strategic planning dashboard template

Strategic Dashboard: How to create one + 5 examples

Strategic Dashboard Overview

Everybody loves a good dashboard. One of the most common questions we get asked here at Cascade is how to create a strategy dashboard? - so today I wanted to answer that, whether or not you're using our cloud-based strategy platform .

Not only that, but we've also included examples of strategy dashboards that you can download and use as inspiration for your own.

Check out Cascade's strategy dashboards and actionable reports feature!

There are 5 different examples of strategy dashboards to check out below!

I'm going to be writing a ton more articles about strategy dashboards in the coming weeks, so consider this a 'strategy dashboards 101' style introduction. Here's a quick list of the dashboards covered:

• Board Dashboards
• Team Dashboards
• Public Dashboards
• Divisional Dashboards
• Dashboards for Your Boss

So let's start with the most important question of all...

Who is the Strategy Dashboard for?

Before getting into the specifics of exactly how to create a strategy dashboard, we need to address the question of audience.

Who your audience is will have a  huge impact on how you go about creating your strategy dashboard. There are two questions you need to ask yourself:

• What role do my audience play? Are they your investors, your team, your board members, etc?
• What type of people are they? Are they analytical, detail-oriented, time-poor, etc?

In reality, question 1 should be easy - but question 2 might be a little harder, given that you might have a bunch of different personality types looking at your dashboard. 

We've decided to structure this article around the most common audiences we are asked about. Even if your own need is slightly different, you'll likely find a close enough match in the list below. 

1) Creating a Strategy Dashboard for Boards

The number one most commonly requested type of strategy dashboard we see our clients needing to build is for board members. This job is often given to the CEO or the Head of Strategy, and the request we get tends to look a bit like this:

I need to create a strategy dashboard for my board . They're very visual people and I want to keep it high level. I don't particularly want them to dig too deep into any particular area of the strategy, but I want to give them enough information so that they have full confidence in what we're doing.

Sound familiar? Let's break this group of people down in a way that will help us to more effectively build a strategy dashboard for them:

What role are they playing?

Boards are there to maintain general accountability for the CEO / senior leaders of an organization. They're interested in the key success factors of the business, and how the strategy is generally progressing.

They're also there to help resolve pinpoint issues that may arise which threaten the organization. CEOs have a responsibility to keep their boards up to date and well informed.

What outcome do you want when they look at your strategy dashboard?

You want to give your board confidence that you're on top of things. That you've given due consideration to the strategy of the organization, and that you're on top of the KPIs and the major issues that could disrupt success.

You want to give them enough information that they feel confident in the depth of your data, but not so much information that they become distracted by detail and lose sight of the bigger strategic picture that you're trying to paint.

You also want them to be aware of and give credit for major wins had by the organization. Finally, you want them to help resolve any major issues that need their attention.

What do you need to consider when you create a strategy dashboard?

Keep in mind the following points when you create your strategy dashboard for the board:

• Boards love visuals. They give the perfect high-level view of how things are going, and are great for showing progress over time.
• The level of detail should be high enough not to overwhelm but detailed enough to not be cursory. Avoid giving zero details as it looks like you have something to hide.
• Boards tend to take a medium to long term view of strategy, so showing progress over time is key.
• Boards often fixate on certain metrics, projects or themes - the 'flavor of the month'. So make sure to cover that in your strategy dashboard.

Here's an example of a Company Overview dashboard in Cascade:

2) Creating a Strategy Dashboard for Your Team

The second most commonly requested type of strategy dashboard we see is a strategy dashboard for your own team:

I need to create a strategy dashboard for my team to use in monthly meetings. I want them to be engaged in the strategy and be able to easily reconcile how their own goals and projects have contributed.

There are a bunch of different reasons why you might want to create a strategy dashboard for your team. Here's how this group of people breaks down:

Your team is the biggest determining factor in whether or not your strategy will succeed. They're working on various goals, projects, and KPIs which are the direct drivers for moving your organization forward.

They won't all necessarily see themselves as directly contributing to the strategy, and will likely have varying degrees of engagement with the strategy as a whole.

The primary outcome of implementing a team strategy dashboard is most likely to be engaged. Strategy dashboards help to keep your team focused on the outcomes  of their work - rather than simply executing their roles mechanically.

Ideally, the dashboard will also help to motivate your team by showing them exactly how they contribute to the strategy of the organization.

Finally, it may also play a more operational role, in that it helps the team share updates to assist with collaboration, and discuss major issues that they need to work on together to resolve.

Keep in mind the following points when you create your strategy dashboard for your team:

• The main focus of the dashboard should be the outcomes that your team are working towards. Steer clear of too much project-level detail and stay more focused on KPIs.
• Use people's names as much as possible in the dashboard to bring accountability and empowerment.
• Ensure each member of the team has their work represented on the dashboard - don't let anyone feel as though their work isn't important enough!
• Keep the time periods that you focus on short - you will likely be having regular catch ups with your team, so looking at year-on-year stats for example will most likely not be engaging if you meet, say, every month.

