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10 Free Strategic Planning Templates in ClickUp, Word, and Excel

ClickUp Contributor

February 9, 2023

Strategic planning is among the most important processes in any business. It builds the roadmap for the future, creating a framework against which every major business decision can be made and weighed.

But its importance goes beyond that as well. Every type of business planning, from action plans to sprint plans and resource planning , ultimately derives from the larger strategic plan. That means one thing above all: you have to get your strategic planning process right.

To get there, you need to start somewhere. The many resources related to planning are a great start. But even more specifically, you need a template that can help you plug in information, digest that information, and come up with a plan that everyone in the organization can follow.

What exactly that ideal template looks like depends on your needs and existing software. That’s why in this guide, we’re sharing our 10 favorite free strategic planning templates you can start using (almost) immediately.

What is a Strategic Planning Template?

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A strategic planning template is a roadmap to your business roadmap. It provides business leaders with the exact steps needed to build a plan that can outline the near- and long-term future of the business.

At its best, the template is a measurable tool that everyone involved in the planning process can follow. It helps you solidify where you are, and where you want to go.

And, just as importantly, it helps you consolidate that information into an actionable, measurable, and easy-to-process strategic plan that everyone in the organization can use.

Of course, there is no simple  best business strategy template. Just like a project plan can differ from a product roadmap , you’ll need a template that matches the way you work and the type of planning you’re doing.

That’s why this guide highlights not just one, but 10 free planning templates to cover a variety of needs.

A good strategic planning template accomplishes a few key goals:

• It establishes a clear timeline for the planning process
• It outlines the goals of the strategic plan and derives any actions and strategies from those goals
• It clearly outlines the individual tactics and overall business strategy underlying those goals
• It establishes a way to measure the progress and outcomes of implementing the plan
• It outlines clear responsibilities for individual tasks related to the planning process
• It provides check-in points and opportunities for the team to review and adjust as needed
• It’s customizable enough to make tweaks that can make the plan more relevant for your organization and business planning process

Most importantly, though, the strategic plan template streamlines the entire process. Whereas in processes like capacity planning , details matter above all, business strategy planning should focus on a broader viewpoint that helps every stakeholder involved quickly gain an overview of the plan and its connection to the business.

10 Strategic Planning Templates to Use for Your Team

If every strategic plan has the same goals, you might think that most of them are nearly identical. You’d be surprised.

Much like project planning , different templates can lead to very different outcomes. That’s why it’s best to consider a few free strategic planning templates before selecting the one that works best for your business and situation. To help you get started, these are our 10 favorites to use for your next strategic plan.

It’s a basic template with potential power behind it. ClickUp’s Strategic Roadmap List Template helps you visualize how your organization can get through its strategic plam, with custom fields ranging from the duration of individual tasks to the progress of those tasks, their impact, and their ease of implementation.

Within ClickUp, you’ll be able to view your Strategic Roadmap as a progress view. But, once tasks and deadlines are assigned to individual tasks, you’ll also be able to see a timeline or even workload view to ensure continued progress. While it’s a primarily list-based template, we especially enjoy the Gantt chart as a way to see how the individual tasks interact with each other regarding the larger timeline.

If you’re thinking of your strategic planning as basically bridging the gap between your company’s present and desired future state, this is the template for you. It’s more complex than the list-based template mentioned above, providing you with a more nuanced strategic roadmap once built.

ClickUp’s Strategic Roadmap Timeline Template defaults to a Gantt chart with sections for individual departments. From there, you can view a progress board and outline your current capacity. Meanwhile, a number of custom fields help you better plan through each of these efforts:

• Completion %
• Expected Outcome
• Strategy Progress
• Team Members

It might not be the right template if you’re just getting started with strategic planning. But for experienced leaders looking to take that planning process to the next level, it’s just the right outline.

It’s simple but beautiful. ClickUp’s Grand Strategy Matrix Template allows you to build a four-quadrant view of the strategic environment surrounding your organization, with a framework designed to help you understand what the path to your organization’s future might look like.

How you get to that path, of course, is up to you. The quadrants can be used for a simple SWOT analysis or for more complex planning processes, like finding market growth niches and opportunities in a tight competitive environment. Some of these options are pre-built into the template, while others can be customized to match your exact marketing plan or whatever else you need your strategic planning process to be.

For the visual thinkers among us, this ClickUp’s Strategic Plan Whiteboard Template is a perfect choice. Above all, it’s a visual road map that easily shows not just what steps are necessary for strategic planning, but also how those steps can (and should) flow into each other in the context of the larger project.

Of course, you can still assign different tasks and stages to individual members of the team to keep responsibilities intact and obvious. But the template’s flowchart nature and whiteboard feel also mean you can seamlessly adjust the process as needed.

The chart’s color coding ensures that anyone working on it keeps a clear overview of what’s needed and when.

A strategic plan isn’t just relevant organization-wide. A solid business strategy is just as important for individual units, and this template shows just how those differences can manifest themselves.

Think of this ClickUp’s Strategic Marketing Plan Template as a more practical opportunity to plan your marketing efforts. The default list view is sorted by the Objectives and Key Results (OKR) method, sorting tasks into defined overarching objectives for the larger marketing effort. 

But that’s only the beginning. Custom fields allow you to define the channels through which you’ll approach executing the plan, while the timeline view helps you keep track of progress. And of course, the Progress Board allows you to see how those stages you’ve defined ultimately lead to achieving your strategic goals.

Planning an event is hard work, and countless tasks will need need to be accomplished to ensure its success. A strategic plan template for that event, on the other hand, can keep a clear overview of the tasks needed and accomplished, and how everything connects to achieve core goals.

ClickUp’s Event Strategic Plan Template accomplishes that through a wide range of custom fields, from channel to budget, hashtags, the voice used, and more. It’s designed to plan multiple events at once, all overlapping to create an event-based strategy that helps to elevate your business or your marketing strategy.

Because of the complexities involved, we’re especially fond of the board-based Event Status view. This strategic plan template has a simple overview of where all events stand, and what still needs to be done.

Of course, the list and calendar-based views can also be helpful to get into some of the deeper nuances of event planning.

Strategic planning is not universally liked, in part because it tends toward the theoretical. Goals and tasks alike tend to be lofty for a true business strategy, focusing on the 30,000-foot view rather than the on-the-ground needs of the organization or your business partners.

That’s a major reason why we love ClickUp’s Action Plan Template . It’s a note-based system that folds all necessary tasks to move your strategic plan forward into three sections:

Within that structure, tasks are separated into daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly reviews to account for their varying complexities and timelines. The result is a simple overview of everything that needs to be done, which also does a great job highlighting existing successes and accomplished tasks for the entire team to see and celebrate. Now that’s a strategic plan.

What if we told you that you can build a strategic plan entirely in MS Word? That’s what this template seeks to accomplish, through easy-to-digest sections all designed to streamline the business strategy as much as possible:

• An executive summary that introduces the context and background of the strategic plan.
• A spot for your vision and mission statements to anchor your plan into your organization’s core being.
• A SWOT analysis to take an honest look at your organization and its environment (think vision statement)
• Business goals to define exactly what the strategic plan should accomplish
• A marketing plan that outlines the promotional side of the business strategy to hit those goals
• An operations plan that serves as the actionable road map toward achieving your goals
• Financial projections of the future with the goals for the business strategy (and business growth)
• The team that will be responsible for executing the strategic, marketing, and operational plan

Keep in mind that this plan is customizable to match your needs. It requires a bit more manual work than some of the other examples shared in this guide but can provide a nice overview of the plan you’re building.

