Mehdi Lotfinejad InfoTech

Beyond the Boardroom: A Pragmatic Guide to Crafting Strategy for Tech Teams

Why Strategy Is Not a Mystery: A Simple Guide from Real Work

Many people think business strategy is some kind of secret. Something only top bosses talk about in closed rooms. I used to believe that too. When I became a team lead in IT, I thought strategy meant long meetings with whiteboards, big words, and late-night talks. Then one day, someone would come and hand us the plan to follow. But that’s not what really happens.

Here’s what I learned: strategy is not magic. It’s not about using big words or acting smart. A good strategy is just about two simple things: focus and clear communication. That’s it.

If you lead a team, hire people, or manage projects, this is for you. I want to show you a method that I use every day to keep my team on the right path.

The Two Big Ideas: Focus and Communication

Before we go deeper, let’s clear up a few wrong ideas:

  • Wrong idea #1: Strategy is about knowing the future.
  • Wrong idea #2: Only bosses can create strategy.
  • Wrong idea #3: Strategy never changes once it’s set.

In my experience, strategy is just a helpful tool. It helps you decide where to put your time and energy, and how to make sure everyone understands the plan.

My Method: “Laser and Lighthouse”

You may have heard about things like vision, mission, and goals. Those are good, but I use a simple method I call the Laser and Lighthouse. It helps me and my team stay focused and clear.

The Laser: Focus Your Team

In tech, there are always too many things to do. New tools, bugs, tasks from many people—it’s easy to get lost. The Laser helps us stay focused.

How to Use the Laser:

  • Pick 1–2 Most Important Goals: Don’t try to do everything. Choose the few things that matter most. For example, when hiring, choose if culture fit is more important than technical skill. When managing a project, maybe it’s better to improve deployment before adding new features.

  • Learn to Say No: If something doesn’t help your main goal, don’t do it. I once stopped all small tasks just to fix our interview system. It was hard at first, but it helped in the long run.

  • Check Often: Things change. So we check our goals every sprint. We ask: “Is this still important?” If not, we change the plan.

The Lighthouse: Show the Direction

Focus is not enough. Everyone needs to know where they’re going. That’s the Lighthouse. It gives a clear direction.

How to Build Your Lighthouse:

  • Tell the Reason: Don’t just say what to do—explain why. If you change how you interview people, explain that it’s to reduce bias and make the process better, not just to follow rules.

  • Show Progress: Make things easy to see. You can use a wall chart, a dashboard, or even sticky notes. In one team, we used a big chart to show how fast we made offers to job candidates. It helped everyone stay on track.

  • Listen to Feedback: Let people share their thoughts. We had monthly check-ins where anyone could say what was working or not. It helped us improve faster.

Real Examples: How It Worked for Me

Example 1: Fixing Our Hiring

A few years ago, our hiring was not going well. Good people dropped out, and some great ones didn’t even get a chance. We had different opinions—some wanted hard tech interviews, others wanted friendly chats.

We used the Laser: the main goal was to improve candidate experience.

We did this:

  • Only two interview rounds
  • Each interviewer had a clear role (tech or behavior)
  • No extra tests—just what mattered

Then we used the Lighthouse: we explained the changes, showed a chart of the new process, and asked for feedback. Three months later, more people accepted our job offers.

Example 2: Project Management

On a big data move project, we were doing too many side tasks. Everyone was busy, but we were not moving fast.

We had a Laser session and looked at every task. If it didn’t help our main goal—moving 80% of the data—it was paused. Then we set up a clear tracker and had short weekly meetings to check blockers.

We finished two weeks early, with less stress.

Example 3: Leading the Team

A strong team needs trust. When we made changes to our hiring plan, I explained every step. We celebrated wins and listened to complaints. Over time, even the people who didn’t like the changes at first started to support the plan.

How to Keep It Going

Many plans sound good at first but are forgotten later. Here’s how to keep Laser and Lighthouse alive:

  • Check Focus Often: Ask in every team meeting, “Are we still focused?”

  • Let the Team Suggest Ideas: Don’t do it all yourself. Let your team help shape the plan.

  • Talk About Success and Mistakes: Celebrate wins. If something fails, talk about why.

  • Keep the Plan Visible: Put it in a place everyone sees—on a board, in a wiki, or in a shared doc.

One Last Thing: People Like Freedom

Let’s be real: nobody likes being told what to do all the time. People want to make their own choices. That’s okay.

The goal is not to control people—it’s to help them understand the big picture. When people know how their work fits into the plan, they want to help. This is true in hiring, projects, or anything else.

Final Thoughts: Strategy Is for Everyone

You don’t need to be a big boss to work on strategy. If you lead a small team, manage hiring, or run a project, you can use the Laser and Lighthouse to help your team move forward.

Start by choosing one important goal. Then share the reason with your team. Ask them what they think. You’ll be surprised how quickly things get clearer.

What’s Next?

Want to improve how your team works? Try this:

  • Pick one goal to focus on this week
  • Share the reason with your team
  • Ask for feedback

And if you have tips of your own, feel free to connect. Let’s make better teams, one small step at a time.