Here's an example of an Operations dashboard in Cascade:

3) Creating a Strategy Dashboard for the Public

One of the coolest trends we're seeing in the strategy space is the drive towards increased transparency and accountability.

We've had lots of requests from clients to help them build strategy dashboards that they can share outside of their organizations - with the general public.

Typically we see these requests come from non-profits or organizations focused on corporate social responsibility.

We're proud of the work we do and want to share our success stories with our major stakeholders. One of those stakeholders is the public who are our

We love building these types of dashboards at Cascade. Here's a few things about this group of people to keep in mind:

Often when you're creating a public dashboard it's because the public are a major factor in your success. That could simply be because they're customers - but often the relationship is more direct than that.

Maybe you're a charity soliciting donations and want to share the results of your work to help motivate people to donate more? Or maybe you're in an elected office of some kind and want to share with your constituents the progress of major projects that will affect their lives.

Usually, public dashboards will be all about good news stories. You want people to be motivated and impressed by what you're trying to achieve in your strategy. You also (hopefully) want them to see what a great job you're doing at the things you've committed to.

That said, in reality, you won't always be able to communicate a pretty picture, and it's important that your public dashboards also include things that aren't going so well. That will ensure that the overall credibility and integrity of your message remain intact.

Keep in mind the following points when you create your strategy dashboard for a public audience:

• Similar to board dashboards, you want to keep things high level. The public doesn't really need to know the details in and outs of your work, more the overall progress towards your stated outcomes.
• Make sure you don't use any internal jargon-based language in your public dashboard.
• Don't be afraid to include the names of the people who own the projects or KPIs on the dashboard. This helps to bring a human factor to your dashboard which adds to the engagement.
• If you're using public dashboards, it's even more critical to keep your data up to date - so ensure you have regular reminders set to avoid slipping behind and giving a falsely bad impression of the organization.

Here's how you can quickly share your strategy report with your teams and connect it to your dashboard to drive alignment:

4) Creating a Strategy Dashboard for the Division

In larger organizations you might want to showcase the work that your team is doing to other teams or divisions.

We want to show other teams what we're up to strategically, both to educate them but also to help them get more involved in our work if they feel they have something to contribute.

These dashboards tend to be focused around the core purpose of the team as a whole - for example, a 'Marketing Dashboard' or an 'IT Dashboard'. Let's look at the audience for these dashboards:

Your audience here is potentially very broad. It could be senior managers looking at your dashboard to get a sense of how this part of the business is doing.

Or it could be more junior employees in other teams that are interested in the sort of work your team does. As such, these dashboards need a balance of high level information and detail.

You'll want to give people a fairly detailed look at what your team is doing. This is an internal dashboard so you can share a fair amount of information. That said, you don't want to over-share details of sensitive projects and end up creating doubts or worries for other people or teams.

You want people to feel confident that you're on top of things, but also leave the door open to them to offer help and support for your outcomes. You might also want to use these dashboards as a way of attracting awesome internal talent to your team.

Keep in mind the following points when you create your strategy dashboard to represent your team or division:

• Include the major projects that your team is working on.
• If possible, include some high-level KPIs that reflect the things your team considers important to track. Try to keep these relatable for people not in the team.
• If possible, add a fun element to the dashboard that goes beyond a simple project or KPI measurements (in the Marketing example below we hooked up a live feed of the company Twitter account).
• Consider including some information about how people can get involved with your team or division - maybe a calendar of events or even a fun update from your last team social event!

5) Creating a Strategy Dashboard for your Boss

Last but not least, creating a strategy dashboard for your boss - both the easiest and the hardest dashboard of them all to create...

My boss is a very particular type of person. She loves seeing detail and graphs. I want a dashboard that will impress the socks off of her and get me that pay rise I've been hankering after...!

A big driver of how you create this dashboard is going to be your boss's personality. Are they analytical or theoretical? Data-driven or word-obsessed? Think about this before you embark on the design of your new dashboard.

Remember that your own success is the primary driver of your boss's success. You share vested interests and their role should be to help guide you towards delivering awesome outcomes.

That said, they are also the one responsible for your career progression and are constantly assessing your performance.

If things are going well, you'll want that to come across. That said, if you're experiencing challenges, these need to come across too so that your boss can help you to resolve them.

You'll also want the dashboard to facilitate any conversations you need to have with your boss around expectation setting.

Keep in mind the following points when you create your strategy dashboard for your boss:

• The main focus of the dashboard should be a) Major goal status updates and b) Issue resolution.
• Include a brief summary of the things you've achieved and the things you'll be focusing on in the next month or so.
• Give them a high level breakdown of where you're spending your time and how it's contributing to the strategy.
• Be sure to raise any issues with which you need your boss's help, to get them on-board with solving your problems.

Yep, you guessed it, all of the strategy dashboard examples on this page were created live in Cascade - the tool for creating strategy dashboards. Try it out for FREE!