If part of your strategic planning process includes presentations for stakeholders (and for most organizations, it does), why not go straight to the software in which those presentations will eventually happen?

This template is, at its core, a roadmap timeline similar to others we’ve discussed above. This business strategy template focuses on the individual milestones needed to get from goal setting all the way to execution. But it’s designed specifically for PowerPoint, with customization options that make it easy to dive in and tweak.

The download is free and easy, and customization only requires basic PowerPoint skills. The timeline is set to one year by default, so you might need to make some tweaks if your strategic plan spans multiple years across your vision statement.

MS Excel is not always user-friendly, but its cell-based build has enormous customization potential. It’s no surprise, then, that our final template on Excel is also one of the most comprehensive options in this guide for your business strategy needs.

The worksheet itself divides into three areas or tabs:

• Goal identification to identify key elements like goals for your organization through focused brainstorming.
• Goal setting, using the SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely) business strategy template for business goals.
• Action planning, converting those goals into tactics, and tracking the progress of those tactics towards attaining your goals.

Keep in mind that, thanks to its MS Excel nature, this is largely an internal planning document and not designed for external presentation. But within that context, the key elements of this business strategy template can be immensely helpful to get and keep your strategic planning on track.

Organizations: Whether it’s a non-profit, start-up, or multinational corporation, organizations across the board benefit from strategic planning. Such a plan offers a clear framework for decision-making, provides a roadmap for growth, identifies potential opportunities and risks, and facilitates better communication throughout the organization.

• Non-profit Organization Strategic Plan
• Startup Founders Strategic Plan
• Organizational Development Strategic Plan
• Healthcare Organization Strategic Plan

Leadership Teams: The leadership of any organization greatly benefits from strategic planning as it gives them a bird’s eye view of their organization’s existing state as well as a vision of where they intend to be. It helps identify key goals and objectives and set benchmarks to track progress.

• Team Leaders Strategic Plan
• Leadership Development Strategic Plan
• Community Leaders Strategic Plan
• Directors Strategic Plan

Supercharge Your Strategic Planning With ClickUp

It’s impossible to build a strategic plan in isolation. No matter the organization, chances are it’s a team effort. So why not expand that team to include the right tools? 

This is not an exaggeration: the right strategic planning template can make or break the process for you. Whether you’re trying to hit business objectives, run competitive analysis , or perform SWOT analysis, a clear outline lets easily build a plan that the entire organization can follow.

And when that template is free? All the better.

And here’s the best part: the software powering most of the templates we’ve shared above, ClickUp, is free to try as well. It’s a project management and productivity tool built for teams, which works out perfectly if that project is your next plan to create your overall business strategy. 

Ready to get started? Try ClickUp for free today.

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Essential Guide to Strategic Planning

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Strategic planning that works — even in volatile times

Just 29% of strategists say their organizations change plans fast enough to respond to disruption. What’s the problem? Most often, unclear objectives, poor strategic planning processes and disengaged business leaders.

Use this guide to:

Turn your strategy into action faster

Combat 7 mistakes  common to strategic planning

Capture and communicate your plans with an  exclusive one-page template

4 critical things to know about strategic planning

Especially in times of disruption, it’s key to understand what strategic planning is and does, what assumptions you need and how to leverage the value of adaptive strategy and scenario planning.

• What Is Strategic Planning?
• Strategic Assumptions
• Scenario Planning
• Adaptive Strategy

Strategy and strategic plans: How they are different and why it matters

Strategy creates a common understanding of what an organization wants to achieve and what it needs to do to meet its goals. Strategic plans bridge the gap from overall direction to specific projects and day-to-day actions that ultimately execute the strategy. Job No. 1 is to know the difference between strategy and strategic plans — and why it matters.

Strategy defines the long-term direction of the enterprise. It articulates what the enterprise will do to compete and succeed in its chosen markets or, for the public sector, what the agency will do to achieve its mission.

Strategic planning defines how the enterprise will realize its strategic ambitions in the midterm. Too often, strategic plans are created and then forgotten until the next planning cycle begins. A well-done strategic plan turns an enterprise strategy into a clear roadmap of initiatives, actions and investments required to execute the strategy and meet business goals.

Functional strategic plans document the choices and actions needed for the function to move from the current state to the desired end state, and contribute effectively to the enterprise business model and goals.

Business unit strategic plans define and finalize business unit goals, objectives and initiatives, while cognizant of enterprise priorities and external trends. 

Operational plans deal with the short-term execution of specific projects and changes, as well as any operational tasks not contained in the strategic plan.

If you’re responsible for functional strategy,  such as IT , create strategic frameworks focused only on what’s material — critical assumptions, relevant metrics and the key initiatives your function needs to contribute effectively to organizational goals, even as those goals shift.

Look out for key trends and disruptions, and test strategic assumptions

It’s critical to scan and respond to trends and disruptions that could impact your strategy and strategic plans — and change your strategic assumptions. Strategic planning cycles should incorporate some mechanism to vet assumptions for relevance (also see “Scenario Planning”).

Ignoring or devaluing trends and disruptions can leave critical gaps in both your strategic assumptions and your strategic planning process, because you may be overlooking both threats and opportunities for your value proposition and competitive positioning.

One Gartner survey found that only 38% of organizations have a formal process for this type of trendspotting. Gartner scopes the seven key areas of disruptive change as a “TPESTRE” of interconnected trend areas (see figure). 

Executives across functions and teams can use the TPESTRE construct to identify key trends at any time — from augmented human experience to purpose-driven organizations and digitally enabled sustainability — and analyze their impact. From there, they can build strategic assumptions around the trends as they begin to map what actions might be needed in terms of business models, people/capabilities, IT systems and resources.

After sudden humanitarian or geopolitical disruptions like the COVID-19 pandemic or Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a framework like TPESTRE can help you identify and monitor  a range of risks  that may affect your enterprise or function and that you may need to include in scenario planning. 

Scenario planning as a strategic planning tool for functions

Scenario planning enables executives and their teams to explore and evaluate plausible alternative futures to make strategic plans more robust and resilient. Pandemic-related disruption and volatility showed the importance of leveraging a range of scenarios to reset business strategy and strategic plans. 

Commonly used by strategists at the organizational level, scenario planning at the functional level is just as valuable. Many functional leaders have little experience with strategic scenario planning, even though they may regularly work with their CFO to build budget and forecast scenarios. Those who can learn and apply scenario planning in strategic planning can help their organization navigate volatile and dynamic conditions more effectively, especially in areas like supply chain , where disruption remains high.

Exploring scenarios enables you to determine suitable action plans or strategies for different possible futures. It reveals how to react to a specific future and which set of actions would make sense no matter what conditions ultimately unfold. 

For leaders of functional teams, developing scenarios and their underlying assumptions is in itself a useful exercise to corroborate or challenge strategies and keep them current.

The objective of scenario planning is to secure the best immediate outcome while preparing suitable alternative action plans, depending on how a situation unfolds. Proactively agreeing on both near-term operational decisions and long-term strategic plans will reduce the time it takes you to respond to emerging risks and opportunities. This can help your function preempt, rather than reactively control for, the negative effects of a major event or disruption.

Additional resources:

Guide to Scenario Planning for Functional Leaders

Scenario Planning for Supply Chain Leaders

Scenario Planning Ignition Guide for Marketing

Strengthen Your R&D Portfolio With Scenario Planning

Use adaptive strategic planning to enable a dynamic response

In an increasingly volatile and uncertain world, strategy can rapidly become out-of-date. To address this challenge, strategic planning must be adaptive. The faster the rate of change in operating conditions and the more disruptions you need to integrate into long-term strategy, the more adaptive your strategy models must be.

