Thread by @socialwithaayan

Harvard Business School charges $200K to teach you how to think like a strategist.

I built the same thinking system in one afternoon

Here are the 10 Claude Opus 4.6 prompts behind it:

1/ The Porter's Five Forces Analyzer

You are a Harvard Business School professor who has taught competitive strategy for 20 years. I need a complete Porter's Five Forces analysis that gives me the same strategic clarity an MBA case study produces.

Please provide:

- Threat of new entrants: Capital requirements to enter, economies of scale advantages, brand loyalty barriers, regulatory or licensing hurdles, access to distribution channels, proprietary technology protection, expected retaliation from incumbents, overall entry threat rating (1-10)
- Supplier power: Number of suppliers available, switching costs between suppliers, supplier concentration vs. industry concentration, threat of forward integration by suppliers, importance of volume to each supplier, overall supplier power rating (1-10)
- Buyer power: Buyer concentration and purchase volume, price sensitivity and its drivers, switching costs for buyers, threat of backward integration, information asymmetry between buyer and seller, overall buyer power rating (1-10)
- Threat of substitutes: Availability of substitute products or services, relative price and performance of substitutes, buyer propensity to switch, switching costs to substitutes, overall substitution threat rating (1-10)
- Competitive rivalry: Number and relative size of competitors, industry growth rate, product differentiation, fixed cost structure and exit barriers, diversity of competitor strategies, overall rivalry intensity rating (1-10)
- Industry attractiveness score: Weighted composite score across all five forces with interpretation
- Strategic implications: For each force, the one action a company in this industry should take to improve its position
- Dominant force identification: Which single force most determines profitability in this industry and why
- Positioning recommendation: Where in this industry structure would I build the most defensible, profitable position

Format as a strategy consulting deliverable with force ratings, evidence for each rating, and ranked strategic recommendations.

Industry or business: [DESCRIBE YOUR INDUSTRY OR COMPANY]
My position in the market: [WHERE YOU SIT IN THE VALUE CHAIN]

2/ The Blue Ocean Strategy Builder

You are a strategy consultant trained in Blue Ocean Strategy methodology. I need to find uncontested market space where competition becomes irrelevant rather than fighting harder in existing markets.

Please provide:

- Current red ocean assessment: Where is my industry competing intensely right now, what are the standard battlegrounds everyone fights on
- Strategy canvas: Map the current industry on 8-10 competing factors, show where all players converge on the same profile
- Four actions framework:
→ Eliminate: Which factors the industry competes on that deliver no real value to customers and should be removed entirely
→ Reduce: Which factors are overdelivered relative to what customers actually need and should be scaled back
→ Raise: Which factors should be raised well above the industry standard because customers actually value them
→ Create: Which factors have never been offered in this industry that a new buyer segment would pay for
- New value curve: Describe the resulting strategic profile after applying the four actions and how it diverges from competitors
- Non-customer analysis: The three tiers of non-customers (soon-to-be, refusing, unexplored) and what would bring each tier in
- New market opportunity: The specific uncontested space identified and who the new customer is
- Tipping point leadership: The cognitive, political, motivational, and resource hurdles to executing this shift
- Blue ocean metrics: What success looks like in the new market space and how to measure it

Format as a Blue Ocean strategy report with strategy canvas description, four actions table, and new market opportunity brief.

Industry: [YOUR INDUSTRY]
Current offering: [WHAT YOU SELL TODAY]
Frustrations with current competition: [WHERE COMPETING IS MOST PAINFUL]

3/ The Jobs to Be Done Framework

You are a product strategy expert trained in Clayton Christensen's Jobs to Be Done theory. I need to understand what customers are truly hiring my product to do so I can build something they cannot live without.

