# First 180 Days Strategy Memo
A strategy memo for a new AI leader's first six months.

_A scaffold for the strategy memo a new AI leader writes after their first read-out. Mission, risks, opportunities, milestones, asks, and how you will know it is working._

Used in: Lesson leadership/07 — https://vetslearn.com/lessons/leadership/07
Source: https://vetslearn.com/resources/templates/engineering#t-180-day-strategy-memo

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# Strategy Memo: First 180 Days

**From:** [YOUR NAME], [ROLE]
**Org:** [ORG]
**Start date:** [START DATE]
**Memo date:** [MEMO DATE]

---

## 1. Mission

*Fill this in: one paragraph. What this AI function exists to do for [ORG]. Tie it to a business outcome, not to technology.*

## 2. Where I found it

*Fill this in: a read-out of the state of play. Team, systems, vendors, spend, posture on risk. Two paragraphs. Plain words. No jargon.*

- Team: [size, composition, gaps]
- Systems in production: [count, what they do, who owns them]
- Vendors: [list, contract status, spend]
- Annual AI spend: [$]
- Eval coverage: [what fraction of systems have eval sets]
- Risk posture: [text]

## 3. Top 3 risks

*Fill this in: the three things that worry me most. Name them. Say what I am doing about each.*

1. **[Risk 1]** — [what it is, what I will do about it]
2. **[Risk 2]** — [what it is, what I will do about it]
3. **[Risk 3]** — [what it is, what I will do about it]

## 4. Top 3 opportunities

*Fill this in: three places we can get a real win in 12 months. Tied to revenue, cost, or mission outcomes. No "explore" projects in the top three.*

1. **[Opportunity 1]** — [expected outcome and rough scope]
2. **[Opportunity 2]** — [expected outcome and rough scope]
3. **[Opportunity 3]** — [expected outcome and rough scope]

## 5. Milestones

### Day 30
*Fill this in: what is done. Should be mostly listen-and-learn outputs, plus one or two small fixes.*

- [Milestone]
- [Milestone]

### Day 60
*Fill this in: the strategy is on paper. The team knows the priorities. One quick win shipped.*

- [Milestone]
- [Milestone]

### Day 90
*Fill this in: the first real project is in build. Eval sets exist for top systems. Vendor posture decided.*

- [Milestone]
- [Milestone]

### Day 180
*Fill this in: first real project is in production with measured impact. Risk register and system cards are live for top 3 systems. Hiring plan executed.*

- [Milestone]
- [Milestone]

## 6. Resource asks

*Fill this in: what I need from leadership. Headcount, budget, executive cover, policy changes. Tie each ask to a milestone it unlocks.*

| Ask | Why | Unlocks |
|---|---|---|
| [Headcount: N engineers] | [text] | [milestone] |
| [Budget: $X] | [text] | [milestone] |
| [Policy: data access] | [text] | [milestone] |

## 7. How I will know it is working

*Fill this in: the metrics I will report on every month. Pick metrics that move because the work moved, not vanity numbers.*

- [Business outcome metric — e.g. time-to-decision on claims down X%]
- [Production health — eval pass rate, incident count, cost per call]
- [Posture — % of systems with system cards, risk register coverage]
- [Team — open roles closed, retention, on-call load]

---

## How to use

Write this between day 30 and day 45 — early enough to set direction, late enough to know the ground truth. Keep it to two pages. Share it with your boss, your peers, and your team. The version your team sees should be the same version your boss sees. If you cannot name three real risks and three real opportunities, you have not finished listening yet.

## Check before you use it

- Every number in "where I found it" is sourced from a system, not from memory.
- The three risks and three opportunities survived a conversation with your team.
- Every ask is tied to the milestone it unlocks.
- The version your boss reads is the version your team reads.