An adaptive strategy approach is what ensures your organization can spot new opportunities earlier and respond more quickly than your competitors, making you most likely to succeed in a dynamic digital world.

A truly adaptive strategy approach is consistent with four core practices (see figure) designed to move the enterprise from a rigid, top-down, calendar-based process to a more event-driven strategy approach. Functional strategy can incorporate the same principles. While a truly adaptive approach will be based on all four core practices, functional leaders can initially focus on the practices that address their immediate strategy challenges. 

Rather than requiring perfect or complete information to execute, adaptive strategy uses available information to identify immediate actions required for an enterprise or function to be successful. These actions may range from focusing on high-priority areas to making foundational investments or conducting experiments to test ideas. You can use insights from these actions, along with any new information and analysis, to identify your next set of actions.

Adaptive strategy requires you to review strategy whenever new (and relevant) information becomes available, so it’s important to continually scan the business context to identify changes and review — and, where necessary, adjust — strategy in response to changes. (Also see “Strategic Assumptions.”)

Check out more strategic planning essentials for your function

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Marketing Research & Development Risk Sales Service & Support Supply Chain

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Frequently asked questions

What is strategic planning.

Strategic planning is the process through which enterprises, functions and business units identify the roadmap of initiatives and portfolio of investments that will be required in the medium term to achieve long-term strategic objectives.

What are the four types of strategic planning and the three levels of strategic planning?

Strategic planning starts with setting strategy at the enterprise level, but that strategy must then be turned into action. The three levels of strategic planning typically refer to corporate versus business unit and functional. The four types of plans are typically strategic, operational, tactical and contingency.

What steps are involved in the strategic planning process?

To build a successful strategic plan with a consistent and sequential process,  functional leaders  should:

Ensure consistent usage of terms to minimize confusion in strategic planning and set a baseline for collaboration

Build a strong foundation for more detailed planning by setting or pressure-testing mission, vision and goal statements first

Streamline stakeholder input by limiting mission, vision and goal setting to senior leadership, and leaving objective, action plan, and measure and metric development to managers with execution expertise

What are the key elements of strategic planning?

The key elements of a successful strategic plan include:

Mission and vision.  The organization’s mission articulates its reasons for being, and the vision lays out where the organization hopes to be. The strategic plan, which links the two, must be adaptive enough to respond if the context changes during execution.

Strategic assumptions.  To build a successful strategic plan, leadership should scope for trends and disruptions, and assess their potential impact on enterprise goals.

Strategic plan design.  A rigorous strategic planning design effectively translates the strategy into plans that can and will be executed. Poor plans lead to poor execution.

What are the key terms in strategic planning?

Mission: Organization’s purpose

Vision: Desired future state

Objective: How to reach goals

Action plan: What’s needed to achieve objectives

Measures and metrics: To track progress toward goals

How do we design a strategic planning system?

Strategic planning “systems” refer to the tools used to document strategic plans. Gartner urges organizations not to focus on strategy in terms of the document they’re creating, but instead focus on turning strategy into an easily communicated action plan.

What is a strategic action plan?

The strategic action plan is a formal document that serves as the primary source of information for how objectives will be executed, monitored, controlled and closed. Many organizations also deploy an associated but separate “action plan” for achieving the operating model. 

What are strategic measures and metrics?

Measures are observable outcomes that allow organizations to evaluate the efficacy of their action plans. Metrics quantify those observed changes to enable an organization to concretely quantify its progress and stay aligned to its chosen measures.

What are the 7 key success factors involved in strategic planning?

These seven success factors are key to producing high-quality strategic plans that will be successfully executed yet responsive to change:

Focus on designing a minimally viable strategy.

Customize planning efforts to meet participants where they are.

Sketch out initiative design before prioritizing strategic actions.

Be clear about who owns what.

Cascade plans side to side, not just top-down.

Focus performance measures on key assumptions.

Pressure-test plans against a narrow set of future scenarios.

Drive stronger performance on your mission-critical priorities.

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A project timeline shows all the practical details about your project deliverables, such as deadlines, assignees, and action items.

What should a project timeline include?

A project timeline should include dates, deadlines, task description or title, the duration of the task (if needed), assigned person, and dependencies.

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Strategic planning template

Goal setting defines your vision, strategic planning gets it done. Use a custom strategic planning template to outline key objectives that—once completed—will turn your vision into reality.

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When you’re first mapping out your business strategy, how do you know what to prioritize? Strategic planning templates outline your key initiatives and the tasks that will help you achieve them. By connecting your work to overarching company mission and vision statements, you can see exactly how the work your team does supports business goals. We’ll show you how to create your own custom strategic planning template so you’re always prepared.

What is a strategic planning template?

Your strategic plan outlines longer-term goals and ambitions, but these will most likely need to be changed on a routine basis. Creating a strategic planning template allows you to quickly and easily make adjustments to your plan, without needing to start from scratch. Plus, larger organizations might need multiple strategic plans at once. Creating one template that you can use cross-functionally helps you streamline work across teams, so all projects lead back to your biggest company goals. 

Benefits of using a strategic planning template

Using a strategic planning template gives you a structure for your strategy. Once you’ve created your template, you can:

Quickly reference and share key initiatives with stakeholders .

Proactively gauge workloads and resources before launching new projects.

Reduce the amount of time teams spend waiting for directives, because everyone knows what needs to be done and which priorities come first.

How to create a strategic planning template

A strategic planning template takes the guesswork out of strategy. Once it’s created, you know exactly what you need to do—down to the smallest tasks—to hit your loftiest strategic goals . 

1. Create a mission and vision statement

The mission is your overarching company purpose and the reason your product or service exists. Similarly, your vision is where you see your company going. Writing these is the first step in defining who you are as a business and what you hope to accomplish. Then, include them in your template to ensure new strategic plan is aligned with your company’s mission or vision.

2. Find out your market position

Once you determine your mission (what you want to help solve), look at how you can use your unique offerings to accomplish it. Use a competitive analysis or SWOT analysis to determine where you stand in the marketplace, and look for the gaps (opportunities) where your company can outperform others. Review all data you have about your company, including market insights, customer feedback, and employee insights before building out your strategic planning template. 

3. Build your template

Your strategic planning template will act as a central source of truth for much of your business or team planning and strategy, so it should connect your company’s larger initiatives to project planning . The most efficient way to do this is with project management software , where you can include all relevant information in the same space as your plan. Here, you can attach key elements to your template, including goals , milestones , and to-do lists —so you can see how each action directly ties back to the bigger-picture company vision.

When creating your template, create sections for:

Your vision and mission statement: So you can always tie strategies back to your company’s core purpose.

Competitor information: Include information from your competitive analysis that shows crucial aspects of your current business model, including pricing, marketing strategy , and performance features. 

Key performance indicators (KPIs): Use KPIs (measurable metrics to see how you’re progressing towards your goals) to ensure your strategic plan stays on track.

Items you won’t work on. To stay focused and prevent scope creep , it’s just as important to know which elements to skip. For example, if you’re a startup that needs to sparingly allocate resources, you might decide that social media planning is not a top priority right now.

When to use a strategic planning template

As a general rule, you can use strategic planning templates for any large-scale strategic objectives or business goals. Often, strategic plans are used by new businesses or during long-term planning. For example, if you’re a startup, you can use a strategic plan to clarify direction and get more organized about action steps. Or if you’re a long-standing business, you can use a strategic 10 year plan to determine what’s next for the company. Non-profits also use strategic planning for transparency with donors to show how they’re putting donations to good use.

