Skill: Define Strategic Pillars

Purpose

Derive 3–5 strategic pillars (high-level themes) from vision and North Star that structure and guide strategic goals and roadmap. Produce a pillars document so goals and roadmap can be grouped under pillars. Does not define mission, vision, North Star, goals, milestones, or roadmap.

Pillar vs goal:

• Pillar = a direction of sustained investment (it does not get "finished"; an indispensable structural element, such as "reliable operation")
• Goal = a concrete result to reach in that direction (you can tell whether it has been met, such as "rollback rate below 5%")

A pillar is indispensable — drop one and the strategy has a structural gap. Goals change from stage to stage; pillars stay stable.

Core Objective

Primary Goal: Produce a user-confirmed strategic pillars document containing exactly 3–5 pillars (themes) aligned with vision and North Star, persisted to the project-agreed path.

Success Criteria (ALL must be met):

1. ✅ 3–5 pillars documented: Exactly 3–5 strategic pillars, each with a clear name and short description (what this pillar represents).
2. ✅ Theme-level: Each pillar is a high-level theme or a strategic direction of sustained investment, not a completable goal or a specific initiative.
3. ✅ Aligned with vision: Each pillar supports the vision; alignment is stated or evident.
4. ✅ North Star connection: At least one pillar clearly supports or frames the North Star; optional: brief "how this supports vision/NSM" per pillar.
5. ✅ User confirmed: User explicitly approved (e.g. "approved", "looks good", "proceed", or equivalent).
6. ✅ Document persisted: Written to agreed path (default docs/project-overview/strategic-pillars.md or per project norms).

Acceptance Test: Can a reader see how each pillar frames the strategy and how goals or roadmap themes can be grouped under them?

Handoff Point: When pillars are approved and persisted, hand off to design-strategic-goals (goals can map to pillars) or define-roadmap (roadmap themes can align to pillars); this skill does not define goals or roadmap.

Scope Boundaries

This skill handles:

• Eliciting and documenting 3–5 strategic pillars (high-level themes).
• Ensuring alignment with vision and North Star (read from define-vision / define-north-star outputs or existing docs).
• Persisting to project-agreed path (default docs/project-overview/strategic-pillars.md).
• Optional: per-pillar note on how it supports vision or North Star.

This skill does NOT handle:

• Defining mission, vision, or North Star (use define-mission, define-vision, define-north-star).
• Defining strategic goals or milestones (use design-strategic-goals, define-roadmap).
• Defining roadmap (use define-roadmap).

Use Cases

• After vision and North Star: Establish 3–5 pillars that structure how goals and roadmap are organized.
• Strategy structure: Provide a stable set of themes so goals and initiatives can be grouped (e.g. "Product Excellence", "Customer Success", "Operational Efficiency").
• Before or with goals: Run before or in parallel with design-strategic-goals so goals can map to pillars.
• Fourth layer in strategy chain: Run after mission, vision, and north star when building the full hierarchy (Mission → Vision → North Star → Pillars → Goals → Milestones → Roadmap).

Behavior

Interaction Policy

• Defaults: Output path from project norms if present; otherwise docs/project-overview/strategic-pillars.md. Read vision and North Star from docs/project-overview/ when available.
• Choice options: If user has more than 5 candidate pillars, offer to prioritize or merge into 3–5; ask user to confirm the final set.
• Confirm: Before overwriting an existing strategic-pillars file; before final persist.

Execution Process

1. Load vision and North Star: Read from docs/project-overview/vision.md and docs/project-overview/north-star.md or user-provided summary.
2. Elicit: What 3–5 high-level themes or pillars would structure the strategy and guide goals/roadmap?
3. Draft pillars: Theme-level (e.g. "Customer First", "Operational Excellence"); not goals or initiatives.
4. Check alignment: Each pillar supports the vision; at least one clearly supports or frames the North Star.
5. Persist: Write to project-agreed path; create docs/project-overview/ if missing. Optional: add "How this supports vision/NSM" per pillar.

Input & Output

Input:

• Required: Vision; North Star (or paths); project context.
• Optional: Mission; existing goals or pillars; constraints (e.g. org structure).

Output:

• Artifact: Strategic pillars document.
• Location: docs/project-overview/strategic-pillars.md (or per project norms).
• Content: List of 3–5 pillars (name, short description); optional mapping to vision/NSM.
• Lifecycle: Living (updated when vision or strategy direction changes).

Restrictions

Hard Boundaries

• Do NOT define mission, vision, North Star, goals, milestones, or roadmap in this skill.
• Do NOT overwrite an existing strategic-pillars file without explicit user confirmation.

Skill Boundaries (Avoid Overlap)

Do NOT do these (other skills handle them):

• Mission / vision / North Star: Use define-mission, define-vision, define-north-star.
• Strategic goals: Use design-strategic-goals; goals can map to pillars.
• Milestones / roadmap: Use define-roadmap.

When to stop and hand off:

• User says "approved" or equivalent → Pillars complete; offer handoff to design-strategic-goals or define-roadmap.
• User asks for goals or roadmap → Hand off to design-strategic-goals or define-roadmap.

Self-Check

Core Success Criteria (ALL must be met)

• 3–5 pillars documented: Each with name and short description.
• Theme-level: Pillars are themes/directions, not goals or initiatives.
• Aligned with vision: Each pillar supports the vision; alignment stated or evident.
• North Star connection: At least one pillar supports or frames the North Star.
• User confirmed: User said "approved", "looks good", "proceed", or equivalent.
• Document persisted: Written to agreed path.

Process Quality Checks

• Vision/NSM used: Did I read or request vision and North Star before drafting pillars?
• No goals in pillars: Did I avoid writing outcome goals (those belong in design-strategic-goals)?
• Pillars are indispensable: Would dropping any one pillar leave the strategy with a structural gap? If not, that pillar is probably a goal or an initiative rather than a pillar.
• Pillars cannot be completed: Does each pillar describe a sustained direction rather than a result that can be judged as achieved?

Acceptance Test

Can a reader see how each pillar frames the strategy and how goals or roadmap themes can be grouped under them?

If NO: Clarify pillar descriptions and alignment. If YES: Pillars are complete. Proceed to handoff or stop.

Examples

Example 1: Vision and North Star exist, define pillars

Context: Vision and North Star documents exist. User wants strategic pillars to structure goals and roadmap.

Process: Read vision and north-star. Propose 3–5 pillars (e.g. "Discoverability", "Reusability", "Governance", "Ecosystem"). Add short description per pillar and how it supports vision/NSM. User confirms. Write to docs/project-overview/strategic-pillars.md.

Outcome: Pillars persisted; handoff to design-strategic-goals or define-roadmap.

Example 2: Goals already exist

Context: Strategic goals document exists; user wants to add a pillars layer for structure.

Process: Read vision, North Star, and existing goals. Propose pillars that group or frame the existing goals (e.g. cluster goals under 3–5 themes). User confirms. Write to docs/project-overview/strategic-pillars.md. Suggest updating goals doc to reference pillars if desired.

Outcome: Pillars persisted; goals can be explicitly mapped to pillars in a later pass.