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Impress Your Boss with these 6 Strategic Dashboard Examples

Are you looking to impress clients with your reporting? 

You've come to the right place.

In this article, you’ll learn what a strategic dashboard is and what it’s not. We’ll also look at six beautiful strategic dashboard examples and how to create one of your own.

What are Strategic Dashboards?

• 6 Strategic Dashboard Examples
• - Executive Report Template
• - Digital Marketing Report Template
• - SEO Report Template
• - Ecommerce Report Template
• - Social Media Report Template
• - PPC Report Template

How to Create a Strategic Dashboard?

• Create Your Strategic Dashboards with DashThis Today

Strategic dashboards are interactive reports, usually created by a data visualization analytics tool, that show a business performance over a specific time on a high-level scale.

Note the healthcare performance dashboard below. 

Designed on DashThis , an automated reporting tool, it tells us how SEO and Google Ads impact the number of appointment forms received. The average Google rating acts as a scorecard, boosting customer trust and conversions.

Grab this healthcare marketing report with your own data!

Unlike operational dashboards that drill down the day-to-day operations in real-time, strategic dashboards show a bird’s-eye view of the business as a whole . Other similar dashboards include tactical dashboards and analytical dashboards.

Strategic dashboards simplify data management. Take this sales report template below.

It combines a myriad of key performance indicators (KPIs) from multiple channels and transforms them into a single report for stress-free data analysis and strategic planning (side note: you can aggregate all data in the same widgets or create different ones on DashThis).

Now, let’s look at the following six strategic dashboard examples . 

Strategic dashboards are one of the most important types of dashboards in marketing campaigns. Start your first 15-day free trial of DashThis to unlock vital insights about your marketing performance today.

6 Strategic Dashboard Examples and Templates

Executive report template.

It's a high-pressure job being a CEO.

On top of working with the leadership team to plan their strategic goals and drive new launches, they also need to own performance metrics, among others. 

The following business metrics dashboard shows how far the company is performing in its business strategy at a glance.

Grab this business executive report with your own data!

Using visual business dashboards like these, C-suite executives can analyze their company’s data analytics and efficiently understand how every channel is linked in a marketing campaign.

To end the executive report with high-level suggestions, go to Static Widgets > Comments and type away:

You no longer have to go back and forth in emails and reports with your clients.

Digital Marketing Report Template

Digital marketers spend most of their days executing strategic initiatives and collaborating with internal and external stakeholders.

It’s often a challenge getting clients to understand the key metrics, let alone getting them on board with new ideas.

Fortunately, the digital marketing report below uses a sleek dashboard design to convey the traffic and sales performance instantly. Note the colorful graphs that pinpoint the best-performing channels over a specific time.

Grab this digital marketing report with your own data!  

If you want to ditch poor-performing channels and focus only on those that work, make your case with this dashboard.

Instead of an Excel spreadsheet with intimidating data sets, clients see eye-catching key metrics, and who knows, they might give you the green light. 

To change the metrics’ style, hover over the widget and click Edit Widget > Data Display . For example, here’s how it looks when changing a line graph chart:

SEO Report Template 

The leads attracted from SEO can often feel like free marketing to the untrained marketer. But what they don’t know is that it requires a ton of effort, even for well-funded businesses. 

Use this website SEO report to keep yourself accountable and stay ahead of the pack. 

Grab this SEO & backlinks report with your own data!  

With a strategic dashboard like this, you can quickly set an SEO benchmark, prove the impact of organic traffic to clients, and suggest ideas to improve the metrics every month.

Ecommerce Report Template

Today, customers expect more personalized shopping experiences, so much so that those that provide them will win their loyalty for life.

Analyze these ecommerce metrics as you tweak your human-centric ecommerce strategy to boost sales and retention:

  Grab this ecommerce report with your own data ! 

Use the ecommerce strategic dashboard as a roadmap to put customers at the center of your shopping experience and increase revenue.

Social Media Report Template

When misused, social media is a cesspool of misinformation. But when used correctly, it can be a powerful magnet to engage prospective customers.

In your social media marketing dashboards , set your social media analytics in context to tell a story to all project management stakeholder s :

Grab this social media report with your own data ! 

Whether you want to 10X your best-performing channels or focus more on creating user-generated content, this social media management dashboard will back up your plan.

PPC Report Template 

Even though PPC requires constant building and optimization, it’s still very much a popular favorite for attracting immediate results.

Use the KPI dashboard below to understand customer behavior and unearth tactic-rich ideas: 

Grab this PPC report with your own data ! 

Better yet, use the revenue from your PPC campaigns to optimize the pages that rank organically for the exact keywords.

You’ll see a bigger ROI in the long run.

Setting up a strategic dashboard requires only a few quick clicks on DashThis:

• Connect your favorite data sources  
• Pick a report from 40+ free strategic dashboard templates
• Select your metrics from Preset Widgets

Drag and drop the widgets to paint a clearer picture of what’s happening in the business.