Please provide:

- Functional job identification: The practical task the customer is trying to accomplish when they hire my product
- Emotional job identification: How the customer wants to feel during and after using my product
- Social job identification: How the customer wants to be perceived by others as a result of using my product
- Current hire analysis: What product or behavior is the customer using today to get this job done, including non-obvious alternatives
- Job satisfaction gaps: Where does the current solution fail the customer most painfully, what is left undone
- Desired outcomes mapping: The metrics the customer uses to evaluate whether the job has been done successfully (faster, cheaper, more reliably, with less effort)
- Underserved outcomes: Desired outcomes where current solutions perform poorly and customer dissatisfaction is highest
- Overserved outcomes: Where current solutions deliver more than customers need, creating an opening for a simpler, cheaper alternative
- Job executor profile: Exactly who performs this job, in what context, under what constraints
- Product implications: What features, experiences, and messaging directly follow from understanding the true job being hired for
- Hiring trigger: The moment and circumstance that causes a customer to actively seek a solution

Format as a JTBD analysis report with job statements, outcome inventory, satisfaction gap map, and product direction recommendations.

Product or service: [DESCRIBE WHAT YOU OFFER]
Target customer: [WHO YOU SERVE]

4/ The McKinsey 7-S Framework Audit

You are a McKinsey organizational effectiveness consultant. I need a complete 7-S analysis to diagnose misalignment in my organization and build a transformation roadmap.

Please provide:

- Strategy: Current strategic direction, clarity of goals, how well strategy is understood and owned across the organization
- Structure: Organizational design, reporting lines, centralization vs. decentralization, decision-making authority distribution
- Systems: Core business processes, technology systems, performance measurement, financial controls, information flows
- Shared values: Stated vs. actual values, cultural norms that drive behavior, what the organization truly rewards and punishes
- Style: Leadership approach, management behaviors, how decisions actually get made vs. how they are supposed to be made
- Staff: Talent composition, capability gaps, hiring and development practices, retention patterns
- Skills: Core organizational competencies, distinctive capabilities, skills gaps relative to strategic requirements
- Alignment assessment: Rate alignment between each pair of S elements (1-10) and identify the most misaligned pair
- Root misalignment: The single deepest misalignment causing the most organizational drag
- Transformation sequence: In what order to address misalignments to avoid creating new problems while fixing existing ones
- 90-day intervention plan: Specific actions for the highest-priority misalignment with owners and success metrics

Format as an organizational diagnostic report with alignment matrix, root cause analysis, and prioritized transformation roadmap.

Organization type: [STARTUP / SCALE-UP / ENTERPRISE / TEAM WITHIN LARGER COMPANY]
Current challenge: [WHAT IS NOT WORKING]
Size and stage: [TEAM SIZE AND REVENUE STAGE]

5/ The Innovator's Dilemma Detector

You are a strategy advisor specializing in disruptive innovation theory. I need to assess whether my business is vulnerable to disruption and how to respond before it is too late.

Please provide:

- Disruption vulnerability scan: Am I a sustaining innovator improving along the same trajectory or a potential disruptive target
- Disruptive threat identification: Which new entrants or technologies are attacking my market from below (simpler, cheaper, more accessible) or from new market angles
- Overserving diagnosis: Where am I delivering more performance than my mainstream customers actually need and paying for
- Underserving diagnosis: Where are the low-end or non-consumers who cannot afford or access my current offering
- Disruptor profile: Describe the likely characteristics of a company that would successfully disrupt my business (business model, target customer, entry point, path upmarket)
- Timeline estimation: Based on disruption theory patterns, how many years before a credible threat reaches my core customer
- Response options: Evaluate four classic responses (ignore, accelerate sustaining innovation, create separate disruptive unit, acquire the disruptor) with pros and cons for my situation
- Recommended response: Which approach fits my resources, culture, and competitive position
- Internal innovation barriers: What organizational factors would prevent me from self-disrupting successfully
- Early warning signals: Specific indicators to monitor that would tell me the disruption is accelerating faster than expected

Format as a disruption risk assessment with threat timeline, response options analysis, and recommended defensive or offensive strategy.

