An OPSP turns your strategy into a working one-page plan. Use the blank template to record your values, purpose, long-term direction, annual goals, quarterly priorities and owners. Open the filled example alongside it so you can see the level of detail to aim for. If you need help deciding what belongs in each column, use our seven-column OPSP guide.
Download the blank plan and completed example
The blank PDF is the working document. The ABC Software example shows what a filled plan looks like; it is an illustration, not a set of answers to copy into your business.
Before you start filling in boxes
Bring the founder and the people who will own delivery into the same conversation. Gather your current revenue and profit numbers, customer evidence and existing priorities. If those people disagree on the core customer or what the business is trying to become, record that disagreement first. A neat PDF cannot settle a strategic choice for you.
If you are new to the framework, read the full guide to the seven columns before the planning session. This page is the place to get the files and check the finished plan.
The seven columns at a glance
- Core values: Which behaviours do you expect when decisions get difficult? Write them so a manager could recognise them in action.
- Purpose and BHAG: Why does the company exist, and what ambitious long-term destination follows from that purpose?
- Strategic objectives: What must become true over roughly three years? Include the capabilities and customer promises that make the financial goal possible.
- Annual goals: Which few measurable outcomes matter this year? Give each one an owner.
- Quarterly priorities: What will move those annual goals now? Decide what you will not do this quarter.
- Theme and critical number: What focus can the wider team remember, and what measure will show progress?
- Accountability: Who owns each outcome, how often will you review it, and what evidence will show it is done?
These are prompts, not the full method. The column-by-column guide explains the choices behind each one, with links to core values, BHAGs, brand promises, quarterly themes and OKRs.
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Check the plan before you share it
- Can someone outside the planning room name your core customer and the promise you make to them?
- Do the quarterly priorities support the annual goals, rather than forming a second wish list?
- Is there one accountable owner and a measure for each priority?
- Have you written down what you are stopping or postponing?
- Is the next review already in the calendar?
If a box still contains only a slogan, it is not ready to guide a decision. Revisit the underlying choice rather than polishing the wording. A useful OPSP gives the leadership team a shared answer when priorities compete.
What to do after the planning session
Share the agreed page with the people who own the work. Review the quarterly priorities and critical number regularly, and use the next quarterly session to decide what has changed. Keep the long-term purpose stable enough to guide choices, but update the operating commitments when the evidence changes.
Frequently asked questions
Is the one-page plan the whole strategy?
No. The page records the choices the team must act on. Customer research, financial models and the conversations that produced those choices can sit behind it. Use those supporting documents when a decision needs more detail, but keep the agreed priorities and owners visible on the one-page plan.
Who should write it?
The founder or chief executive should lead the decisions with the executive team. The people accountable for the annual and quarterly outcomes need to understand and own their parts of the plan. Build it together in a planning session, then name one person to keep the document current and schedule reviews.
What if we cannot agree on a column?
Leave the disagreement visible and resolve it before declaring the plan finished. The most valuable outcome of an OPSP session may be discovering that the team has been using the same words to mean different things. Record the competing options, decide what evidence would settle them, and assign someone to bring that evidence back.
Three ways I can help
- Book a call. Bring your current plan, or the gap where it should be, and we can work out which strategic choice needs attention.
- Read F**k Plan B for the founder lessons behind the planning and execution work.
- Subscribe to the newsletter for a weekly framework on scaling, leadership and execution.
About the author
Dominic Monkhouse scaled Rackspace UK and Peer 1 Hosting as Managing Director, taking both to a £30m annual run rate. He is the founder of Monkhouse & Company.