Strategy Retreat

Three days to build the strategy and the team

A three-day intensive that helps a leadership team build or refine its strategy while building the team itself. It's time away from the "resource" culture to work with each other as people, and it ends with a strategy the team is ready to execute rather than a slide deck someone else wrote. Your team comes back refreshed, informed, and aligned.

Facilitated end-to-end by Corissa Bowman, in and around Denver and Golden, Colorado, or at a location you choose

Three daysStrategy refinement and team dynamics, on one agenda

Leadership teamC-suite with product, UX, and engineering leaders

Denver and GoldenPreferred venues, or your location of choice

Custom agendaBuilt around where your strategy stands today

Who the retreat is for

The people who have to carry the strategy: the C-suite and the product, UX, and engineering leaders who make the calls between planning cycles. It's the right fit if:

Your leadership team agrees on the goal but hasn't made the decisions underneath it, and a standing meeting isn't going to get you there
You've done the market work, or you're ready to, and need to turn it into a strategy the whole company can point at
The team has grown, or changed, and works together as a set of roles more than as a group of people
You want your leaders to come back with decisions made, not a to-do list to make them

How the three days run

The agenda is built for you. Every retreat combines strategy work with the team work that makes the strategy stick, and the balance shifts depending on where you are. A typical shape:

Day 1: where we are

Reconnect as a team, away from the org chart
Take stock of the market, the customer, and the competition
Name the decisions the retreat has to make

Day 2: where we're going

Vision and mission, tested against the market picture
Goals and objectives the team can commit to
The hard trade-offs, made in the room

Day 3: how we get there

Internal and external roadmaps
Owners, sequencing, and what each leader takes back
How the team will keep deciding together after the retreat

The retreat works best as the culmination of a program where we've already worked through the market modules: customer analysis, win/loss interviews, industry and market analysis, target market profiles, user and buyer personas, and the competitive landscape. If you haven't, we can run activities to refresh any of those pieces during the retreat itself, or start with the Market Intelligence series beforehand.

Where it happens

I have preferred venues in and around Denver and Golden, Colorado, and I'll also facilitate at a location of your choosing. For the Colorado options I can recommend lodging based on group size and preferences, some with preferred rates for Phase Won clients, and suggest activities for the evenings if you'd like them.

Juniper, Golden
The Eddy, Golden
The Golden Hotel, Golden

Travel and lodging are arranged separately from the facilitation.

Ways to combine it

With a Strategy Playbook. A two-day playbook workshop produces the vision, market overview, financial landscape, goals, and roadmaps; the retreat refines them with the whole leadership team. Together they're the capstone for a team reaching scale.
With a Foundation Sprint. For a founding or strategy team establishing both the strategy and the team dynamics at once: three days on the founding hypothesis, then three days of retreat.
On its own. If the market work is done and the team is ready, the retreat stands alone. See custom workshops for the full set of sessions it can draw from.

Common questions

How many people should attend?

The leadership team, which is usually six to twelve people across the C-suite, product, UX, and engineering. Small enough that everyone speaks, large enough that the decisions cover the whole business.

Do we have to come to Colorado?

No. The Colorado venues are where I can do the most for you on logistics, but I'll run the retreat wherever your team wants to be.

What if we haven't done the market work?

We can refresh the pieces you need during the retreat, or run the Market Intelligence series first so the retreat starts from evidence. The second option produces a stronger strategy; the first still produces one.

What do we leave with?

A refined strategy, the decisions made to get there, a plan for who carries what, and a team that has practiced deciding together. Plus post-retreat synthesis from me so nothing decided in the room gets lost on the way home.

How do we get started?

Use the contact form or email cbowman@phasewon.net. We'll set up a call to talk through where your strategy stands, who should be in the room, and timing.