Your strategy needs a tree

I love mental frameworks for building strategy.

They make your brain cells actually function. Instead of staring at a blank page wondering where to start or asking ChatGPT to do it for you, frameworks force you to think.

The whiteboard is the best tool for this. Drawing boxes and arrows, crossing things out – that's when strategy happens.

Today I'm sharing one framework that changed how I approach content decisions: the Opportunity Solution Tree (OST).

Teresa Torres created it for product teams in her book Continuous Discovery Habits. But it works beautifully for marketing too.

Think of it as a map for your content strategy. It helps you visualize all possible paths, plan your experiments, and test your assumptions before committing resources.

In today's newsletter:

• What an OST actually does

• How to build one for any marketing opportunity

• A complete example using returning site visitors

• Why this beats your current planning process

Most content decisions happen backwards

Someone says "we need more leads" and immediately everyone starts shouting solutions:

"Launch a webinar series!"

"Write more SEO content!"

"Start a podcast!"

But nobody stops to ask: What's the actual opportunity here? What problem are we solving? How will we know if it works? That's where the OST comes in.

The 4-step Opportunity Solution Tree (OST) framework for marketing 

Here is how Opportunity Solution Tree works.

Step 1: Define your outcome

Don't just set a vague goal. Define exactly what success looks like and how you'll measure it. 

Not "increase engagement" → "Double monthly recurring revenue," "Generate 10X qualified leads," or "Increase returning visitors by 50%."

Step 2: Map potential opportunities

Research your customers. What problems might bring them back? What gaps exist in their journey? List every opportunity that could potentially impact your metric.

Step 3: Generate solution hypotheses

For each opportunity, brainstorm solutions that could address it. These are hypotheses worth testing to see if they move your metric.

Step 4: Design experiments to test assumptions

Every solution is built on assumptions. Design small experiments to validate or invalidate each assumption before scaling up.

‍Let me show you how it works with returning site visitors

Returning visitors are significantly more likely to convert than first-time visitors, yet most content teams spend 95% of their effort chasing new traffic. Let me walk you through how you could use OST to approach the returning visitor challenge.

Desired outcome: Increase returning site visitors by 50%

Opportunity area 1: Leverage high-performing content

The opportunity to explore: Some pages might already be driving more returning visitors than others. What if we could identify and optimize these pages?

Hypothesis to test: If certain pages naturally attract returning visitors, enhancing these pages could amplify their effect.

Assumptions to validate:

• Some pages perform better at driving returns (check Google Analytics)

• Improvements to these pages will increase their effectiveness

• We can identify what makes these pages special

How to test:

• Use Analytics to identify top returning visitor pages

• A/B test enhancements on these pages

• Track returning visitor rates before and after changes

Opportunity area 2: Email capture and engagement

Three opportunities worth exploring:

1. Subscription visibility

• Hypothesis: Visitors might want to subscribe but can't find how 

• Assumption: Adding clear subscription CTAs will increase signups ‍

• Test: Add subscription options and measure conversion rates

2. Personalized content delivery

• Hypothesis: Different audiences have different content needs 

• Assumption: Segmented subscriptions will increase engagement 

• Test: Offer topic preferences at signup and track engagement by segment

3. Value exchange

• Hypothesis: People need immediate value to share their email 

• Assumption: Offering resources will increase conversion 

• Test: Create lead magnets and compare conversion rates vs. standard signup

Opportunity area 3: Social media as a return channel

The opportunity: Your audience might be active on social platforms where you're not present.

Hypothesis 1: Platform-specific value‍

• Assumption: Creating platform-native content will build the following ‍

• Test: Develop unique value props per platform and track follower growth

Hypothesis 2: Content distribution‍

• Assumption: Sharing content across social media will drive return traffic ‍

• Test: Try different approaches and measure click-through rates

Hypothesis 3: Remarketing‍

• Assumption: Targeted ads can bring visitors back ‍

• Test: Run small remarketing campaigns and track return rates

Look at the opportunity solution tree we've just created:

Building your own OST

Here's a Miro template for your Opportunity Solution Tree:

This works for any marketing opportunity as a group exercise

When you build your OST alone, you get one perspective. When you do it with your team, you get multiple viewpoints on opportunities and diverse solutions. So set aside 2 hours for a team session. Map out opportunities together, generate hypotheses, and prioritize which assumptions to test first.

Returning visitors is just one example. You could map:

• Reducing cost per lead (opportunity: current leads come from expensive channels)

• Improving email engagement (opportunity: subscribers signed up for different reasons)

• Increasing demo requests (opportunity: visitors don't understand the product)

• Growing newsletter subscribers (opportunity: value proposition isn't clear)

• Boosting content shares (opportunity: content isn't worth sharing)

Pick your outcome. Research your opportunities. Map solutions. Test assumptions.

Your next step: 

Pick one metric that matters most right now. Identify three opportunities that could impact it. Design one small experiment to test your first assumption this week.

See you next week

Have you built a content strategy for 2026 yet?

Kateryna

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