Integrated features

List View . List View is a grid-style view that makes it easy to see all of your project’s information at a glance. Like a to-do list or a spreadsheet, List View displays all of your tasks at once so you can not only see task titles and due dates, but also view any relevant custom fields like Priority, Status, or more. Unlock effortless collaboration by giving your entire team visibility into who’s doing what by when.

Goals . Goals in Asana directly connect to the work you’re doing to hit them, making it easy for team members to see what they’re working towards. More often than not, our goals live separate from the work that goes into achieving them. By connecting your team and company goals to the work that supports them, team members have real-time insight and clarity into how their work directly contributes to your team—and company—success. As a result, team members can make better decisions. If necessary, they can identify the projects that support the company’s strategy and prioritize work that delivers measurable results. 

Custom fields . Custom fields are the best way to tag, sort, and filter work. Create unique custom fields for any information you need to track—from priority and status to email or phone number. Use custom fields to sort and schedule your to-dos so you know what to work on first. Plus, share custom fields across tasks and projects to ensure consistency across your organization. 

Dependencies . Mark a task as waiting on another task with task dependencies. Know when your work is blocking someone else’s work, so you can prioritize accordingly. Teams with collaborative workflows can easily see what tasks they’re waiting on from others, and know when to get started on their portion of work. When the first task is completed, the assignee will be notified that they can get started on their dependent task. Or, if the task your work is dependent on is rescheduled, Asana will notify you—letting you know if you need to adjust your dependent due date as well. 

Google Workplace . Attach files directly to tasks in Asana with the Google Workplace file chooser, which is built into the Asana task pane. Easily attach any My Drive file with just a few clicks.

Dropbox . Attach files directly to tasks in Asana with the Dropbox file chooser, which is built into the Asana task pane.

Slack . Turn ideas, work requests, and action items from Slack into trackable tasks and comments in Asana. Go from quick questions and action items to tasks with assignees and due dates. Easily capture work so requests and to-dos don’t get lost in Slack. 

OneDrive . Attach files directly to tasks in Asana with the Microsoft OneDrive file chooser, which is built into the Asana task pane. Easily attach files from Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and more.

What are the steps used in the strategic planning process?

To use your template for strategic planning , follow these four steps: Know where you are now, develop a strategy, create a plan, and share it with others.

How do you create a strategic planning template?

Create mission and vision statement to inform your template, then build a template with space for your company information (including a competitor analysis to show your market fit), key objectives, goals, and metrics that will let you know when you’ve been successful.

Why is having a strategic planning template important?

Strategic planning templates outline the key elements you need to give structure to your loftier goals and overarching company mission—including short-term goals, KPIs, and competitive analyses.

I work at a startup, do I need a strategic planning template?

Yes, startups and small businesses can benefit from strategic planning templates. They’re completely customizable, so you can create a template that fits your exact needs—then adjust it as your company changes and grows.

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Set clear goals and streamline your planning process—so every level of your company is aligned on what’s important.

Competitive analysis template

The more you know about your competitors, the better your strategy will be. Competitive analysis templates use a data-driven approach to see exactly how your business, products, and features compare to your competition.

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Does your team know what to do during a crisis? Using a crisis management plan template can help keep all your employees on the same page.

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Learn how to create a customizable template in Asana. Get started today.

20 Free Strategic Plan Templates (Excel & Cascade) 2023

There are no shortcuts to success when it comes to driving profitable business growth. It’s hard. It’s challenging. It’s a grind. But you know what makes it even harder? Lack of guidance. No direction. No accountability.

That’s why we compiled our best-of-the-best, most popular, crème de la crème strategic plan templates to help you achieve business goals faster. And they are yours—for free.   You can use these templates to make strategic plans for your business strategy, different business functions, or teams. Or you can use them as an aid in your analysis as part of the planning process.

101,347 strategy pros have already used them and added them to their strategy playbook. What are you still waiting for?

In this article, you will get:

• 20 free strategic plan templates that will help you to build a roadmap and execute it
• A quick rundown of 7 steps you shouldn't miss in strategic planning

What Is A Strategic Plan Template?

A strategic plan template is a tool that helps leaders translate business strategies into actionable steps with a clear roadmap , projects, deliverables, budgets, and owners. It provides a decision-making framework and ensures that all initiatives and resources within an organization align with the overall business strategy.

Think of it like a map that helps you navigate from point A to point B. It lays out roads and milestones to help you get to your destination, all while keeping you focused on your company goals.

In other words, a strategic business plan helps you create alignment and focus across all levels of your organization to maintain momentum and successfully execute your strategies .

And the best part is that it allows you to monitor performance in one place without having to switch between spreadsheets and disconnected systems. This simplifies identifying areas for improvement and measuring progress in real-time. With a well-integrated system, data errors are reduced, and performance analysis and strategy reporting become easier.

With the right template, you’ll be able to keep your team (or teams) on track and identify red flags before it's too late.

20 Strategic Plan Templates To Turn Your Goals Into Action

Success doesn't follow a set path—that's why this article gives you multiple strategic planning templates. Each is for a specific use case or team within your organization. Plus, you can pick between Cascade or Excel version—whichever works best for you.

1. Strategic Planning Template

If you're tired of using complicated spreadsheets for strategic planning, you’ll love the Strategic Planning Template —Cascade version!

This Cascade template offers you a better way than Excel and other static tools. It’s packed with pre-filled examples and features that will help you create a clear roadmap with timelines, KPIs, goals, and owners. You’ll be able to bring in your team and collaborate to transform goals into results faster than ever.

And there’s more! 👀

You’ll also get access to additional features like Dashboards , Timeline View, and Strategy Maps . This will help you pinpoint performance at any given moment and track progress so you can take corrective action before it’s too late.

You’ll be able to plan, execute , measure, and adapt your strategic plan in one place. You can even create multiple strategic plans and link them together so you have full visibility into performance.

Looking for a way to save time and automate your reports?

Cascade makes it easy for you with powerful Reports . With this template, you’ll get access to integrations that will help you automatically track key performance metrics and pull data into reports that can be easily customized to fit your target audience's needs.

How to use this template?

Start by filling out the objectives, goals, and KPIs, and start executing your plan right away!

💡Best for: This is a general, pre-filled strategic planning template, so you can use it as inspiration and set your own strategic goals. It’s suitable for outcome-oriented teams at any level of organization, regardless of industry or company size.

👉 Click here to get your FREE Strategic Planning Template (Cascade version).

2. Strategic Plan Template (Excel)

Not feeling ready to elevate your strategic planning and execution to the next level?

Our simple Strategic Plan Template in an Excel spreadsheet will help you fill out key elements of a strategic plan, including the vision statement, strategic objectives, and key performance indicators (KPIs). With this template, you can also add an executive summary and create a one-page strategic plan that you can quickly share with your team or leadership.

Download your Excel template here.

However, Excel isn’t the best way to create a strategic plan . Here’s why:

• You usually end up with multiple strategic planning documents that are difficult to align and track in real-time.
• When you are using manual methods, using spreadsheets to track performance, you run the risk of errors.
• You spend too much time collecting data and pinging your team members to collect the latest information on progress.

Excel is a great starting point for strategic planning, but you should consider the Excel alternative to streamline strategic planning and execution— Cascade , the strategy execution platform designed for teams of all sizes.

“ Cascade provides a readily accessible platform for hosting our strategy and enables us to generate live updates at the push of a button. It has increased transparency and accountability for our Strategic Priorities and has allowed us to remove silo working and improve alignment . The real game changer from my perspective is the reporting function. Cascade has turned a labor-intensive manual process into something which can be completed in minutes . ” - Enterprise user, Source: G2 review .

