Strategy → Kill List How-to (30 Min)
Executable strategy is a permission structure. If the session ends with “we’ll try to do both,” the play failed. The only success metric is a published stop list sitting next to the priority list. Every continue item must name what it displaces.
This is a timed play for directors, VPs, and senior managers with portfolio ownership, not a strategy-theory essay. Pair with Strategy your team can execute and the Director / VP hub. When money or shared capacity is the real constraint, open Finance for non-finance managers and How departments work together.
Play card
| Field | Detail |
|---|---|
| Time box | Hard 30 minutes |
| Players | Facilitator + portfolio owner; optional finance/ops partner for capacity reality |
| Goal | Named kill list: stop / delay / continue with owners and a revisit date |
| Done looks like | A one-pager shared with the leadership team the same day; calendar cuts start within 48 hours |
Who should not be in the room yet: A full IC audience, customers, or a consensus committee that turns stops into theater. Cascade after decisions exist.
When to use
- Quarterly planning when everything is still “important.”
- Mid-quarter overload: new asks arrive, nothing exits.
- Post-strategy cascade: slides exist, calendars did not change.
- Leadership offsite follow-up when priorities multiplied instead of narrowing.
When not to use
- No clear strategy owner: fix ownership before ranking.
- Pure headcount crisis with no portfolio choices (you may still delay work; you cannot invent people in 30 minutes).
- Legal, safety, or compliance mandates that are non-negotiable. List them as constraints, not kill candidates.
- Regulated or highly matrixed portfolio governance that requires a formal forum. This play does not replace that forum; it can prepare your input.
Prep checklist (before the 30 minutes)
Bring three artifacts only:
- Current priority stack (one page; if it is ten pages, you already know the problem).
- Capacity sketch (teams, major in-flight work, known hiring freezes or budget locks). Rough is fine; fictional precision is not.
- Strategy one-pager (the bets you claim matter this quarter).
Optional: a finance partner for cost or headcount constraints (P&L explained simply literacy helps conversations, not as a substitute for Finance).
Timed steps (30:00)
| Clock | Move |
|---|---|
| 0:00–3:00 | Open. Facilitator states the rule: every continue displaces something. Success = published stop list. |
| 3:00–10:00 | Nominate. Silent or rapid list: candidates to stop or delay. No arguing yet. |
| 10:00–20:00 | Challenge. For each continue, ask what dies. Kill dependency landmines early. |
| 20:00–27:00 | Decide. Mark stop / delay / continue. Name owner + revisit date for every delay and stop communication. |
| 27:00–30:00 | Publish. Capture the one-pager. Assign 48-hour follow-ups (calendar, roadmap, stakeholder notes). |
If you finish early, do not refill with new work. Tighten owners and messages.
Facilitator script
Opening
“We have thirty minutes. We leave with a kill list next to the priority list. ‘Try to do both’ is a failed outcome. Compliance and safety stays constrained, not fake-prioritized. Every continue must name what it displaces.”
Challenge prompts
“If we keep X, what dies?”
“Is this a true stop, or a polite park that will recolonize the calendar in two weeks?”
“Who tells the stakeholder, and by when?”
“What dependency breaks if we stop this cold?”
Close
“Stops are [list]. Delays revisit on [dates]. Continues displace [list]. [Name] owns the published note today.”
Output template
Strategy → Kill List: [Team/Portfolio] | [Date]
Facilitator:
Portfolio owner:
CONTINUE (displaces →)
| Item | Owner | Displaces | Notes |
DELAY
| Item | Owner | Revisit date | What “parked” means |
STOP
| Item | Owner | Stakeholder notice by | Dependency check |
Constraints (non-negotiable):
48-hour follow-ups:
- Calendar cuts:
- Roadmap edits:
- Stakeholder notices:
True kill vs polite park: A kill has a stop date, an owner for the message, and removal from active rituals. A park without a revisit date is how zombie work returns. If you cannot name the message owner, you did not decide.
Sample (hypothetical, labeled sample): Continue: onboarding redesign (displaces net-new upsell experiments). Delay: partner portal v2 (revisit Nov 1). Stop: internal wiki migration (notice to Ops by Friday; no dependency on payroll). Constraint: SOC evidence collection stays.
Communicate without sounding arbitrary
To ICs and peer teams: lead with the strategy bet, then the stop, then what good looks like now. Avoid “we’re bad at saying no” humor that undermines the decision. Point people to the strategy execution article for the why behind fewer priorities. Cross-functional impacts go through named owners (How departments work together).
48-hour follow-up
- Remove stopped work from standups, dashboards, and OKR-like trackers you actually use (no framework mandate here).
- Edit roadmaps and intake forms so killed work cannot re-enter as a “small ask.”
- Send stakeholder notices with the owner’s name.
- Cut or shrink meetings that existed only to serve stopped work.
- Put delay revisit dates on a real calendar.
Watch-outs
- Killing a dependency: Check downstream teams before you celebrate.
- Politics as prioritization: Stops that only hit rival teams fail the honesty test.
- Inventing capacity: A kill list does not create headcount.
- Park forever: Delays need revisit dates or they are denials in costume.
- Consensus theater: Facilitation seeks clarity, not unanimous comfort.
- Customer commitment blindness: Do not kill external commitments you still owe without an explicit commercial decision.