AI Strategy
What business problem am I actually solving — and can I say it without using the word "AI"?
The cheese maker knows cheese. They don't need to know Kubernetes. They need a protocol that prevents jargon from replacing clarity and sales pitches from replacing decisions. Same six-box canvas — Questions & Decisions + Plan — but the person filling in the boxes changes everything.
This is a specialized Decision meeting for technology choices. One critical inversion: the business owner chairs, not the tech person. The moment the tech person runs the meeting, it becomes a sales pitch. The protocol gives the owner the questions. They don't need the answers — they need the questions.
Three Roles
| Role | Job | Rule |
|---|---|---|
| Owner | Chairs, asks questions, decides | States the business problem. Has final say. |
| Tech Advisor | Presents options, answers questions | Fills the pre-meeting brief. Explains in business language or gets sent back. |
| Note Taker | Records in decision journal format | Captures decisions, owners, dates, review cadence. |
Red flag: If the Owner IS the tech person, acknowledge the conflict. You can't sell to yourself and buy from yourself in the same meeting. Bring an external advisor or at minimum a skeptical colleague.
Five Phases
Intent
Owner's question: "What business problem am I solving?"
No technology discussion until the problem is named in business language. If the tech advisor starts with "We should implement..." — stop. Rewind to the pain.
- What process hurts?
- What does it cost in time, money, or missed opportunity?
- What does "solved" look like in terms the customer would notice?
Route
Owner's question: "What are my options and what do they cost?"
The tech advisor presents a maximum of three options. Each in a three-column format the owner can read:
| Option | What it does | What it costs ($/month + hours to implement) | What happens if we change our mind |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | |||
| B | |||
| C |
"It depends" is not a cost. If the tech advisor can't estimate, they haven't done enough research. Send them back.
Infrastructure
Owner's question: "What do I already have that works?"
Audit before acquisition. Most business owners use 20% of their existing tools. Before buying anything new:
- What tools do we already pay for? What percentage of their capability do we use?
- Can the existing tool do 80% of what the new one promises?
- What's the switching cost — not just money, but workflow disruption and retraining?
Settle
Owner's question: "Who owns this, what's the timeline, what does success look like?"
Every decision gets recorded in the decision journal:
- Owner: Named person who will make it work (not "the team")
- Timeline: Implementation date + first review date
- Success metric: One number the owner can check without asking the tech person
- Budget: Total commitment including hidden costs (training, migration, downtime)
- Review date: When we check if this actually solved the problem we named in Intent
Commit with bets — if the tech advisor is confident, they should be willing to stake their recommendation.
Feedback
Owner's question: "Did it solve the problem we named?"
Review meeting at the cadence set in Settle. Compare expected vs actual. Use the same business language from Intent — not technical metrics the owner can't verify.
- Did the pain described in Intent reduce?
- Did the success metric from Settle move?
- What surprised us — good and bad?
- Continue, adjust, or cut?
Pre-Meeting Brief
The tech advisor fills this in BEFORE the meeting. The meeting is for questions and decisions, not presentations.
| Section | Content | Rule |
|---|---|---|
| Problem | In business language, one paragraph | No technical terms. If the owner can't read it aloud and nod, rewrite. |
| Options | Three maximum, each with the Route table | Cost in dollars and hours. Not "it depends." |
| Recommendation | One option with reasoning | Reasoning must reference the business problem, not technical elegance. |
| Risk | What could go wrong, in business terms | "Data migration takes longer" not "schema incompatibility." |
For quarterly reviews, use the full AI Strategy Review template — it scores current state, gaps, and priorities across 8 sections.
Jargon Gate
Any recommendation that can't be explained in one sentence the owner understands gets sent back. This is the DX validation gate translated for business owners: if the tech advisor can't explain it simply, they don't understand it well enough.
The owner's test: "Can I explain this decision to my business partner over coffee?" If not, the recommendation needs another pass.
Cadence
| Frequency | When | Instrument |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly | Standard operating rhythm for most small businesses | Pre-meeting brief + this protocol |
| Weekly | During active implementation only | Short check: on track / blocked / need to adjust |
| Quarterly | Strategic review | Full AI Strategy Review template |
Shadow Risks
Abdication. Owner defers to tech advisor on everything. "You know best" replaces decision-making. The protocol becomes theatre — the tech person decides and the owner rubber-stamps.
Shadow check: Is the owner asking questions or just nodding? If the owner hasn't challenged a single recommendation, they've abdicated.
Analysis paralysis. Owner keeps asking for more options, more research, more time. Nothing gets decided. Set a decision deadline at the start of every meeting. If no decision by the deadline, the default is "no change" — and that's a decision too.
Wrong Meeting?
| Signal | Redirect to |
|---|---|
| No business problem identified yet | Stop. Go find the pain before scheduling a tech meeting. |
| Team needs to brainstorm possibilities | Collision — diverge first, then bring options here |
| Disagreement about what success looks like | Debate — align on criteria before committing |
| Past decision needs honest review | Accountability — compare outcomes to expectations |
| Tech advisor hasn't prepared the brief | Reschedule. Meetings without prep are parties. |
Context
- Decision Meeting — The base type this protocol specializes
- Meetings — Universal meeting protocol
- AI Strategy Review Template — The quarterly scoring instrument
- Tech Stack Decisions — The engineering checklist the tech advisor uses to prepare
- Tech Review Process — Five-gate tool evaluation for procurement decisions
- AI Business Consulting — The engagement model: diagnostic, pilot, managed service
- Decision Journal — Where every decision gets recorded
- Decision Making — The decision process framework
Links
- Steve Jobs on Meetings
- Meetings at Amazon — Six-page memo culture: read before you meet
Questions
When the tech person chairs the meeting, whose problem gets solved — the business owner's or the vendor's?
- If the owner can't state the business problem without using the word "AI", is there actually a problem worth solving?
- What's the cost of the tools you already pay for but don't use — and is that number larger than the new tool you're considering?
- How do you tell the difference between a tech advisor who recommends what you need and one who recommends what they know?
- If every AI decision had a mandatory 90-day review, how many tools would survive the first check?