VMSOO-P Strategy
What this does
Runs the VMSOO-P framework plus the cascading Tier 1 / Tier 2 metrics architecture. Returns a strategy document with the user's Vision, Mission/North Star, Strategies (levers), Opportunity Costs, Objectives, and Priorities — plus a North Star metric + 3 Tier-1 metrics + squad-level Tier-2 metrics, each with explicit math tracing back to the North Star. Refuses to recommend mature metrics regimes pre-PMF.
When to use
Trigger when the user:
- Has no formal strategy doc and is making roadmap decisions ad hoc
- Has OKRs that don't ladder up to a North Star
- Is defining their first product strategy
- Is rewriting an existing strategy after a pivot
- Has Tier 1 metrics that no one looks at or that contradict each other
When NOT to use
- Pre-PMF — strategy at pre-PMF means "sharpest problem to validate
next"; use
sharp-problem-test+customer-discovery-weekinstead - User is asking about specific growth tactics — that's
growth-lever-picker - User is building a roadmap from existing strategy — that's
roadmap-from-strategy
VMSOO-P (from Ch 7 + Ch 14)
| Letter | Meaning |
|---|---|
| V | Vision — the world you're trying to create. 1-2 sentences, ambitious, time-unbound. |
| M | Mission / North Star — the measurable proxy for the vision. One number. |
| S | Strategies — the 2–4 levers you'll pull to move the North Star. |
| O | Opportunity Costs — what you are NOT doing. Explicit, named. |
| O | Objectives — 3–5 outcomes you'll hit this quarter or year. |
| P | Priorities — the ranked list of work that delivers the objectives. |
Every objective must trace to the North Star with explicit math: "if we hit X, North Star moves by Y."
North Star metric criteria (Ch 7)
A North Star must be all five:
- Customer-value — measures something the customer values directly, not your revenue or activity
- Mission-tied — moving it advances the mission
- Whole number, not relative — "weekly bookings" not "booking growth %"
- Leading indicator — moves before revenue, not after
- Controllable by the team — the team's actions move it
Examples (book archetypes):
- Spotify: time spent listening
- Calendly: meetings booked through the platform
- Airbnb: nights stayed
Cascading Tier 1 / Tier 2 metrics
- Tier 1: 3 metrics that, together, predict the North Star. Each Tier 1 lives at the executive level.
- Tier 2: squad-level metrics. Each squad owns ≤2 Tier 2 metrics that ladder to a Tier 1. Squads do NOT own Tier 1; they own their contribution to it.
If a squad cannot trace its Tier 2 to a specific Tier 1 to the North Star with math, the metric should not exist.
Refusal mode (the anti-pattern)
If the user is pre-PMF, refuse to design a mature North Star. The book is explicit: pre-PMF, the only valid metric is "is this problem sharp" and "are we learning faster." Mature North Stars at pre-PMF optimize for the wrong thing.
If the user proposes a North Star that fails any of the 5 criteria, refuse. The most common failure: revenue as the North Star. Revenue is lagging and not customer-value; it goes in opportunity-cost or operating metrics, not the North Star.
If Tier 1 metrics contradict each other (e.g., "increase signups" + "increase activation rate"), flag the math: they can't both win without changing the funnel; one is the actual goal and the other is a guardrail.
Inputs
- Stage: pre-PMF, post-PMF, growth, mature
- Product type and what customers value
- Existing OKRs / metrics, if any
- Strategic constraints (capital, team size, market)
- (Optional) the mission statement or vision draft
Output structure
## Strategy verdict: [READY | DRAFT | NEEDS_MORE_INPUT] ### Vision [1-2 sentences, ambitious, time-unbound] ### Mission / North Star - Mission: [1-2 sentences tying vision to action] - North Star metric: [the measurable proxy] - 5-criteria check: customer-value [✓/✗], mission-tied [✓/✗], whole-number [✓/✗], leading [✓/✗], controllable [✓/✗] ### Strategies (levers) 1. [Lever 1] 2. [Lever 2] ### Opportunity Costs - [What we are explicitly NOT doing and why] ### Objectives 1. [Objective + the math tracing to the North Star] 2. ... ### Priorities 1. [Ranked work item] 2. ... ### Cascading metrics - North Star: [metric] - Tier 1A: [metric] — explanation - Tier 1B: [metric] — explanation - Tier 1C: [metric] — explanation - Tier 2 (per squad): - Squad A: [≤2 metrics] - Squad B: ... ### Recommendation [Concrete next step] ### Analogous case from the book [A named example]
Worked example from the book
Calendly's strategy (Ch 7 + Ch 14)
- Vision: a world without scheduling friction
- Mission: make every external meeting one-click
- North Star: meetings booked through Calendly per week (customer-value: a real meeting happened; whole number; leading; team controls activation, distribution, reliability)
- Strategies: viral free tier + integration ubiquity + enterprise admin
- Opportunity Costs: internal meeting scheduling (deferred); calendar-of-record replacement (out of scope)
- Objectives: grow weekly bookings 2x YoY; activation > 50%; enterprise ACV > $X
- Tier 1: weekly active schedulers; bookings per active scheduler; invite-to-booking conversion
- Tier 2 (per squad): integrations squad owns invite-to-booking conversion via partner reliability; growth squad owns weekly active schedulers via referral loop
Gotchas
- Vision and Mission are different. Vision is the world; Mission is what you'll do about it.
- Strategies are levers, not features. "Build a mobile app" is a priority, not a strategy. "Distribute through every workflow tool" is a strategy; mobile may be a priority under it.
- If you can't name what you're NOT doing, you don't have a strategy. Opportunity Costs are how you know strategy exists.
- Each squad's Tier 2 should be 1-2 metrics, not 5. More than 2 means the squad is doing two jobs; split or reduce.
Anti-patterns to flag
If the user's plan has any of these, surface them:
- North Star is revenue or signups — fail the 5-criteria; recommend a customer-value alternative
- Mature North Star applied pre-PMF — refuse; route to discovery
- Tier 1 metrics that don't ladder to the North Star with math — cut
- A strategy with no Opportunity Costs — recommend naming 2-3 things explicitly NOT being done
Source
Ch 7: Strategy and the North Star. Ch 14: Cascading metrics.
About this skill
This skill is part of the ProductMind Skills catalog — open-source product-judgment skills for AI coding agents.
Source: Building Rocketships by Oji and Ezinne Udezue — Chapter 7. This skill applies one named framework from the book. It works standalone in any agent that supports the SKILL.md standard.
Want the orchestrated version? The RocketshipsGPT agent runs all 13 book skills together, with persistent memory, framework-fidelity evals, voice-checked output, and the book's anti-pattern catches built in. → rocketshipsgpt.productmind.co
License: Skill content licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Attribution required; derivative works must share alike. See ADR 0005 for rationale.
Skill version: 1.0.0 · Published: 2026-06-05
