INSO
Start a conversation
Decisions & strategyWorking session

Strategic Moat

Understand what makes you worth choosing.

Examine the advantage your organisation is building, the assumptions behind it and the choices that could strengthen it.

Discuss this workshop
A different way forward
INSO workshopsDecide with confidence
Suggested format
Tailored working session

Length follows the strategic question, available evidence and participants.

Who it is for
Agreed around the strategic question

Founders and leadership teams reviewing their position and strategic choices.

How we work
In person · live online · suitable hybrid

Scope, format and preparation agreed around your team.

When this helps

Is this your
situation?

The offer sounds different internally, but customers may see similar alternatives. Examine what people value, what makes it possible and where you need stronger evidence.

  • Your difference is hard to explain plainly.
  • The strategy rests on untested customer assumptions.
  • New initiatives dilute the same limited resources.
What changes

Practical progress you can use in the work.

Leave with more
than a good conversation.

01

A clearer position

Describe the need you serve and the alternatives customers consider.

02

An honest advantage map

Distinguish useful strengths from claims that need testing.

03

A strategic choice

Choose what to strengthen, investigate or stop spreading thinly.

Inside the workshop

A clear shape.
Room for your reality.

Suggested workshop outline. We shape the sequence and depth around your team.

How INSO workshops work
01

Start with the choice customers make

What we do

Map the customer’s need and realistic alternatives, including doing nothing. Compare your internal narrative with the evidence available.

What this produces

A customer and alternatives map.

02

Examine the advantage

What we do

Look at the capabilities, relationships and ways of working behind the offer. Ask which are valuable and which competitors could reproduce.

What this produces

An advantage map with open questions.

03

Test the strategic assumptions

What we do

Identify what would have to remain true for the position to hold. Explore changes that could weaken it and evidence that would alter your view.

What this produces

A short list of assumptions to investigate.

04

Choose what to build next

What we do

Compare the commitments needed. Agree a next action, its owner and the decision it will inform.

What this produces

A focused strategic action brief.

What you keep

Useful in the room.
Useful on Monday.

  • A customer and alternatives map
  • An advantage and assumption map
  • A prioritised strategic action brief
Before we begin

A little preparation.
A more useful session.

  1. Bring the current offer and target customer.
  2. Share customer evidence and known alternatives.
  3. Name the strategic choice the work should inform.
After the workshop

Keep it moving.

Use the assumption map to review opportunities. Does proposed work strengthen the position or simply add activity?

Try a different way of thinking

A difference customers can value

A founder describes their advantage as ‘better service’. The team needs to decide what that means in practice.

Illustrative example
Step 1 of 3

Specify

Name the moment when service matters to the customer. What difficulty should be easier because you exist?

01 / 03
  1. Specify

    Name the moment when service matters to the customer. What difficulty should be easier because you exist?

  2. Support

    Identify the capability that makes that promise credible. Separate customer evidence from internal confidence.

  3. Strengthen

    Choose one capability to improve or one assumption to test before increasing the claim.

The useful shift

A strategic claim becomes useful when it connects customer value to evidence and a deliberate choice.

A conversation in the Digital Greenhouse studio
Digital Greenhouse Guernsey
In practice · Digital Greenhouse Guernsey

Keep a community’s good ideas moving.

That was the result of one focused sprint. Other engagements supported founders and programme participants over longer periods.

INSO has delivered Strategic Moat sessions as part of its wider work with Digital Greenhouse. We shape each session around the choices facing the participants.

Read the story
A good fit when

A team willing to test its preferred story against customer reality.

Another approach may fit better

A promise that a competitive advantage can be created or proven in one session.

Explore the ways we can help
Before you choose

A few useful answers.

Is this only for startups?

The question matters to founders and established organisations. We shape the work around the market, maturity and decision involved.

Will we leave with a complete strategy?

The scope centres on the agreed strategic question. Wider research, validation or a full strategy process may need additional work.

A different starting pointAll workshops
Tailored session or pathway

Strategic thinking

See the bigger picture. Make sharper choices.

Explore workshop
Tailored session or pathway

Innovation in practice

Learn how to turn uncertainty into useful evidence.

Explore workshop

What are you working through?

Interested in strategic moat? Tell us about your team, the situation and what you would like to leave with. We can shape a useful starting point together.

Prepare a message, then open it in your email app to review and send.

Your name, email and message are required.

Privacy · Prefer to write directly? info@inso.gg

INSO · Strategic Moat · Suggested workshop outline. Format and scope are agreed around your team. /workshops/strategic-moat