Sent
A collection of tools that are useful in creative problem solving which generally follows the steps of clarify, ideate, develop, and implement.
How to Drop Killer Workshops
Rob Salmon Sent
“Market the workshop activities like you are teaching children.”
How to Drop Killer Workshops
Rob Salmon Sent
“Market the workshop activities like you are teaching children.”
The Imagination Curriculum
Zoe Scaman Sent
“A reading list for strategists who want to think dangerously.”
-
Strat Scraps Ad Toolbox
Strat Scraps Sent
36 tools organized by ad collections, copywriting, design, research, and audience
-
The Strategy & Planning Scrapbook
STRAT_SCRAPS Sent
A curated collection of strategy frameworks, creative provocations, and planning tools — compiled from years of practice in brand strategy and advertising.
-
Building a Second Brain for Strategists
Phillip Lee Strategy Sent
How I combined Claude and Obsidian to build a personal knowledge system from scratch, in a single afternoon, with no coding background.
Being a Strategist
5 RECORDS
Welcome to the Guild of Better
StratMonday Sent
Deserve is not earned by the customer. It is owed by the maker.
PREVIOUSLY FILED
What Strategists Need to Do in a World Where There's a Surplus of Smarts
Ed Cotton Sent
The test: Can someone describe what they would buy from you without using the word “strategy”?
Bed of Nails
Joe Burns Sent
Organisations tend to drift, by human bias and default, towards Pointies at the top and Softies underneath.
The Semantic Drift of The Strategist
LinkedIn Sent
“So I grabbed 100 titles from 2nd-degree connections on LinkedIn that had strategy somewhere in the visible profile and ran some analysis.”
Selling Strategy Without the Sleaze
Rob Salmon Sent
“You are remembered for the help you provide, not the noise you make.”
Insights
9 RECORDS
10 years of strategy lessons in 60 seconds
Alex Smith Sent
There are no right or wrong strategies. There are only interesting and boring ones. The world makes space for the former.
PREVIOUSLY FILED
If the opposite isn't valid, it's not a strategy
Rob Estreitinho Sent
Whenever a choice is presented as "strategic", ask what the opposite is.
People Doo Doo
Joe Burns Filed
The entire discipline of ‘creative strategy’ rests on just one single observation. You cannot make people do things.
Efficiency is a stupid way to run a business
Joe Burns Sent
If you truly do not care about what you’re doing and just want to collect a paycheque, then efficiency is the perfect mantra. Don’t make decisions, just do whatever is cheapest.
The Cult of Optimization
The Ideas Letter Sent
“The problem here is obvious to anyone not immersed in the culture of Silicon Valley. Not every worthwhile objective can be measured.”
Positioning is deciding
Deep Reads by Jon Itkin Sent
If the leader is capable of leaning in, fully examining decisions, and making them with conviction, positioning work goes well.
Monotasking: Inside the Box Excerpt
The Atlantic Sent
Constraints push the brain beyond its default tendencies, forcing deeper problem-solving
Your Brand is Not for Everyone
Russell Clayton Sent
“Constraint operates not as a restriction but as a shaping force.”
-
WEIRD WINS
Outlier Sent
Why, how, and when weird wins - and what you can practically do as an agency, brand or just human to win weird too.
Working with AI
9 RECORDS
Strategy was never in short supply. Courage was.
Ad-verse Reactions (Omar Oakes) Sent
“Strategy is still difficult. It still means specialising, putting more resource into this and less into that, and making hard choices that carry risk.”
PREVIOUSLY FILED
Strategy in an Infinite World
Ed Cotton Sent
Companies are entering an unusual period in which capability is expanding faster than the strategic discipline required to govern it.
"AI-Powered" Isn't a Position
First Round Review Sent
“You have to do things that are hard to replicate via AI alone. Show up in person. Be personal in your storytelling. Make physical things.”
What strategy directors expect from your AI skills
Rob Salmon Sent
Familiarity is no longer a flex, it's the floor.
You can't beat AI.
How to AI Sent
“What happens when the thing you used to sell becomes almost free?”
Don't fetishize friction, that's not the point
Russell Davies Sent
The task is to think about the thing, not generate some words.
Researchers Asked LLMs for Strategic Advice. They Got "Trendslop" in Return.
Harvard Business Review Sent
“This propensity for AI to opt for buzzy ideas over reasoned solutions is called "trendslop," and leaders should beware of it warping their strategic planning.”
-
The Great Flattening: Corporate AI Language and Brand Voice Opportunity
The State of Brand Sent
“Corporate America is converging on a single voice. The brands that opt out will own the next decade.”
-
LLMs for Strategy: a Scorecard
Delightful Sent
“Hahaha, says the reader. Hahaha … fuck.”