Frequently Asked Questions About Alex MH Smith Strategy Stack Blueprint
20 answers covering everything from basics to advanced usage.
// Basics
What exactly is the Strategy Stack Blueprint?
It's Alex MH Smith's end-to-end method for building a differentiated business strategy. Instead of treating strategy as one big idea, it stacks four dependent components: New Value and Key Innovation (what you DO), then Customer Story and Company Story (what you SAY). You build bottom-up from New Value, and each layer must serve the one beneath it.
Is strategy the same as my message or tagline?
No. Strategy is your internal read of the market and instructions to yourself — the New Value and Key Innovation. Your message is the Customer Story, which translates that strategy into an outward narrative. Confusing the two is a common pitfall: your tagline is a variant of the Customer Story, not the strategy itself.
What does 'increase demand, lower supply' actually mean?
It's the dual goal of strategy: simultaneously make more people want what you sell (demand) while ensuring they can only get it from you (supply). New Value drives demand; a defensible Key Innovation lowers accessible supply of that exact value. The combination creates genuine market leverage and skyrocketing profits — one without the other is weak.
What's the minimum I need before I can start building my stack?
You need a business description, the founder's background or origin story, and a clear target customer. Optional but helpful are any current differentiators and known competitors. The founder's origin matters more than people expect — it feeds both the 3 Ds (especially Disagreement) and the Origin layer of the Company Story.
// How To
How do I run the 'We Are the Only' test?
Complete this sentence: 'We are the only [category] that does [Key Innovation] so that customers get [New Value].' If you can fill it in clearly and credibly, your doing-half of the stack is solid. If it sounds vague or untrue, your New Value or Innovation needs more refinement before you move to the stories.
How do I pick the primary problem for my Customer Story?
List every problem that exists for the customer in the absence of your New Value, then select one primary problem by the combination of PAIN (how severe) and SCALE (how common). Choose the broadest, most widely applicable one — not the one that interests you most. Then phrase it in the customer's natural language.
How do I build a Company Story that isn't a boring mission statement?
Work through six parts in sequence: Origin (founder's human backstory), Problem Noticed (what's broken about the industry), Unique Belief (your contrarian insight), What You're Going To Do (the Key Innovation as inevitable action), What This Means for Customers (the New Value), and What This Means for the World (the purpose layer). Write it like an adventure, not corporate boilerplate.
How do I use Duplication without just copying my competitors?
Look outside your category entirely. Duplication means lifting a form of value from a completely unrelated industry and transplanting it into yours — like bringing 'freshness' from fresh produce into cosmetics. Copying competitors only yields incremental variation. The breakthrough comes from importing a value the market has never seen in your context.
// Troubleshooting
My differentiator is 'excellent service' — why isn't that enough?
Because 'excellent service' is a vague platitude with no tangible action behind it, so it fails the Key Innovation test. New Value requires New Action. Audit what you actually do differently — like a single named point of contact with a documented escalation guarantee — and formalise that specific, provable mechanism as your Innovation instead.
What if I'm not naturally contrarian and Disagreement yields nothing?
That's normal — most people aren't natural contrarians. The 3 Ds aren't all-or-nothing. If Disagreement produces nothing, move to Difference (audit accidental ways you already diverge from competitors) or Duplication (import value from an unrelated industry). Any one of the three can produce your New Value; you only need one clear result.
My layers feel disconnected — how do I fix the stack?
Check the red thread: New Value should run visibly through every layer. Ask if the Key Innovation directly produces the New Value, if the Customer Story translates it into customer-language, and if the Company Story's Unique Belief aligns with the Innovation. If any layer contradicts or feels detached, revise upward starting from the New Value.
I have a great offer but can't explain it to investors — where do I start?
Build the Company Story. It's designed for everyone who isn't a customer — team, investors, partners, press. Use the six-part structure, leaning hard on Origin and Unique Belief for humanity and conviction. A strong Company Story can carry even a mediocre strategy, so this layer is often the fastest fix for articulation problems.
// Comparisons
How does the Strategy Stack compare to a traditional SWOT or Porter's Five Forces?
SWOT and Porter's Five Forces are analytical frameworks that map your competitive landscape but rarely tell you what to actually do. The Strategy Stack is generative and prescriptive — it forces you to create New Value, commit to a tangible Innovation, and translate it into narratives. It ends in action and messaging, not just analysis.
How is this different from a StoryBrand or messaging framework?
StoryBrand-style frameworks focus almost entirely on messaging. The Strategy Stack shares the 'customer is the hero' principle (customer is James Bond, you're Q), but it insists you build genuine New Value and a Key Innovation first. Message without differentiated substance is empty; the Stack fixes the strategy before the story.
How does the Strategy Stack compare to a standard positioning exercise?
Standard positioning often just picks a category and claims a slot in the customer's mind. The Strategy Stack goes deeper: it demands you prove differentiation through a specific New Action, not just declare a position. Positioning is downstream of the Stack — your positioning becomes credible only once the New Value and Key Innovation exist.
// Advanced
Can I use just the 3 Ds and skip the rest of the stack?
You can use the 3 Ds standalone to spark differentiation ideas, but skipping the rest leaves you with an idea you can't prove or communicate. The value of the full Stack is coherence — validating the New Value, grounding it in a Key Innovation, and translating it into stories customers and teams actually respond to.
How do I use the nine types of innovation to find easier opportunities?
Scan all nine — Product Features, Production Method, Routes to Market, Service Bundling, Branding, Targeting, Customer Experience, Pricing, Culture — against your New Value. Product innovation is often the hardest and most expensive. Frequently a Pricing, Routes to Market, or Customer Experience innovation delivers the same New Value far more cheaply and defensibly.
Can a lack of credentials or an accidental quirk actually become my strategy?
Yes. Under Difference, accidental divergence is a rich source of New Value — the 'weirdness' that emerged organically. Under the Company Story, a founder's lack of formal credentials can become the Origin and Unique Belief rather than a liability, positioning the outsider perspective as the very thing that lets you fix the industry's flaws.
How often should I revisit the Strategy Stack once it's built?
Revisit whenever competitors close the gap on your New Value, when you enter a new market, or when demand or supply shifts. Because each layer depends on the one beneath it, a change in your New Value cascades upward through the Innovation and both stories. Treat it as a living document, not a one-time exercise.
Why is New Value the foundation rather than the customer or the market?
Because every business exists only to bring new, innovative value to the market. If the world would be fine without your business, it shouldn't exist. The customer and market matter, but they're served by New Value — you can't build a coherent Innovation or story on top of value the market already has plenty of.