Add notes within your report via the dashboard software. For example, if you need to explain an irregular graph in the sales dashboard to decision-makers, hover over the widget and click Add Note > Save .

After creating the strategic dashboard, click Sharing Options to send it to all stakeholders.

You can even automate your dashboard reporting. Choose the frequency from daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly.   

Start your free 15-day trial of DashThis to gather all data in one automated report today.

Create Your Strategic Dashboards with DashThis Today 

An executive dashboard that speeds up decision-making.

A comprehensive SEO dashboard that helps you come up with a plan to compete with the big players.

And finally, an eCommerce report chock-full of human-centric metrics that help you win customers for life. 

These strategic dashboard examples boast rich insights that 10X your business.

 Ready to create one of your own?

Start your free 15-day trial of DashThis today.

DashThis is the power behind thousands of reporting dashboards created by and delivered for agencies and digital marketers every month. 

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Free Strategic Planning Templates

By Joe Weller | May 16, 2018

Link copied

The success of your organization — no matter what size or industry — depends on the thoroughness of your planning and vision. A strategic plan can provide a roadmap for accomplishing specific goals, and will increase your chances of reaching objectives on time and budget. In this article, we’ve rounded up the top strategic planning templates in Microsoft Word and Excel, all of which are free to download and fully customizable.

Additionally, we've provided customizable strategic planning templates in Smartsheet, a collaborative, real-time work execution platform that empowers you to better plan, manage, and report on strategic initiatives.

Strategic Business Plan Template

Download Strategic Business Plan Template

Excel | Smartsheet

A comprehensive, strategic business plan may include company information, SWOT analysis, research, goals, resources, risks and more. A template provides structure for your business planning process as well as a communication tool that’s simple to update or modify. Use the template as a guide for evaluating your business, identifying opportunities for growth and development, and creating a strategic plan.

See how Smartsheet can help you be more effective

Watch the demo to see how you can more effectively manage your team, projects, and processes with real-time work management in Smartsheet.

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Nonprofit Strategic Plan Template

Download Nonprofit Strategic Plan Template

A nonprofit strategic plan often emphasizes vision, values, and mission as the foundation for future objectives. A template can be used to clearly define who is being served and what issues need to be addressed. As with a business plan, nonprofit planning may include sections for evaluating risks and opportunities, measuring financial resources, developing a marketing plan, and creating objectives for organizational change.

HR Strategic Plan Template

‌ Download HR Strategic Plan Template

Create a detailed human resources strategic plan for your organization, or modify the template to focus on one specific area, such as recruitment or employee relations. Use the template to translate strategies into measurable action plans. This simple layout makes it easy for readers to quickly view key information.

IT Strategic Planning Template

‌ Download IT Strategic Planning Template

IT is an essential part of any business, nonprofit, school, or government agency. While information technology is just one part of an overall business strategy, creating a separate strategic plan for IT will help ensure that you have a comprehensive roadmap to follow for managing and purchasing new assets, understanding your current and potential technology usage, and aligning your IT goals with business objectives.

Strategic Marketing Plan Template

‌ Download Strategic Marketing Plan Template

Use this free template to help shape your marketing strategy. It combines information on your target market and business with marketing tactics to help you think strategically and create a plan of action. The template can guide your research process or be used as a simple brainstorming tool.

Social Media Strategy Plan Template

‌ Download Social Media Strategy Plan Template

Social media is an integral part of online marketing, and creating a strategic plan can help ensure that you are using your time and resources effectively. Consider your branding, mission, target audience, competition and other factors to determine which social networks and types of content will perform best for your company. Keep track of KPIs and adjust your social media plan accordingly.

SWOT Analysis Strategy Template

‌ Download SWOT Analysis Strategy Template

This matrix template combines SWOT analysis with strategic planning. Examine the relationships between your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, and then list related strategies to tackle your goals. The layout of this template allows you to view the SWOT categories and strategies side-by-side, which may be useful for a presentation or summary.

One-Page Strategic Planning Template

Download One-Page Strategic Planning Template

Excel | Word | Smartsheet

A one-page strategic plan is perfect for small businesses or for summarizing a longer planning process. Use this template as is, or edit the layout or included information to better suit your needs. This template includes all the essentials on one page, including values, strengths and weaknesses, goals, and actions.

Strategic Vision Template

Download Strategic Vision Template

Excel | Word

Summarize your strategic vision and plan, highlighting key information for stakeholders, management, investors, or for your own reference. Combining a vision statement with a brief summary of goals, actions and KPIs makes it easy to see how your business values and purpose relate to your objectives. It also provides a succinct summary for use in a presentation or meeting.

University Strategic Plan Outline

‌ Download University Strategic Plan Outline

This template provides an outline for university strategy planning. The actual strategic plan may cover multiple pages and provide an in-depth analysis and detailed mission and vision statements. Strategic planning is an opportunity for universities to look closely at campus needs, institutional values, infrastructure, long-term goals, important obstacles, and more. The strategic plan will be a guiding document that is reviewed and updated regularly.

