Without a doubt, agile development processes and methods are the means of choice to transform new service ideas into marketable service offerings. In contrast, strategic approaches to portfolio planning seem almost a little antiquated. But even in the age of MVPs and iterative feedback loops, it is essential for one's own company to develop a viable competitive and positioning strategy that defines the solution space for product and service development. Therefore, in this article I would like to take up the cudgels for the still important strategic performance planning.

Anyone who thinks that strategic planning is something for the drawer and only takes place on PowerPoint slides is seriously mistaken and runs the risk of developing products and services for a lot of money that are not in line with the market or of not being able to sell them profitably because they simply do not have access to the market.

On the contrary, strategic planning can also be very pragmatic if it does not become an end in itself, but is clearly focused on answering the following questions:

Who are our main customers and how will their buying behaviour develop?
What can we do to ensure that our customers remain loyal to us in the future and do not switch to new up-and-coming competitors?
How can we change the current playing field, for example, by introducing a new service or a small change in our service offering?
What have we done in the previous year to change the playing field?
Are there any new players?
What new service or technology could our competitors bring to the market that would fundamentally change the game?
Which development would worry us most in the near future?

The best possible answers to these questions, based on one's own horizon of experience, must be recorded with suitable tools and methods and the product and service programme must be aligned accordingly.

Where to play, how to win - defining the service strategy?

In summary, it is a matter of defining and focusing the service business - "Where to play?" - and deriving suitable growth options - "How to win? This essentially means taking a closer look at one's own installed base, current markets and customers as well as previous service activities with the aim of determining where one stands. Based on this, growth perspectives and potentials can then be examined with regard to classic strategic market development strategies (e.g. service diversification, market penetration, development of new market segments ...). Once this strategic framework has been defined, suitable measures and initiatives for exploiting potential must be developed. In other words, suitable solutions have to be defined, pricing and distribution strategies have to be clarified and questions of operational efficiency have to be answered. In my view, this exercise is still essential for business success and should definitely take place before and not after service development. On the one hand, this has the advantage that features and service components can be validated and prioritised with regard to an economic objective, thus reducing development costs, and on the other hand, this is what really enables the parallelisation and interlocking of service development and service marketing. In simple terms, the buyer for the new service should not be sought, but the new service should be developed for the later customer and intended market. However, the strong pressure of digitalisation often creates the opposite approach and often leads to a lack of commercial success.

Reducing complexity by focusing on benefits

A good example of the fact that the quality of strategic considerations is not characterised by precise budgeting and lengthy planning and coordination processes is the Blue Ocean approach. Because the options for action are often as wide as the ocean. Here, the focus is clearly on determining the location and arguing the benefits. The goal is to reposition through innovation or marketing measures and consideration of the benefit levers over the entire life cycle, which enables sustainable competitive advantages. The approach is based on the realisation that in many cases it is not only performance features that are decisive, but minimal changes (e.g. ease of use, changed price model) that make the difference and lead to a dominant market position. These need to be identified and new market segments actively shaped, rather than unconsciously and blindly applying a buzzword-driven "follower strategy". Examples of the successful implementation of this approach can be found especially in the area of service-oriented, digital business models. Other prejudices can also be easily debunked. It is not necessary to illuminate all areas and draw up a comprehensive five-year plan that then disappears in a drawer. Strategic considerations can be included in individual, agile development projects with the right tools and lead directly to usable results.