3. Business Strategy Template

Like the general strategic planning template above, the Business Strategy Template is loaded with features that will help you achieve business goals faster.

You’ll be able to set your organization’s strategic direction, long-term goals, business objectives, and KPIs to measure progress.

This business plan template will help you communicate business priorities, break down siloed teams, and gain real-time visibility into what’s happening across the business.

💡Best for: This is a pre-filled business strategy template, so you can use it as inspiration and streamline your business planning process. It can be used by leadership teams in organizations of any size, including enterprises and startups.

👉 Click here to get your Business Strategy Template.

4. Operations Plan Template

Operations are the core engine of an organization’s performance. With this Operational Plan Template , you'll be able to plan your company's operational strategy in a way that helps your employees maximize the resources you have and gain a competitive edge.

You can build a high-level strategic plan for your operations or set goals for each of your departments. This will help you keep your teams accountable for progress and have visibility into what’s happening in your key areas.

By using Reports , you can build tailored progress reports and provide up-to-date information to your executive team at any time. This will help you save time, ensure accuracy, and build trust with your board by giving them insights into the company’s performance.

On top of that, you can link your operational plan template with the overarching business strategy. This will help you stay aligned with business goals, and your teams will have the needed context to make aligned decisions on a daily basis.

💡Best for: Chief operating officers (COOs) and operations teams that need to align day-to-day operations with strategic business goals and ensure they deliver on performance.

👉 Click here to get your free Operational Plan Template.

5. Human Resources Plan Template

A strong HR Strategic Plan Template is very helpful not only in the hiring process but also in defining the workplace culture and the types of people your organization wants to work with. With this template, you can set KPIs and track progress toward set targets in real time.

💡Best for: Business leaders, HR managers, and HR teams that need to support business goals with a clear HR roadmap.

👉 Click here to get your free HR Strategy Template.

6. Balanced Scorecard Template

A balanced scorecard (BSC) is a strategic planning tool that helps organizations track, monitor, and execute their business strategy.

This template will help you set goals, KPIs, and projects for each of the four perspectives within the balanced scorecard framework.

You’ll also get access to Dashboards where you can set up real-time dashboards to monitor progress within each perspective. Using the Cascade template, you will have a complete view of your balanced scorecard in one place.

💡Best for: Strategy teams, business leaders, and managers that are using a balanced scorecard methodology in their organizations.

👉 Click here to get your Balanced Scorecard Template.

7. OKR Template (Excel)

In recent years, OKRs have become one of the most popular performance management frameworks. Some are raving fans, and others cringe at their mention. If you fall into the first category, here's the OKR template that'll help you set and meet your OKRs.

You can use it to set OKRs at a company, team, or individual level.

💡Best for: Business and team leaders who are already familiar with the OKR framework and want to track performance.

👉 Read more and grab your OKR Template here.

8. Digital Transformation Plan Template

A digital transformation goes beyond implementing digital tools in your processes. It requires an organization-wide shift. This Digital Transformation Strategic Planning Template will help you build a digital transformation plan that takes into account all areas of your organization that need to change.

You'll be able to define focus areas, set clear goals, KPIs, and projects, which are all needed for a successful transformation.

Digital transformation is the responsibility of the whole organization. Using this template, you’ll make sure your team has the context and the right information so they can help you implement digital transformation initiatives across the organization.

Another key benefit of this template is that you’ll have all the data centralized in one place. This will help you make informed decisions and keep your digital transformation strategy from failing.

And yes, you can connect it with your favorite business tools , including Power BI, Tableau, Microsoft Teams, Slack, and Microsoft Outlook.

💡Best for: Leadership, CIOs, transformation managers , and teams responsible for developing a digital transformation roadmap and implementing initiatives across the organization.

👉 Click here to get your Digital Transformation Strategic Planning Template.

9. IT Strategy Template

This Cascade IT Strategic Plan Template will help you outline your bold initiatives to transform, modernize, and optimize your IT landscape. Bring in your IT team and collaborate on shared goals.

Also, you'll be able to link your IT strategic plan to your business strategy and ensure the executive team understands how IT projects help achieve business goals. You’ll be able to demonstrate the interdependencies across IT initiatives that impact financial performance.

This template will help you prioritize key IT initiatives to support business outcomes and keep track of progress.  

💡Best for: CTOs, CIOs, IT directors, and IT teams that are responsible for IT strategic planning and implementation.

👉 Click here to get your free IT Strategic Plan Template.

10. Change Management Plan Template

Need a template to build a change management plan that will support your business strategy? Look no further.

This Change Management Plan Template will help you define a clear timeline, action steps, and clear expectations for those who will be involved in change implementation.

💡Best for: Leaders who own the change strategy and need to make a plan and monitor key metrics associated with change initiatives.

👉 Click here to get your Change Management Template.

11. Digital Marketing Strategy Template

Build your digital marketing plan with this free template. You’ll be able to set goals, assign owners, and track the performance of key marketing metrics. This Digital Marketing Plan Template can be your living document as you scale marketing activities and serve as a North Star for your marketing team.

💡Best for: This template is designed for marketing teams aiming to expand their presence virtually and businesses aiming to go global or gain an international customer base. Digital content creators, project management teams, social media managers, digital CRM analysts, e-commerce executives, public relations specialists, and user experience specialists might also find this template useful.

👉   Click here to get your FREE Digital Marketing Strategy Template.

12. McKinsey's 3 Horizons Strategy Template

This strategic planning template is based on McKinsey’s Three Horizons Framework . It helps you organize the organization’s goals into three timeframes:

• Horizon 1: Short-term initiatives and projects that will help you achieve business goals within a few months or a year. The focus of this horizon is to maintain and defend your core business.
• Horizon 2: This horizon focuses on extending your current business models that will pay off in 2 or 3 years.
• Horizon 3: Long-term strategic initiatives and investments that will create new business models or products in 3-5 years. Or later - depending on your strategic planning cycles.

The key benefit of the Three Horizons template is that it gives you a complete picture of your three horizons. On top of that, you'll be able to update key goals and initiatives with just a few clicks. A new update will be reflected in all subgoals or project plans that are linked. If you want to outperform your rivals or merely survive in uncertain times, you must be able to quickly adapt your strategy and plans.

💡Best for: Leadership and strategy teams who are responsible for strategic planning at a company level.

👉 Click here to get your Three Horizons Strategic Plan Template.

13. Retail Strategic Plan Template

This Retail Strategic Plan Template provides an example of a corporate strategic plan for companies in the retail industry. You can use it as inspiration to develop a strategic plan for your retail business .

💡Best for: Strategy teams and business leaders within the retail industry.

👉 Click here to get your FREE Retail Strategic Plan Template.

14. SWOT Analysis Template (Excel)

A SWOT analysis is a strategic planning tool that helps you identify the internal strengths, weaknesses, and external opportunities and threats that can impact the organization’s growth initiatives and pursuit of its goals.

You can also use it to perform a competitive analysis but you need to look at it through different lenses—from the competitor’s perspective.

💡Best for: Leadership, strategy teams, and other functional teams that are responsible for formulating strategies and strategic plans.

👉 Click here to download your SWOT Analysis Template.

15-17. Internal Analysis Toolkit

In this collection, you will find 5 different templates to help you with internal analysis, including:

• Gap Analysis Template
• McKinsey 7S Framework Template
• Core Competencies Analysis

An internal analysis is an important step before drafting a strategic plan. It will help you carry out your competitive analysis, identify your current situation, and set action plans and relevant strategic goals.

💡Best for: Leadership, strategy teams, and other stakeholders that are involved in the strategic planning process.