What Is Strategic Planning?

Strategic planning is an organization’s process for defining their strategy so that they can accomplish specific goals and objectives. Strategic planning may be utilized on a large scale, such as planning for business growth over several years or to help a nonprofit or governmental organization reach its stated mission. A strategic plan can also be used on a smaller scale, such as crafting a marketing plan or developing strategy for the goals of one department within a business or organization. It is important to note that strategy is distinct from planning: While strategy looks at why certain steps should be taken, a plan outlines how to enact those steps. strategic planning marries these two concepts in order to determine the best possible course of action. The purpose of strategic planning is to provide a thoughtful, deliberate approach to reaching objectives based on an in-depth analysis of both internal and external factors affecting an organization.

A strategic plan often covers multiple years, addressing both short- and long-term goals. It also provides a way of tracking progress and measuring success. However, it’s not a document that is fixed in stone — instead, it’s wise to revisit and adjust a strategic plan periodically based on the evolving vision, objectives, needs, and resources of a business or institution.

Depending on the scope of your plan, you may be working with a team of multiple stakeholders during the strategic planning process. To keep the process running smoothly, make roles and responsibilities clear. Different parties may be responsible for providing data, reviewing the plan, or authorizing strategic decisions. As you prepare for planning, make sure all participants understand what’s involved in the process and have received any relevant information prior to meeting.

Benefits of Strategic Planning

There are benefits of strategic planning, including the following:

• Align the goals of a department or project with larger business goals
• Provide clear communication to team members, stakeholders, or clients
• Clearly define the vision and mission of an organization
• Provide clarity on how to deal with internal or environmental changes

Parts of a Strategic Plan

One way to think about strategic planning is that it identifies any gaps between a current state and desired future state, and then dictates how to close those gaps — how you get from where you are to where you want to be. To that end, various factors are taken into consideration in order to formulate an effective plan. Here are some of the elements often included in a strategic plan.

• Introductory Statement: The introductory statement should briefly describe why the strategic plan was developed and for what time period, and list the authors of the plan.  
• Background Statement: This section may provide information about the organization, such as history, management structure, and supporting partners or agencies. Alternatively, you could use this section as a brief business statement — more of an elevator pitch — to concisely describe your business.  
• Organizational Structure: Include this information if it’s relevant to evaluate how your business or organization operates and is structured, from governing board to staffing.  
• Vision: A vision statement should briefly describe what a company wants to achieve or become. This is one of the primary organizational tenets to consider, along with values and mission.  
• Values: These are the principles that an organization stands for and abides by. Many businesses create core value statements to guide company culture.  
• Mission Statement: A mission statement describes the purpose of a business or organization. This is distinct from a vision statement because it is not a projected goal for the future.  
• Problem Statement: Some plans include a problem statement, which can outline key or discrete issues that need to be addressed.  
• SWOT Analysis: A SWOT analysis provides a foundation and context for developing strategy by examining the strengths and weaknesses within and organization as well as external opportunities and threats.  
• Goals: As stated earlier, a strategic plan may include long-term as well as short-term (i.e, monthly or quarterly) goals. Objectives should be measurable and broken down into actionable steps, and the action plan for each goal should specify who is responsible for implementing the strategy, a timeline for starting and ending the action, and how the outcome will be evaluated.  
• Evaluation: Methods for evaluation should be spelled out in the strategic plan. This could include tracking key performance indicators (KPIs) and documenting the progress of action steps on an ongoing basis.  
• Executive Summary : This final summary helps employees, investors, or other readers quickly understand your plan.

No matter what type of strategic plan you are working on, using a template provides a simple and quick outline to organize your process. In the following sections, you’ll find free, downloadable planning templates for business, nonprofit, human resources, marketing, IT strategic planning, and more.

Simple, powerful project management with Smartsheet. See for yourself.

Smartsheet is a cloud-based platform that allows teams and organizations to plan, manage, and report on projects, helping you move faster and achieve more. See Smartsheet in action.  

Create More Collaborative, Real-Time Strategic Plans with Smartsheet

Empower your people to go above and beyond with a flexible platform designed to match the needs of your team — and adapt as those needs change. 

The Smartsheet platform makes it easy to plan, capture, manage, and report on work from anywhere, helping your team be more effective and get more done. Report on key metrics and get real-time visibility into work as it happens with roll-up reports, dashboards, and automated workflows built to keep your team connected and informed. 

When teams have clarity into the work getting done, there’s no telling how much more they can accomplish in the same amount of time.  Try Smartsheet for free, today.

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Strategic planning dashboards to run strategy reviews with zero prep., this isn’t your everyday strategic planning dashboard. this is a dynamic view of key performance indicators and progress against effort..

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Strategic planning dashboard to drive reviews and build a culture of performance.

