Introducing the IDEA Framework for Strategy

At the core of every great innovation is an idea, but not every idea leads to a great innovation.

Which is exactly why I think ideas have gotten a bad rap over the years—the focus often shifts so heavily onto execution that the power of the initial concept is sometimes overlooked.

Consider the common wisdom often shared:

Management consultant and business oracle Peter Drucker supposedly said, “Ideas are cheap and abundant; what is of value is the effective placement of those ideas into situations that develop into action.”

Entrepreneur, investor, and author Shane Parrish writes, “Ideas are cheap. Execution is expensive. The ability to execute separates people, not the ability to come up with ideas.”

Famed MIT professor and serial entrepreneur Bill Aulet writes, “An idea is necessary to catalyze a team into action, but much more important is executing effectively on a viable idea that will evolve over time.”

The focus for all three of these thought leaders is on execution. This is fine—it’s not that I necessarily have a problem with that; after all, taking action, executing, is how innovation happens.

However, I do think that ideas are at least as important, and possibly more so, than one’s ability to execute.

If you’re executing on a bad idea, no matter how well you’re executing, the outcome will almost certainly be negative.

Flipped around, you can see this isn’t necessarily the case with ideas.

If your idea is solid and your execution is merely average, the outcome has a greater potential to still be net-positive, or at least less negative than executing flawlessly on a flawed concept.

A strong foundational idea can help steer you and your business toward a better place, creating opportunities even if the path taken isn’t perfect.

As a creative and entrepreneur, I’ve thought about this a lot over the years. Ideas are powerful, and fleeting, and the right one, at the right time in your journey, with the right mix of market conditions, can make an organization a billion dollars. Possibly more.

In my view, ideas are the real heroes, and when you combine them with effective execution, incredible things can happen.

This is the reason I’ve created the IDEA framework.

Because identifying, refining, and selecting those truly powerful ideas requires more than just intuition, a structured approach is invaluable.

The IDEA framework is both the synthesis of some of my thinking on strategy from the last fifteen years, and the evolution of how I perform strategy work. It’s also a rubric you can adopt when pressure testing your own strategies.

In short, every great strategy begins with an idea. And every great idea can be rigorously analyzed and improved using the IDEA framework: Investigate, Define, Execute, Adjust.

Here’s what that means, and how to apply it.

Investigate.

In his book, Strategy, Seth Godin writes, “Strategy isn’t a map—it’s a compass.” What he means is that strategy is a direction you travel rather than a geography you inhabit. Finding that direction requires investigation.

But that begs the question: How do you know if your strategy is taking you in the right direction?

In a word, you investigate. You ask hard questions—of your team, your investors, your employees, your customers, and your market. You stress test your assumptions (e.g., “We assume customers value Feature X most highly,” or “We believe this new market segment is ready for our product”). You form hypotheses and then you see whether they stand up under scrutiny, seeking evidence that either validates or refutes your initial thinking.

Every investigation begins with a question, and that question inevitably leads to another question. Inquiry is an iterative task.

In this sense, getting to the right question is a matter of endurance. The process of inquiry is an initiative that asks you to stay in, navigating what some call the ‘Messy Middle’ of exploration and uncertainty until clarity emerges.

The best strategies are born of the best ideas. But the best ideas are refined and enhanced during the process of investigation. Your investigation should be thorough, but it should also be constrained by time. Four weeks is often the optimal length for an initial investigation before needing to move forward. Once this period of rigorous investigation yields a refined and validated concept, the next critical step is to Define it clearly.

Define.

Once the idea has been properly investigated, it must be rigorously defined.

The idea, which has likely changed and deepened since its original conception, has now been proven, through the investigatory process, to have merit beyond the initial assumption. This means the idea must now be expressed into a strategy, and that strategy must be aligned with your goals, both short- and long-term.

For instance, if the investigation revealed a strong market desire for faster support, the defined strategy might include a specific goal to reduce average customer response times by 25% within six months.

When defining your strategy, you must also ensure that it directly ties back to what you’ve learned during the investigation stage.

The process of definition, of expressing your strategy in concrete terms, should feel like the logical next step after you conclude your investigation. You should be able to simply explain to anyone in your organization, should they ask why your strategy is the right one, that you learned this, so you’re doing that.

With a clearly defined strategy rooted in evidence, you can confidently proceed to Execute.

Execute.

As many business leaders before me have elucidated, strategies don’t work without proper execution.

However, building upon that notion, it’s also important to understand that the execution of your strategy must be devised and conducted using the same level of care you employed during the investigation and definition processes.

This means that roles, responsibilities, techniques (like using agile sprints or specific project management methodologies), methods of measurement (such as tracking key performance indicators like conversion rates or customer satisfaction scores), and communication protocols all need to be surfaced and cemented so that the execution of your strategy is deliberate and disciplined.

Execution is about precision.

When you commit to execution with precision, you fulfill the obligation you have to your strategy, by which I mean your idea.

But execution is not the end; the results and learnings gathered here are the vital inputs that allow you to Adapt.

Adapt.

Adaptation is the hallmark of every enduring idea.

Ideas are fluid, dynamic, and they must evolve—grow and expand, or shrink and contract—over time.

They are often a product of a certain moment, and since time marches forward and contexts shift, strategies must be constantly reassessed for relevance.

This adaptation isn’t random; it’s directly informed by the results seen during execution, by listening intently to customers, observing market shifts, and analyzing performance data.

Indeed, the process of adapting is often the trigger for beginning the IDEA framework anew.

Based on new insights or changing conditions, the idea is once again Investigated, Defined, Executed, and continuously Adapted.

The process is circular.

It persists.

Because innovation requires it.

Revision, reimagining, adapting—these are the means that make ideas relevant over the long term.

Ideas become strategies, and strategies become philosophies, and philosophies become ideas again.

This is the process. And it’s how great companies are made.

Every great strategy begins with an idea.

What will yours be?