👉 Get your internal analysis toolkit here.

18. VRIO Strategy Template

What’s the point of analysis if you don't use those insights to solve your business problem?

VRIO analysis helps you look at your resources and skills to see where your business is lacking. This is important if you want your business to build a sustainable competitive advantage.

Once you’ve found your gaps, you need to make a plan and set goals that will help you develop the missing resources and capabilities.

This VRIO Strategy Template will help you set clear strategic objectives, assign KPIs, and monitor performance so you can gain a competitive advantage and a market leadership position.

💡 Best for: Strategy teams, COOs, and portfolio managers who are in charge of business development and business strategic planning.

👉 Click here to get your free VRIO Strategy Template.

19. Nonprofit Business Plan Template

Our Nonprofit Business Plan Template provides you with a comprehensive framework to develop a strategic plan specifically tailored to the unique needs and challenges of nonprofit endeavors. It serves as a roadmap, guiding you through the strategic planning process and ensuring that your nonprofit's initiatives are aligned with your core mission and objectives.

💡 Best for: Nonprofit leaders, board members, and teams dedicated to advancing nonprofit missions.

👉 Get your Nonprofit Business Plan Template here

20. Operating & Financial Model Template (Excel)

This template is your go-to for turning numbers into smart moves. You can establish your financial projections, automate your P&L statements, key financial and operational metrics, and even gain access to real-time automated dashboards.

With our Operating & Financial Model Template in Excel format, you'll grasp what your financial and operational metrics are really saying and act on these insights. Keeping a close eye on these key indicators will allow you to approach your planning process with clear data rooted in reality.

👉 Get your Operating & Financial Model Template here!

📚 Read our article to learn more about this template : The Ultimate Operating & Financial Model Template (Free Spreadsheet)

👀 Did you find what you were looking for? If not, you can explore our template library with 100+ strategy templates that will assist you in planning and executing your strategy. You can select between various strategic planning templates tailored for business leaders, specific departments, or industries.

5 Steps You Shouldn't Miss In The Strategic Planning Process

Here’s a short recap of each step so you know what to keep in mind before diving deep into the strategic planning process.

Step 1: Decide on your key metrics

How can you make a plan if you don’t know where you want the plan to take you?

This is the moment where you define your desired future state and align on the key metrics the whole company will need to work on to get there.

These should be no more than 4-5 and present in every strategic discussion.

💡 Pro Tip : To be able to set realistic key metrics for the future, you need to understand where you are today. Maybe you have a clear diagnosis of your current state, but if you don’t, we suggest you assess it before setting these metrics. But beware of analysis paralysis! Make a quick analysis and move.

Step 2: Choose your focus areas

Now that you know where you need to go, you can give your plan a little structure by setting focus areas. These are the areas that you’ll want to focus on to achieve those key metrics you defined in the previous step.

📚Recommended reading : Strategic Focus Areas: How To Create Them + Examples

Step 3: Define your strategic objectives

Strategic objectives are high-level statements that outline exactly what you want to accomplish by a specific deadline.

In other words, it is something that can be tangibly achieved and should contribute to achieving at least one of your strategic focus areas.

📚Recommended reading : How to Write Strategic Objectives .  

Step 4: Assign projects & set KPIs

Projects and KPIs will ensure you move forward toward achieving your strategic objectives.

Projects will determine the actions that you’ll carry out to achieve the objectives, and your KPIs will help you understand and measure the progress toward them.

Having projects and KPIs in place will provide a clear roadmap with important milestones you need to hit to get closer to achieving your key metrics.

💡 Pro Tip : KPIs are necessary for any business, whether public, private, or non-profit, so think about the KPIs that are more relevant to your organization. To make them realistic and achievable, we suggest you use the SMART methodology.

📚Recommended reading:

• How To Create Effective Projects
• How to write KPIs

Step 5: Constantly monitor and iterate

Things don’t always work out the way we plan.

Part of building your strategic plan is to monitor its progress toward the goals you set. With real-time tracking, you can quickly pinpoint those things that aren’t working and adapt fast to get back on track. That’s why strategic planning must be an iterative process .

🎁 Bonus Tip: Don’t forget your core elements—Vision Statement & Core Values

This is not a step in your strategic planning process, but it’s an important consideration.

Always remember to align your plans with the overarching core elements of your organization:

• Vision statement— your company’s North Star that guides the direction
• Mission statement —the “why” behind your company’s existence
• Core values— the behaviors you celebrate and preach as a company
• How To Write A Good Vision Statement
• How to Create Company Values

Now that you know the steps you need to effectively plan your strategy, get your FREE strategic planning template to streamline the process!

Use Cascade To Plan And Execute Your Strategy 🚀

Too often, strategies live in the minds of intellectuals, spread through the organization via a fancy PowerPoint once a quarter. In truth, this approach will never work.

Organizations today are operating on razor-thin margins, and leaders need to be able to guarantee organizational-wide alignment, real-time visibility of the progress, and accelerated decision-making to maximize efficiency.

This is where Cascade becomes your favorite business tool. Cascade is the #1 strategy execution platform that helps organizations embrace a strategy rooted in reality.

With Cascade, you get less chaos, more visibility, and faster results. By connecting your metrics, initiatives, and investments to your business performance, you’ll be able to make better decisions, faster.

Here’s what you get with Cascade:

• Streamline strategy development by simplifying complexity.
• Directly link your business data to core initiatives.
• Gain insight into the synergy of various organizational plans.
• Monitor activity interactions, log dependencies, blockers, and risks.
• Utilize dashboards and reports to assess strategic performance and share with stakeholders.
• Enjoy over 1,000 integrations with popular business tools like Teams, Jira, Airtable, Microsoft Outlook, Power BI, and more.

Streamline your strategic planning process with our tested and proven strategic plan templates .

What is the purpose of a strategic plan?

A strategic plan helps you build a roadmap to get your business or team from where it is today to where it wants to be in the future. It provides strategic clarity to all involved stakeholders, so they can make informed decisions on a daily basis.

How do you write a strategic plan?

One of the most effective ways to write your strategic plan is to choose one of the strategic planning models and follow step-by-step instructions. Read more in this in-depth overview of the 5 best strategic planning models.

What are the 7 elements of a strategic plan?

The seven elements of a corporate strategic plan are vision, values, focus areas, objectives, KPIs, projects, and initiatives . You can write a strategic plan for a team or department focusing only on five key elements—without vision and values.

Who should use a strategic planning template?

Anyone in a leadership role who needs to align their team (or teams) on specific goals, objectives, and initiatives, should use a strategic planning template. It's also helpful for anyone who needs to create a visual representation of their strategies, so they can be communicated and implemented across the organization.

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Your toolkit for strategy success.

What is strategic planning

Imagine you're ready to expand your thriving business to another market. Would you choose that market based on where you'd like to vacation, or just ask ChatGPT to decide for you? That wouldn’t be strategic, and it could backfire. The smart business move would be to assess risks, opportunities, regulations, competition, and the local business landscape—then use your analysis to plan your next move.

For businesses, strategic planning can make all the difference between expanding market share and closing up shop. Read on to find out how to excel at strategic planning.

What is strategic planning?

Whether your organization is a startup or established business charting the way forward, a strategic plan is a vital tool for success—and you can lead the charge. Strategic planning is the process of putting your best business theories to the test in the marketplace. Your strategic planning process starts with defining a mission/vision statement and setting key goals. To achieve those goals, you create a detailed plan, or strategy map .

Once you put that strategic plan into motion, you're no longer just reacting to market forces. You're proactive, blazing your own trail to your desired destination. There’s no better way to ensure that decisions are evidence-based, forward-looking, collaborative, and aligned with your entire organization’s long-term objectives.

