Milestone map
Milestone map
2 milestones
Do the exercises and show your work
7–14 weeks (8 hrs/week)
Take Strategy for free and do the case assignments and readings' questions (industry structure, competitive advantage, resources, positioning). Keep your answers in one public place (a repo, a shared folder or a page) as you go, with your reasoning shown.
Proof required
Link your public folder with the case assignments and readings' questions (industry structure, competitive advantage, resources, positioning), and show your self-check (15.902: problem sets and exams).
What gets checked
- Each case answer uses a named framework with the case's facts.
- Recommendations say what would prove them wrong.
- Frameworks are not listed without being applied.
Common mistakes
- Answers copied from a key: verifiers read the reasoning.
- Numbers with no working.
- Asking for review before the self-check.
Powstik Guide
A public folder with your worked answers to the case assignments and readings' questions (industry structure, competitive advantage, resources, positioning).
Steps
- Make a public folder or repo for this course.
- Do one chapter or problem set at a time and save it.
- Self-check: Do each problem set and exam under time, then mark yourself against the solutions where the course posts them. Where it does not, rework the numbers in a spreadsheet and check that every total ties out.
- Fix what the self-check shows, and say what you fixed.
- Ask three people who know the topic to check it.
Template
README Course: Strategy (MIT OpenCourseWare) What is here: Self-check result: The hardest question and why:
What gets sent back
- Answers with no working.
- Self-check not shown.
Resources
Foundationstart here
Depthgo deeper
What a verifier looks for
- Each case answer uses a named framework with the case's facts.
- Recommendations say what would prove them wrong.
- Frameworks are not listed without being applied.
- Pick two answers and check every step.
- Ask about one step; the answer should be clear.
You'll sign in first, then come straight back here.
Write a strategy memo on a real firm
1–3 weeks (5–8 hrs/week)
Use what you learned. Make a three-page strategy memo on one real company: its industry, the source of its advantage (or lack of one), two threats and a recommended move, from public information only. Put it where verifiers can open it. Use public information, or data you have permission to use; never publish a real person's private details.
Proof required
Link a three-page strategy memo on one real company: its industry, the source of its advantage (or lack of one), two threats and a recommended move, from public information only, and a short note on what you decided or changed because of it.
What gets checked
- Every fact has a public source.
- The advantage claim is tested against the evidence.
- The move is specific and the risks are stated.
Common mistakes
- Invented or unsourced figures.
- A conclusion the evidence does not support.
Powstik Guide
A three-page strategy memo on one real company: its industry, the source of its advantage (or lack of one), two threats and a recommended move, from public information only.
Steps
- Write one line: what you will show.
- Gather the real data, people or documents.
- Draft it, then read it cold the next day.
- Ask someone to mark the first claim they doubt.
- Fix it and ask three people to check it.
Template
Title: What this shows: Sources: Method: Result: Limits:
What gets sent back
- Unsourced numbers.
- Not clearly the person's own work.
- Claims more than it shows.
Resources
Foundationstart here
Depthgo deeper
What a verifier looks for
- Every fact has a public source.
- The advantage claim is tested against the evidence.
- The move is specific and the risks are stated.
- Check that the work is the person's own and the sources are real.
- Ask how a number was found.
You'll sign in first, then come straight back here.