Strategic planning dashboards bring data to life. no cells, no formulas, no hassle..

Interactive displays of your data provide insight into the key performance indicators driving your success. It’s all real-time and requires absolutely no configuration.

Automate the data collection for monthly and quarterly strategy reviews. No prep required.

Update your data, and the strategic planning dashboard automatically pulls in your data. When you refresh your plan, the dynamic dashboard reflects your changes.

Share and embed your strategic planning dashboards anywhere.

Embed your dashboard, or share a link for transparency around strategic performance.

Run reviews with a planning expert in your corner.

Our software comes with a dedicated expert consultant AND software. We’ll help you stand up your review process and run your quarterly refreshes with the strategic planning dashboard.

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Build and implement your strategic plan today. or, take a free video tour., forget the suits and the ivy-league mbas..

We’re a team of low-ego experts serious about supporting your strategy, OKRs, and organizational results. Meet a few of our experts:

Erica’s Accomplishments & Experience

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• Construction
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• Brycon Corporation
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Erica Olsen

Ceo/co-founder, jeff’s accomplishments & experience.

• Technology & SaaS
• Professional Service Organizations
• Intuit, IBM
• Miller Heiman
• Maryland Food Bank, Outdoor Industry Association
• YMCA, Reno Rodeo Association

Jeff Brunings

Senior strategist, kim’s accomplishments & experience.

• Non-Profits
• University of Santa Cruz, Oxford School District
• Ronald McDonald House Charities

Kim Perkins

Kamryn’s accomplishments & experience.

• Government/IT
• Agriculture
• The King Center, Regional Foodbank of OK
• City and County of SF, Digital Service
• Costa Farms

Kamryn Mock

Engagement lead & strategist, leigh’s accomplishments & experience.

• Technology and SaaS
• Colobus Hospital
• Smithsonian
• US Marshals Services, Canada Revenue

Leigh Abbott

Frequently asked questions, we help ceos, chief strategy officers, executive directors, and superintendents create sustainable growth and impact through strategic planning and agile implementation. here are some of our most frequently asked questions..

A strategic planning dashboard is a dynamic display of your strategic plan’s performance data, OKRs, and KPIs. It helps you visualize your plan’s data and run strategy reviews to assess what’s working in your strategy, what isn’t, and where your focus needs to be.

You can embed your dashboard onto a webpage of your site using a pre-built HTML embed code, or you can share a link to whomever you want.

Yes! You can filter the dashboard by goal level, team members, department, strategic objective, or status! Advanced filtering features make it easy to drill down and visualize your strategic plan data.

Our dashboards are automated to update once your team puts their results into OnStrategy

Our strategic planning dashboard comes paired with access to our real-life strategy experts who can assist you or coach you with whatever your needs are.

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Strategic Plan Template

Use this free Strategic Plan Template for Word to manage your projects better.

When a company wants to map out its long-term business objectives and how it’ll get there, they use a strategic plan. Our free strategic plan template captures all topics that any company needs to define, so everything is aligned with the overall mission and vision of the company. More than that, the free strategic plan template guides you through the actions, resources and costs that will help you get there.

What Is a Strategic Plan?

A strategic plan is a document that company leaders use to capture the company’s future vision, goals and objectives. Unlike a business plan that focuses on short-term goals of serval months to several years, a strategic plan looks at the mid-to-long-term goals such as 3-5 years but is often longer than that.

The strategic plan should be easily shared as it provides a map for the whole company to follow in order to meet its goals. The strategic plan isn’t only shared, but it’s thoroughly understood by company employees, customers, business partners and investors.

Strategic planning and the strategic plan that comes from this process isn’t a one-time occurrence. Teams should conduct strategic planning regularly to quickly respond to changes in the business, industry, legal and regulatory conditions. As conditions shift, so should the response plans.

Why You Need a Strategic Plan Template

A strategic plan template is a great tool in that it’s already laid out for you. Everything you need to define is outlined and saves you the time and effort of creating a new document. Templates are great for creating an archive of consistent documentation, especially as historical data can influence your current strategic plan.

In more general terms, all businesses need a target or direction to work towards. Strategic plans are like the roadmap that gets you there and defines the landscape. If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll never know when you get there. That’s true from the highest executive to the newest employee as well as customers, investors and so on.

Strategic plans also help you track your goals across departments. Each department can then set its own goals to help the business achieve its larger goals. These various initiatives can be monitored and tracked with key performance indicators (KPIs). This can be extended to business units, teams and even individuals so everyone is working towards the same goals.

A strategic plan template is only a static document. To implement that plan you need project management software. ProjectManager has online roadmaps that allow you to manage all the projects that feed into your company’s overall mission. You can track your tasks, budgets, resources, processes and more, so you know you’re always progressing. Of course, you can build a strategic plan with milestones in the software, too. Try ProjectManager today for free.

Who Should Use This Strategic Plan Template?

The free strategic plan template can be filled in by any number of people depending on the business. Usually, though, this responsibility falls on the shoulders of the owner or top business managers.