Think of your business as an orchestra. No matter how skilled your musicians are, if they all play a different tune, you won't like what you hear. Wouldn’t you rather start out with sheet music and a brilliant conductor? An organization can make decisions without a strategic plan in place, just like an orchestra can play without a conductor. But when individuals or departments make decisions based on opinion, guesswork, or instinct, you can end up with disorganized, inefficient use of time and resources—and that’s not music to anyone’s ears.

How is strategic planning different from other plans?

Roger Martin, one of the world’s leading thinkers on strategy, cautions that “a plan is not a strategy.” A plan is comfortable because you control the levers, like time and costs. But strategic planning challenges you to put strategy to the test, making “an integrative set of choices that positions you on a playing field of your choice in a way that you win .”

Benefits of strategic planning

A strategic plan can be a competitive advantage. Harvard Business Review found that up to 67% of HR and IT departments have strategies of their own that don’t align with the larger corporate strategy. The bad news gets worse: 95% of employees don’t understand their organization’s strategy. Clear, effectively communicated strategic plans position organizations to outperform competitors struggling to articulate cohesive strategies to their employees.

With a strategic plan, you can help your organization to:

• Communicate priorities to employees at all levels
• Allocate resources appropriately to meet goals
• Track progress objectively
• Make clear decisions more efficiently
• Avoid mistakes caused by short-term thinking

3 strategic planning best practices

• Consider it a learning process. Creating strategic plans teaches teams to think more strategically, preparing decision-makers to make choices rationally under pressure.
• Make comprehensive plans. Research shows a thorough, comprehensive planning process yields strong results. Consider a variety of viewpoints and multiple options before setting your strategic objectives.
• Conduct regular updates. The most successful organizations are nimble, making wise strategic decisions in real time as circumstances change. Revisiting plans frequently with key decision-makers helps keep your strategy relevant and responsive.

Who belongs on strategic planning teams?

Strategic planning teams tackle key responsibilities: defining company mission/vision statements, setting goals, identifying opportunities, evaluating risks, and plotting a course to meet objectives. To achieve this ambitious agenda,  your team should cover a broad spectrum of viewpoints and roles, including:

• VPs and C-suite executives who must be consulted, according to your RACI matrix
• Representatives from various departments, team leads, and department heads who are responsible or accountable for outcomes
• Other key stakeholders to keep informed, such as board members or investors

Not sure who your key stakeholders are? Check out the FigJam stakeholder analysis template to identify valuable collaborators right from the start, but make sure the group doesn’t get too big. Large groups can get bogged down in strategic planning discussions.

Strategic planning in 5 steps

Your organization's strategic planning process may take slightly different steps depending on its size and needs, but most organizations follow these five basic steps.

1. Define the organization's mission, vision, and values .

These elements of strategic planning inform all of your objectives and the overall direction of the business strategy from here on out. What does your organization intend to do? What does it stand for, and why?

2. Conduct a situational analysis.

SWOT analysis is a time-tested tool to assess the opportunities and risks your organization faces. Cover internal and external factors, including your resources, competition, and changes in the market.

3. Set goals and objectives .

Pinpoint what you want to achieve, then set realistic and achievable targets. You  could focus on  specific objectives  (“reduce customer acquisition costs by 5% next quarter”) or address broader strategic goals (“increase customer satisfaction” ) . Articulate goals and objectives clearly , and define your measurements for success.

4. Develop and launch your action plan .

Outline the steps to take, and break down steps into tasks. Then decide who is responsible for each task, and when each task needs to be completed. With every decision, aim to minimize risk and maximize opportunity to achieve your goal.

To get your strategic plan on track for success, communicate the plan to everyone in the organization. You may want to launch your plan at an all-hands meeting, or break it up into meetings with separate departments.

5. Evaluate the results.

Establish a timeline of regular assessments to check  plan progres. Assign responsibilities to monitor and assess outcomes, and make course corrections as needed.

Pro tips and tools for strategic planning

The strategic planning process involves gathering data, documents, and team input to define timelines with multiple steps and dependencies. Figma's makes this complex process easier with these collaborative strategic planning tools:

• Balanced scorecard. Organizations as diverse as Chrysler and the U.S. Army use the  Balanced Scorecard to take performance to the next level. A Balanced Scorecard assigns weighted values to various options to remove bias from decision-making, guide plan implementation, and help you communicate your strategy clearly.
• SWOT analysis . Identify your company's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats with a SWOT analysis . This tool offers a comprehensive, objective overview of company  resources and its internal and external working environment. You’ll draw on the data you collect during your SWOT analysis many times during your strategic planning process.
• KPI tracking dashboard. Key performance indicators (KPIs) quantify success measurements and establish the timeline for achieving specific financial, strategic, or operational milestones. A shared KPI dashboard template will get your KPI tracking system up and running fast, boosting visibility and collaboration.
• RACI matrix. Identify all the key stakeholders on your strategic plan and group them according to their level of involvement: R esponsible, A ccountable, C onsulted, and I nformed. Figma’s RACI template can get you started quickly.
• Gantt chart . To capture your strategic plan timeline and steps at a glance, try a Gantt chart . This bar chart highlights start dates, deadlines, resource allocations, assignments, and other key planning elements. Use a Gantt chart to sequence tasks and show your team exactly which steps need to be completed when.

Strategize for success with Figma

The keys to strategic planning are collaboration, effective teamwork, and comprehensive information-gathering—and Figma has you covered with online collaboration tools . Figma's easy, engaging strategic plan template   gets your team started with tools for brainstorming, diagramming, and sharing data and feedback—all in one space.

Go to next section

Keep reading

Strategic planning process in 6 steps

Every business needs a great strategic plan to achieve their long term goals.

What is a strategy map

A strategy map is a visual representation of how a company can achieve their long-term goals and objectives.

Strategic vs. tactical planning

While strategic planning involves big-picture thinking, tactical planning covers the nitty-gritty of turning strategy into action.

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Customizable project timeline and roadmap templates

Plotting your course isn't just clarifying, it can be captivating too. build your next project timeline or roadmap using designer-developed, customizable templates. no matter what kind of project you're planning or managing, there's a timeline template that'll keep you on track..

Show your plan at a glance with timeline templates

Don't waste any time—start your next project plan or production roadmap with a timeline template. Timelines are a great way to visually organize your thoughts, plotting each step that you plan to execute. Making planners and trackers into timelines is a snap when working with templates. You can also use timeline templates to show how far a project has come along, every milestone accounted for. Small businesses can find timelines helpful for pitching new business during presentations as well as planning new products. And adding a timeline to a wedding save the date or an invitation is a great way to let guests know everything they can look forward to during your celebration. Timelines aren't just for project planning. Resumes are themselves a kind of timeline, and there are some fantastic graphic resume layouts that incorporate easy-to-read timelines that make your work history stand out.

Free Timeline Templates for Google Sheets, Docs, and Slides

By Kate Eby | January 18, 2017 (updated May 16, 2022)

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We’ve compiled the most useful collection of free Google Sheets, Docs, and Slides templates for project managers, team members, and other stakeholders. 

Included on this page, you’ll find a simple timeline template , a Gantt chart with timeline template , a project timeline template , and an event marketing timeline template , among others. We’ve also included a list of helpful tips for completing these Google timeline template s, and details for creating your own Google timeline .

