Outdoor equipment
The brand shipped 212 products across eleven categories and defended all of them, so the roadmap followed whoever complained last. Their own AI now returns one ranked list, tests each product against a single sentence, and writes down the reason for every cut.
The numbers.
- Products keptCut from 212 across eleven categories
- 64
- Revenue protectedEverything cut carried 17% of sales
- 83%
- Roadmap items, rankedDrawn from a backlog of 140 requests
- 9
- Pages of strategyRead by everyone, argued with by anyone
- 1
What changed.
64 products were kept out of 212 across eleven categories, and everything cut together carried 17% of sales, so 83% of revenue was protected. Nine roadmap items were ranked out of a backlog of 140 requests, and the strategy itself fits on one page.
What the Strategist does.
The strategy seat, one of nine that come with Essential.
Ranks, and then stops. Everything goes on one ordered list. Work below the line is not scheduled, and the line is visible to the whole company.
Tests each product against a sentence. If nobody can say who it is for and why it wins, it does not stay in the line.
Protects the quality of the few. What a cut frees up is reassigned to the products that earned it, never spread evenly.
Kills politely and permanently. Every discontinued item keeps a written reason, so it cannot drift back next season.
Keeps the strategy to one page. Position, ranked list, and the things deliberately not being done.
How a decision moves.
- The question arrives in plain EnglishNo template or intake form required
- The Strategist ranks the optionsAgainst the brand's own position
- What is not being done is namedThe list of no is part of the answer
- The Contrarian challenges the cutThe critic seat reviews before delivery
- You approve, then it shipsApproval is required by rule
How this was published.
The work and the figures below, drawn from the client's production system in September 2026, published with the company name withheld at the client's request.
The client agreed to this study in writing and asked that their name be left out. We do not print the approver either, because naming them would identify the company.
Published September 2026.