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💡 When it comes to annual planning, the fail case is often not coming up with a well-reasoned strategy that is focused. Use this template from the First Round Review annual planning guide to capture the story you’re trying to tell, the areas you’ll invest in (and the ones you won’t), how you stack up against the competition, and the questions you might face from your team.

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<aside> <img src="/icons/telescope_lightgray.svg" alt="/icons/telescope_lightgray.svg" width="40px" /> Vision

“Strategy starts with articulating the story you want to tell the world.”

→ Example from Linktree: Empower anyone to curate and grow their digital universe.

→ Example from Linear: Become the default planning tool for organizations.

→ Example from Webflow: Be the world’s most powerful visual development platform

• What the world looks like for our users and our business 3 years from now:
• What the world looks like for our users and our business 1 year from now: </aside>

<aside> <img src="/icons/token_lightgray.svg" alt="/icons/token_lightgray.svg" width="40px" /> North Star Metric:

Grow ARR by X%

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<aside> <img src="/icons/bookmark-outline_lightgray.svg" alt="/icons/bookmark-outline_lightgray.svg" width="40px" />

Investment Areas for 2025:

Limit your investment areas to 3-5.

“Strategy should hurt. If it doesn't hurt, you’re not setting it effectively.” - Claire Hughes Johnson

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<aside> 1 Investment Area 1:

Example from Webflow: Make our core product great and very scalable.

• Why this is important
• What success looks like </aside>

<aside> 2 Investment Area 2:

Example from Webflow: Target enterprises that want their marketing sites to have beautiful visual design and also be super functional.

• Why this is important
• What success looks like </aside>

<aside> 3 Investment Area 3:

Example from Webflow: Get to those customers by empowering agencies to bring Webflow into these types of companies.

• Why this is important
• What success looks like </aside>

<aside> <img src="/icons/browser-stop_lightgray.svg" alt="/icons/browser-stop_lightgray.svg" width="40px" /> What we are not investing in:

• Example 1
• Example 2
• Example 3 </aside>

<aside> <img src="/icons/warning_lightgray.svg" alt="/icons/warning_lightgray.svg" width="40px" /> Our biggest risks:

• Example 1
• Example 2
• Example 3 </aside>

<aside> <img src="/icons/thought-dialogue_lightgray.svg" alt="/icons/thought-dialogue_lightgray.svg" width="40px" /> FAQs:

• Example: How do we stack up against the competition?
• Example: What verticals/personas are we focusing on?
• Example: How much are we investing in our native mobile app vs. mobile web vs. desktop experiences?
• Example: How are we changing our pricing and packaging? </aside>

<aside> <img src="/icons/bookmark-outline_lightgray.svg" alt="/icons/bookmark-outline_lightgray.svg" width="40px" /> First Round Annual Planning Guide

https://review.firstround.com/annual-planning-sucks-a-cpo-cro-cfo-and-coo-share-advice-on-how-to-make-it-better/

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