From research to strategy

What the strategy phase does

Research gathers the facts about your brand, product, market, competitors, and audience. Strategy decides what to do with them. It runs four steps in a fixed order: positioning first, then value translation, then the objection map, and finally the concept lab. Each step reads the research phase and every step before it, which is why positioning leads and concepts come last.

Think of it like writing an essay. You settle your argument before you draft the paragraphs, because the paragraphs only make sense once the argument is set. Strategy works the same way: positioning fixes the stance, and everything downstream leans on it.

Where it runs

Strategy runs once automatically when you create a project, as part of the first-run setup. After that, you re-run it from the Sources page. Each section is a tile with its own Run button, so you can refresh one part without re-running the whole phase. Anything you leave alone keeps its previous output.

What you get

The phase writes one consolidated artifact with four parts. Positioning sets the angle and point of view. Value translation turns product features into benefits a buyer actually cares about. The objection map lists what makes people hesitate and how to answer each one. The concept lab drafts the creative ideas that later become ads.

Why order matters

Because each step builds on the one before it, a weak concept is usually a weak positioning problem in disguise, not a concept-generator problem. If the ideas feel generic, re-run positioning and value translation first, then re-run the concept lab so it starts from better inputs. Strategy is grounded in your project, so the more complete your brand details and research, the sharper the output.