THE DATA & AI STRATEGY CANVAS
Ten questions every data & AI investment has to answer.
The Canvas doesn’t tell you what your strategy should be. It forces the organisation to confront the questions a credible strategy has to answer, starting with the business, not the technology.
It is the method behind every datazuum engagement, set out in full in The Strategy Canvas: A Field Guide for Data & AI.
Data & AI Strategy Canvas © 2026 by Samir Sharma, licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Free to use and share, with credit, for non-commercial purposes.
The ten points
START WITH THE WHY
The anchor that everything else is tested against.
Start with the “why.” What is the business trying to achieve?
STRATEGIC FRAMING
Turn ambition into decisions, opportunities and value.
What decisions must be enabled, and what are the key use cases driving those outcomes?
Where can AI or advanced analytics improve or accelerate those decisions?
How do we track and communicate value? What metrics matter?
STRATEGIC ENABLEMENT
What needs to be true for the value to be realised.
What data is needed? What products do we build (e.g., models, APIs, insights)?
Who is consuming the outputs? What are their needs and capabilities?
Are the platforms, infrastructure, tools and processes in place to support delivery?
STRATEGIC READINESS
Can the organisation fund, run and scale it without unacceptable risk?
How do initiatives align with wider business strategy and priorities? What other programmes do they connect to, depend on, or compete with?
Who owns what? How will it run sustainably, ethically, and at scale?
What’s the exposure (bias, compliance, reputational risk) and how will we mitigate it?
THE THINKING BEHIND IT
Five principles
Start with the business, not the technology
Data and AI are means to an end. The starting point is the business objective and the value the organisation is trying to create.
Make the decision explicit
Value is created when something changes, usually a decision. What decision are we trying to improve, and what happens if we do?
Quantify the opportunity
The expected value of improving that decision is the economic anchor for investment and prioritisation.
Define what needs to be true
A strong business case isn’t enough. The data, users, technology, operating model and controls all have to be in place.
Keep testing the value
It’s a Living Canvas, reviewed as strategy, assumptions, risks and priorities change, not a document completed once and shelved.
One Canvas, four levels
The same ten questions work from the boardroom down to a single use case.
Executive
Are we investing in the right transformation?
Decision: Where should we invest, and what should we expect in return?
Portfolio
Are we investing in the right things?
Decision: Which initiatives to fund, accelerate, change, pause or stop.
Programme
Is this programme still capable of delivering the value it was approved for?
Decision: Are we still on a credible path to the expected outcome?
Initiative
Is this opportunity actually worth pursuing?
Decision: Invest, investigate, defer or stop. “Do not proceed” is a valid outcome.
THE BOOK
Go deeper: the full method.
The Strategy Canvas: A Field Guide for Data & AI sets out the full method behind the Canvas, point by point. Endorsed by Bill Schmarzo, the “Dean of Big Data”.
Start with an hour.
A 60-minute Value Review, at no cost. We look at where your AI & data investment is and isn’t paying back, and you get a short written report afterwards.
No pitch deck. No account managers.
