FreeNo sign-upYour notes stay on your computer
Strategy Map Builder
Write the few objectives your strategy depends on, link each to what it drives, and find the ones that drive nothing.
This tool also runs as a stage in a playbook, which takes you through several tools in order:
- Execute a business strategy Stage 1 of 5: what has to go right for the strategy to work? Start at stage 1
Not following the playbook?
The strategy
The strategy you have already chosen, in one line: where you will compete and how.
The objectives, in four layers
An objective is one thing the strategy needs to achieve or do well, written as a short action and result. Not a measure, not a project: those come in stage 2. A dozen or fewer in all.
Is it an objective? Four examples
| Candidate | Objective? |
|---|---|
| Win shelf space in Brazilian supermarkets | Yes: a result the strategy needs |
| Number of chains listing our products | No: a measure of it, set in stage 2 |
| Hire a distribution agency in Brazil | No: a project that serves it, also stage 2 |
| Be the best dairy in South America | No: too vague to link or measure |
Financial How we look to shareholders
Customer How customers see us
Internal process What we must excel at
Learning and growth How we can improve
Your notes never leave your browser
The strategy and the objectives stay on your computer and in your progress file. To write the diagnosis, only counts and links are sent to our server, by place in your list. How it works
Link each objective to what it drives
Read the map from the bottom up: people and skills improve processes, processes win customers, customers deliver the money.
- For each objective, ask: what does it cause in the layer above? Tick it.
- One that drives nothing doesn't belong. Cut it, or find the missing link.
- Financial results sit at the top, so nothing is above them.
The map so far
The strategy map
Arrows run from an objective to what it drives. Amber: drives nothing. Crossed out: cut.
Each objective and what it drives
Save your progress
Download your progress file to continue from this point any time, on any computer: choose it under "Coming back?" at the start of the tool. Each new file includes everything so far, including the earlier stages when they are connected, so keep the latest one. Your work stays in this browser only until you close it.
Not saved yet.
Take your results with you
A PDF of the map, each objective's links, and the diagnosis.
About the tool
Why it exists
Find what has to go right, and what doesn't belong
A strategy map lays the objectives a strategy depends on in four layers, financial at the top and learning and growth at the bottom, and links each to what it causes in the layer above. It turns a strategy on one slide into a chain of cause and effect you can check.
This tool works on its own, and as stage 1 of our playbook for executing a business strategy, where the objectives go on to the balanced scorecard in stage 2. For the method, see our guide to the strategy map.
The method
How the tool works
Four layers. Financial (how we look to shareholders), customer (how customers see us), internal process (what we must excel at) and learning and growth (how we can improve). Each layer drives the one above.
One test for every objective. What does it cause in the layer above? One that drives nothing still attracts money and attention, and quietly pulls against the ones that matter: cut it, or find the missing link.
Soft checks. The tool flags an objective that reads like a measure ("Number of …") or is too vague to link ("Be the best …"). They are prompts, not rules.
What leaves your computer. The strategy and the objectives stay in your browser and your progress file. To write the diagnosis, the page sends our server only the layers, counts and links, by place in your list, and the server keeps nothing.