The Secret to a Great Planning Process - Lessons from Airbnb and Eventbrite
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The Secret to a Great Planning Process - Lessons from Airbnb and Eventbrite
Leadership (i.e. exec team, business unit leads) is responsible for 1)Developing an inspiring high-level vision and strategy2) Sharing a concrete goal for the period3) Making the final decision on what is prioritized and resourced
review.firstround.com • The Secret to a Great Planning Process - Lessons from Airbnb and Eventbrite
You can’t expect the organization to “just know” how to pull together a quarterly plan. Working without an agreed-upon framework can often be a recipe for disaster.
review.firstround.com • The Secret to a Great Planning Process - Lessons from Airbnb and Eventbrite
The five essentials ingredients to any company strategy document are:
Mission - What are you meant to achieve
Vision - What does it look like once you’ve achieved it
Goal - How do you concretely know you’ve achieved it
Strategy - What is the path to achieving it
Strategic pillars - Three to five key bets that the company needs to make
review.firstround.com • The Secret to a Great Planning Process - Lessons from Airbnb and Eventbrite
we encourage Leadership to call out not just what they know but what they don’t know and wish that they did.
review.firstround.com • The Secret to a Great Planning Process - Lessons from Airbnb and Eventbrite
In order confirm team buy in, leaders should focus on 3 goals:
1. Share the integrated plan with Team leaders2. Make final tweaks based on their input3. Commit and share widely
1. Share the integrated plan with Team leaders2. Make final tweaks based on their input3. Commit and share widely
review.firstround.com • The Secret to a Great Planning Process - Lessons from Airbnb and Eventbrite
With thoughtfulness and shared effort, the plan will come together and be ready to share with the entire company. This should be a moment of celebration. With the help of all of the leaders across the organization, and with all of the information at your disposal, you’ve come up with the best possible plan. Share the vision, the strategy, and the e
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5. Strategic pillars - Three to five key bets that the company needs to make
review.firstround.com • The Secret to a Great Planning Process - Lessons from Airbnb and Eventbrite
The framework is made up of four steps:1. Context: Leadership shares a high-level strategy with Teams2. Plans: Teams respond with proposed plans3. Integration: Leadership integrates into a single plan, and shares with Teams4. Buy-in: Teams make final tweaks, confirm buy-in, and get rolling
review.firstround.com • The Secret to a Great Planning Process - Lessons from Airbnb and Eventbrite
Planning is hard because it's inherently different from other exercises your organization takes on . Rather than focusing on day-to-day execution, it requires a large number of people to think about a variety of possible futures, align on one single future, and then plot a concrete course to get there. Taking this on for your own personal goals (f
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This may sound painful now, but in our experience, having your strategy inform your structure (versus the other way around) is the only way to be successful long-term