However, sometimes specialists are employed or the whole company becomes involved in the strategic planning process. In fact, more voices provide a wider perspective. One person should oversee refining those different perspectives in order to rein in the possible chaos of too many chefs in the kitchen.

Once the strategic plan is finalized, it should be shared among the company. The strategic plan template acts as a guide to keep the long-term goal in sight and how to get there. For some businesses, the customer should also be aware of the strategic plan. Other companies will want to share the strategic plan with investors.

How to Use This Strategic Plan Template

When you download our free strategic plan template for Word, you’ll find it’s broken up into sections. The free template is completely customizable so you can add or subtract as many sections as you need to flesh out your strategic plan. What we provide you with is the backbone of any thorough strategic plan, which is as follows.

1. Executive Summary

To start, you want to summarize what will follow. That’s all the executive summary is; a short introduction to the important information that’ll be fleshed out in the strategic plan. It gives an overview to investors and stakeholders.

2. Vision Statement

A vision statement is a statement that declares the mid-to-long-term goals of the company. Think of it as the target you want to hit with your strategic plan. What this statement should do is project your company into the future and in so doing help to define the plan and execution of getting you there.

3. Mission Statement

The mission statement is a short description of the purpose of the company. It should be no longer than one to three sentences at most and explain what the company does, who it serves and how it’s different from its competitors. But more than a dry definition, it should be inspirational, offering direction and focus for employees and giving customers a clear picture of what they can expect from the company.

4. SWOT Analysis

SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. A SWOT analysis is used to assess those four aspects of the company. This is how a company can capture its current performance and build a strategy to achieve its future goals. But beyond internal factors or charting the company, make sure to explore external factors as well. This provides a fuller picture of how a company can carve a route to reach its objectives.

5. Business Goals

Business goals should define the target that a company is aiming for in the future. By doing this, a company has a way to measure its success, communicate these goals to its employees and ensure the company is going in the right direction.

6. Marketing Plan

The marketing plan outlines a company’s advertising strategy. It can be used to generate leads and reach a target audience, outreach and PR campaigns. Also included is how the company will measure the effectiveness of the initiatives.

• Market research:  Uses competitive analysis, testing, surveys, etc., to determine the target audience and what needs the company is fulfilling or pain point it’s resolving.
• Marketing campaigns: These include promotions, value propositions, differentiation factors, pricing, distribution channels, etc., to see the product or service.
• Marketing KPIs: Using various metrics will help the company measure the success of its campaigns.

7. Operations Plan

The operation plan is an outline of the strategic plan’s goals and how the company plans to meet them. It’s an action plan that shows team members what they’re responsible for in achieving the goals of the strategic plan.

8. Financial Projections

When making financial projections for a company’s strategic plans they should include a forecast of the income statement, the balance sheet and the cash flow statement. These financial projects like the strategic plan are mid-to-long term.

Identify the team members with the skills and experience who will be responsible for executing the operational plan set forth in the company’s strategic plan.

Other Templates to Help with Your Strategic Plan

The free strategic plan document template for Word is a helpful tool to outline a company’s mid-to-long-term objectives. We have dozens of other free templates for Word and Excel that can help you manage every phase of a project, from planning to closure. Here are just a few of the free templates that we offer for download that are related to strategic planning.

Executive Summary Template

If you need help with the executive summary portion of the free strategic plan template, this free executive summary template is a great asset. It breaks down the points you’ll want to capture for an effective executive summary and is a valuable tool to complete that section of the strategic plan.

Marketing Campaign Template

The marketing plan is another section of the strategic plan that can be fully fleshed out with the free marketing campaign template. It outlines all the steps you need to introduce your product or service to market. It has fields to collect the goals of the campaign, identify the target audience and much more.

SWOT Analysis Template 

We’ve included a small SWOT analysis table in the free strategic plan template, but you might want more space to capture this important data. If so, use our free SWOT analysis template for Word, which you can then attach to the strategic plan template. This colorful template helps you see where you are and offer guidance to get you where you want to be.

ProjectManager Is a Robust Planning Tool

Free templates are a great way to gather information and develop a strategic plan, but they’re not as good at managing that plan once you implement it. You need more robust tools, not static documents or spreadsheets. ProjectManager is online project management software that connects teams and helps them plan, manage and track their progress in real time.

Track Progress with Real-Time Dashboards

You’ve put the strategic plan in the Gantt chart and can now see the roadmap in a visual timeline. But to make sure you keep to that schedule you need to have a way to monitor progress and performance. Our real-time dashboards track metrics such as time, cost and more all in real time so you can respond quickly to changes that threaten your goals. Unlike other lightweight tools, there’s no configuration or set. It’s ready when you are.

Work How You Want with Multiple Project Views

Gantt charts are great for managers, but they’re not the ones who are will execute the strategic plan. It’s a group effort that involves every department in the company from marketing and sales to IT and manufacturing, and they all use different tools. That’s why we offer multiple project views that share the same real-time data whether you’re using a list view, the visual workflow of a kanban or a calendar to capture important dates. Everyone is working from a single source of truth.