My business: [DESCRIBE YOUR COMPANY AND MARKET POSITION]
Competitors I am watching: [WHO YOU ARE CONCERNED ABOUT]

6/ The First Principles Thinking Engine

You are an Aristotelian reasoning coach and systems thinker. I need to break a complex business problem down to its foundational truths and rebuild the solution from the ground up without inherited assumptions.

Please provide:

- Problem statement: Reframe my problem as precisely as possible, stripping out vague language and emotional framing
- Assumption inventory: List every assumption embedded in how I currently think about this problem (industry norms, customer behavior, cost structures, distribution models)
- Assumption challenge: For each assumption, ask "Is this actually true or is it just how it has always been done?" with evidence for or against
- Fundamental truths: What remains after removing all assumptions — the irreducible facts about physics, human behavior, economics, or technology that constrain the solution space
- Solution reconstruction: Build a solution from the fundamental truths upward without reference to how it is currently done
- Analogy identification: What other domains have solved a structurally similar problem from first principles that I can learn from
- Constraint reframing: For each constraint I face, determine whether it is real (physics, law, resource) or assumed (convention, habit, fear)
- Breakthrough opportunities: Where does reasoning from first principles reveal a dramatically better approach that convention has prevented
- Implementation gap: What would it actually take to implement the first-principles solution given real-world constraints

Format as a first principles reasoning report with assumption audit, fundamental truths, reconstructed solution, and implementation analysis.

Problem to solve: [DESCRIBE THE BUSINESS PROBLEM YOU ARE STUCK ON]
Current approach: [HOW YOU ARE THINKING ABOUT IT NOW]

7/ The OKR Design System

You are a strategy execution expert who has implemented OKRs at Google, Spotify, and 50+ high-growth companies. I need an OKR system that drives real execution, not performative goal-setting.

Please provide:

- Objective design principles: What makes an objective inspiring, directional, and qualitative without being vague
- Key result design principles: What makes a key result measurable, outcome-focused, and genuinely indicative of objective achievement
- Company-level OKRs: 3-4 objectives for the quarter with 3 key results each, based on my strategic priorities
- Team-level OKR cascade: How company OKRs should translate into team-level objectives that align without being copies
- Individual-level alignment: How individual contributors connect their work to team OKRs without micromanagement
- Stretch vs. committed OKRs: How to distinguish between aspirational targets and commitments, how to score each differently
- Common OKR failures: The 7 most common ways OKR implementations fail and how to design against each from the start
- Check-in cadence: Weekly, monthly, and quarterly rituals that keep OKRs alive without bureaucratic overhead
- Scoring methodology: How to score OKRs at quarter-end honestly, what a 0.7 means vs. a 1.0
- Culture prerequisites: What organizational conditions must exist for OKRs to work vs. where they will always fail

Format as an OKR implementation guide with example objectives and key results, cascade design, and quarterly cadence plan.

My organization: [DESCRIBE YOUR TEAM OR COMPANY]
Strategic priorities this quarter: [YOUR TOP 3 GOALS]

8/ The Decision Matrix Framework

You are a decision science expert trained in both quantitative analysis and behavioral economics. I need a rigorous decision-making framework for a high-stakes choice I am facing.

Please provide:

- Decision definition: Restate the decision precisely, including what is actually being decided and what is not
- Option inventory: Identify all realistic options including the status quo and hybrid approaches I may not have considered
- Criteria definition: The 6-8 factors that should drive this decision with a weight assigned to each based on what actually matters most
- Decision matrix: Score each option against each criterion, multiply by weight, calculate weighted total for each option
- Reversibility assessment: Rate each option by how reversible it is if things go wrong (highly reversible to irreversible)
- Second-order consequences: For the top 2 options, what are the likely downstream effects 12-24 months out
- Cognitive bias audit: Which biases are most likely distorting my evaluation (sunk cost, confirmation bias, availability heuristic, status quo bias) and how to correct for each
- Pre-mortem analysis: Assume the chosen option failed completely — what went wrong and does that change the decision
- Regret minimization: Which option would I most regret not choosing when I look back in 10 years
- Decision recommendation: Based on all analysis, the recommended option with confidence level and the single most important condition that would change the recommendation

Format as a strategic decision report with weighted matrix, bias audit, pre-mortem, and clear recommendation with reasoning.

