The not-now list: the most useful strategy document you aren’t writing

Ask a leadership team for its priorities and you will get a list. Ask what it has decided not to do this year and you will usually get silence, then a slightly defensive answer about ‘staying flexible’.

What a not-now list is

A not-now list is a short, written record of good ideas you have decided not to pursue yet. It is not a graveyard and it is not a backlog. Each item on it has three things:

1. The idea, in one sentence.

2. Why it is not now: usually capacity, sequence or missing evidence.

3. The trigger that would reopen it: a number, a date or an event, never a feeling.

That third element is what makes the list work. ‘We will revisit the London office when UK revenue passes $2M a year’ is a decision. ‘We will look at London later’ is a postponed argument.

A strategy that doesn’t say no to anything is a wish list with a budget.

Why it works

The list does something a priorities document can’t: it gives people permission to stop. When the head of partnerships knows the partner channel is on the not-now list until a written trigger is met, she can stop half-building it and help with the thing that is funded.

How to write one

• Write it in the same session as the priorities, while the trade-offs are fresh.

• Keep it shorter than the priorities list. If it is longer than a page, some of it is really a backlog.

• Review it every quarter. Delete anything nobody misses.

The best not-now lists we have seen are boring to read. That is the point. The excitement belongs in the two or three things you chose to do properly.