Related Content

Strategic planning is a big subject and we’ve only scratched the surface. If you want to learn more, you’re in luck. ProjectManager isn’t only a great tool to create and manage your strategic plan, it’s also the online hub for all things project management. We have free blogs each week, tutorial videos, eBooks, white pages and, of course, free templates. Here are a few links to follow and read more about strategic plans.

• 15 Free Word and Excel Templates for Business
• Strategic Planning in Business
• Strategic Planning Models: An Introduction to 5 Popular Models
• A Quick Guide to Strategic Initiatives 

ProjectManager Helps You Reach Your Strategic Goals

ProjectManager is award-winning software that helps you plan, manage and track your strategic plans. Our collaborative platform connects everyone across departments and time zones. With features that help you manage risk, tasks and resources you’re more likely to adjust to changes in the market and hit your target. See why teams in organizations as varied as NASA, Siemens and Nestle use our tool to deliver success. Get started with ProjectManager today for free.

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Deliver faster, collaborate better, innovate more effectively — without the high prices and months-long implementation and extensive training required by other products.

Everything you need to deliver your plans, manage strategy and report progress.

• Customizable plan structure
• Automated and on-demand progress reports
• Auto-reminders and checklists

Centralize, analyze and visualize your performance data. Align performance measures with plans.

• Centralized performance data
• Scorecards and interactive dashboards
• Slice and dice for new insights

Manage, deliver, and communicate projects. Align projects with plans for end-to-end visibility and reporting.

• Gantt view of projects, tasks and dependencies
• Interactive maps and dashboards
• Plan alignment and reporting

Share your strategy story with external stakeholders via customizable public dashboards.

• Progress dashboards with roll-up reporting
• Matched to your branding
• Fully ADA Compliant

Strategy and Performance Management Integrations Learn More

Visualize and share your story with a dashboard

Publish a dashboard and use data, visualizations, scorecards, and progress updates to tell your story to your community or key stakeholders. Build trust and manage expectations as you communicate progress for each plan or department to inform staff, partners, volunteers, or residents.

Embrace transparency

Build trust in your administration by sharing your strategic priorities and progress. This is particularly important for public sector organizations that want to build trust with their communities. Publish beautiful, interactive strategy dashboards that can include both progress updates and performance measures. Embed your dashboard into your website to make it easy to find.

Keep stakeholders informed

Spend less time defending your decisions and more time getting stuff done. Envisio’s public dashboards give your external stakeholders the ability to see what you’re working on and when it will be delivered. You get to choose how your story is told by choosing what gets shared both internal and externally. Your stakeholders get answers 24/7.

Everything you need to publish your community dashboard

Share anywhere.

Publish your dashboard to a web page so you can link to it from anywhere. No plug-ins needed.

Measures & updates

Include both performance measures and progress updates. Qualitative and quantitative.

Interactive

Dashboard users can drill into the areas of most interest, expand charts and even download data.

Highlight key messages, accomplishments or changes with a dashboard newsfeed.

Turnkey system

Get started without the need for IT resources. Publish your dashboard within days.

Mobile responsive

Public dashboards are fully mobile responsive so they look great on any device.

Updates on command

You decide when progress updates and performance data are pulled in from your plan.

Fully customizable

Choose exactly what gets shared. Edit text for clarity to the public. Align the design with your branding.

ADA compliant

All Envisio public dashboards are fully ADA compliant (WCAG 2.1 AA conformant)

WATCH: STRATEGIC PLAN DASHBOARDS IN ACTION

Discover the power of an envisio dashboard.

Watch as four cities present their Envisio-powered dashboards to council members for the first time! (2-minute watch).

VISIT: STRATEGIC PLAN DASHBOARDS IN ACTION

Example, live strategic plan dashboards.

See how other public sector organizations are using public dashboards from Envisio to engage staff, execute strategy, and build trust through transparency.

City of Edina, MN

Climate Action Plan Dashboard

Washington County, OR

ARPA Performance Dashboard

Northeast Ohio Medical University, OH

2020-2025 Strategic Plan Dashboard: Creating Transformational Leaders

New Orleans Public Library, LA

2022-2024 Operational Plan Dashboard – Transforming Lives | Enriching Neighborhoods | Preserving History

Get ADA compliant

We are committed to making information accessible to everyone, including those with a physical or visual disability. Envisio public dashboards are fully ADA compliant and conform with WCAG 2.1 AA guidelines.

" City management has described the Envisio dashboards as a “game changer” in how we treat data as an asset in the decision-making process. We’ve also created a customer report card, providing a visualization of organization-wide point-of-service surveys, and a strategic plan report card, providing a visualization of achievement towards strategic goals—available both internally and externally. "

Aimee Kaslik, City of Irving, TX

Case studies.

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