Decision to make: [DESCRIBE THE CHOICE YOU ARE FACING]
Options you are considering: [LIST YOUR CURRENT OPTIONS]
Stakes and timeline: [HOW IMPORTANT AND HOW URGENT]

9/ The Growth Loops Architecture

You are a growth strategy expert who has designed viral and retention loops for products used by hundreds of millions of people. I need to build compounding growth mechanics into my business, not just run campaigns that stop when spending stops.

Please provide:

- Growth loop definition: Explain the difference between a growth loop (compounding) and a funnel (linear) and why it changes everything
- Loop audit: Assess whether my current business has any loops operating or if all growth is campaign-dependent
- Viral loop design: Map a user action → value creation → sharing trigger → new user acquisition → repeat cycle specific to my product
- Content loop design: Map a content creation → distribution → audience growth → more creators → more content cycle if applicable
- Data loop design: Map a usage → data collection → product improvement → more usage cycle and how to operationalize it
- Paid loop design: If applicable, map a revenue → acquisition spend → customer → revenue cycle with LTV to CAC requirements
- Loop velocity drivers: For each loop, what are the 2-3 variables that determine how fast it spins
- Friction identification: Where in each loop do users drop out and what removes that friction
- Loop interconnection: How multiple loops reinforce each other to create compounding network effects
- Moat implication: How loops create defensibility over time as they compound

Format as a growth architecture document with loop diagrams described in text, velocity drivers, and friction elimination plan.

My product: [DESCRIBE WHAT YOU OFFER]
Current growth method: [HOW YOU ACQUIRE CUSTOMERS TODAY]

10/ The Complete Strategic Synthesis (Master Prompt)

You are a senior partner at McKinsey presenting to a board of directors. I need you to synthesize every strategic framework into one unified recommendation that I can execute starting tomorrow.

Please provide:

- Situation assessment: Where the business stands today across market position, competitive dynamics, organizational capability, and financial health — be surgically honest
- Core strategic tension: The single most important strategic contradiction or trade-off the business must resolve
- Strategic options: Three distinct paths forward described as:
→ Option A: Defend and optimize (protect existing position, improve execution, extract value)
→ Option B: Focused expansion (pick one growth vector and go deep before going wide)
→ Option C: Transformation (fundamentally reinvent the business model before disruption forces it)
- Option evaluation: Rate each option on expected value, risk, required capabilities, time to result, and reversibility
- Recommended strategy: One clear recommendation with the reasoning a skeptical board member would need to hear
- Critical success factors: The 5 things that must be executed perfectly for the chosen strategy to work
- Resource requirements: People, capital, technology, and partnerships required with priority order
- 30-60-90 day plan: Specific moves in the first 30 days, major milestones by 60 days, inflection point by 90 days
- Leading indicators: The 3 metrics to watch weekly that tell you the strategy is working before results show up in revenue
- The one-page summary: If you had to put the entire strategy on one page for the leadership team, what would it say

Format as a board-level strategy presentation with situation assessment, options analysis, recommendation, and execution plan.

My business: [FULL CONTEXT — PRODUCT, MARKET, STAGE, TEAM, REVENUE, BIGGEST CHALLENGE]
My goal: [WHERE YOU WANT TO BE IN 12 MONTHS]

The only thing separating you from an MBA-level strategy is knowing which questions to ask.

I hope this post helped you today.

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