Simple Timeline Template

Download Simple Timeline Template  Google Docs |  Google Sheets | Google Slides  

This template provides a simple visual timeline that can be used for project management planning, as a communication tool with team members, as part of a presentation, or for any project or schedule that needs to be displayed on a timeline. You can modify it to show specific dates, years, quarters, or whatever time frame suits your needs. Use it to plan ahead, mark important milestones, and track progress over time.

Read our collection of free Google Sheets scheduling templates to find additional resources and get the most out of your project planning timelines.

Gantt Chart with Timeline Template

Download Gantt Chart with Timeline Template Google Docs | Google Sheets

A Gantt chart offers a visual timeline in the form of a bar chart that shows scheduled tasks or events. This template combines a spreadsheet with a Gantt chart, so you can see details about each task while getting a quick overview of the entire project. The chart makes it easy to identify project dependencies and plan accordingly.

Read our article on free Google Sheets Gantt chart templates to find additional resources and to get the most out of your project timelines.

Project Timeline Template

Download Project Timeline Template Google Sheets | Google Slides | Smartsheet  

This project timeline template is another take on a Gantt chart template, providing a simple chart for creating a project schedule that is broken down into stages. This offers a timeline not only for quarterly deadlines, but also for visualizing each phase of a project. You can use this template for planning, scheduling, and tracking, and update it as issues arise.

Event Marketing Timeline Template

Download Event Marketing Timeline Template  Google Sheets | Smartsheet

This event timeline template shows a detailed schedule for each stage of a marketing plan. The elements of each campaign are itemized and then scheduled on a weekly basis, providing a calendar view. Depending on the type and scope of your event and marketing needs, you can edit the template so that the timeline shows other dates or different campaign types.

Historical Timeline Template

Download Historical Timeline Template Google Docs | Google Sheets | Google Slides

A historical timeline template lets you track events over a certain time period, highlighting accomplishments or significant occurrences. This template can be used to outline the history of a company or product, to summarize the achievements of an individual or organization, or as part of a school history project. Simply add dates and events to the pre-formatted template to create your timeline.

Project Schedule with Timeline Template

Download Project Schedule Template Google Sheets | Smartsheet

Use this project timeline template to establish project phases and task start and end dates, and to list schedule, budget, resource, risk, or issue-related details. The template’s Delivery Timeline section includes a color-coded bar graph that provides a visually-rich, easy-to-read overview of your project’s progress.

Advanced Gantt Chart with Timeline Template

Download Advanced Gantt Chart with Timeline Template — Google Sheets

Use this advanced Gantt chart template to capture primary project tasks and compare scheduled and actual start and end dates for each project task. Then, use the Finish Variance column to evaluate discrepancies between planned and actual completion dates. The template’s week-by-week task completion timeline bar chart allows you to add key project milestones.

Construction Project Timeline Template

Download Construction Project Timeline Template — Google Sheets

Keep all stakeholders apprised of construction project progress with this dynamic construction project timeline template. Enter construction task name, status, and start and end dates to account for each construction task and its progress. The timeline bar graph helps makes it easy to keep tabs on task-by-task and overall project progress.

Strategic Planning Timeline

Download Strategic Planning Timeline Template — Google Sheets

Use this strategic planning timeline template to ensure that you and your teammates complete all project-related tasks and goals. List your tasks under the following categories: Timeline/Approach Development, Mission/Vision, Information Gathering, and Goal & Plan Framework Development . Use the timeline to give all stakeholders visual insight into your overall project strategy.

Annual Timeline Template

Download Annual Timeline Template — Google Sheets

Provide month-by-month and annual updates to key stakeholders with this visually-rich annual timeline template. The template enables you to set milestones, and also includes a Today flag that you can use as a visual indicator of current status and how much time you have remaining. This presentation-friendly template is the perfect tool to keep all team members looped in on project status, tasks, and key milestones.

What Is a Timeline Template for Google Sheets?

A timeline template for Google Sheets is a helpful tool for making a schedule, tracking events, and setting project tasks and milestones. A Gantt chart or other visual timeline representation makes it easy to view crucial stages, deadlines, and outcomes. 

You can also use a timeline template to create a project strategy. Prior to project kickoff, use a timeline template to specify the project’s approach (e.g., steering or planning committee consultations, presentations to the board, etc.). 

Additionally, you can use a timeline template to clarify the project vision (e.g., write a project mission statement), gather information, and plan a chronological development framework. Then, break down project deliverables into manageable tasks to ensure you complete your project successfully.  

While project timeline templates may vary, they most often include the following timeline components: 

• Project Title: Enter the name of your project. 
• Project Manager: Enter the name of the individual responsible for managing the project. 
• Date: Set the current date for the project timeline. 
• Task Title: List each task that needs to be completed. 
• Task Owner: Assign the team member responsible for each task. 
• Start Date: Set a start date for each individual task.  
• Due Date: Enter a due date for each task. 
• Duration: Review the duration for each task on the timeline. 
• Percentage of Task Complete: Enter the status of each task as a percentage complete. 
• Milestone: Set key milestones that you must meet.  

Additionally, some timeline templates include the following additional components: 

• Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) Number: Provide a unique WBS code, or task ID ,  to easily track each task’s progress by its respective number. 
• Goals and Objectives: List the project’s key objectives, and the work that you need to accomplish to meet the project’s defined goals by project completion. 
• Stage or Phase: Break your timeline down into phases or stages to segment work into more manageable parts.
• At-Risk Tasks: Indicate whether any particular task is at risk of not being completed by the intended project delivery date. 
• Finish Variance: In more advanced timelines, you can view the Finish Variance , which compares the planned versus and actual duration it took to complete a task. 
• Campaign Type: For marketing timelines, enter the type of campaign (e.g., “national marketing,” “social media,” etc.) that you are planning.

How to Make a Timeline in Google Docs

A Google timeline provides a visual framework for managing an entire project. Whether you’re planning an event, launching a new product, or creating a marketing strategy, a timeline template can help you set milestones and schedule project deliverables. 

You can create your own visual timeline using the drawing tool in the following Google applications: 

• Google Docs: In your Google Doc, navigate to the File menu , click New , and then click Drawing . Click the arrow tool from the Line drop-down menu. Then, click and drag the arrow horizontally at the bottom of your drawing to create the x-axis of your timeline. Then, use the Text box tool to add boxes that represent tasks, assignees, deadlines, and milestones. Once you’ve completed your timeline, click Save and Close to add the drawing to your Google Doc. 
• Google Slides: In your Google Slide file, navigate to the File menu, click New , and then click Drawing . Click the arrow tool from the Line drop-down menu. Then, click and drag the arrow horizontally to create the x-axis of your timeline. Use the Text box tool to add boxes that represent tasks, assignees, deadlines, and milestones. Once you’ve completed your timeline, click Save and Close to add the timeline to your Google Slides presentation file. 
• Google Sheets: To create a timeline in Google Sheets, read our step-by-step guide on how to make a Gantt Chart in Google Sheets .

Use Smartsheet to Track and Monitor Projects with a Timeline Template

From simple task management and project planning to complex resource and portfolio management, Smartsheet helps you improve collaboration and increase work velocity -- empowering you to get more done. 

The Smartsheet platform makes it easy to plan, capture, manage, and report on work from anywhere, helping your team be more effective and get more done. Report on key metrics and get real-time visibility into work as it happens with roll-up reports, dashboards, and automated workflows built to keep your team connected and informed.

When teams have clarity into the work getting done, there’s no telling how much more they can accomplish in the same amount of time. Try Smartsheet for free, today.

Want a better way to plan, track, automate and report on work?

Best Strategic Planning Templates in 2023 | Download For Free

Astrid Tran • 17 Sep 2023 • 6 min read

Increased competition and uncertain economic factors are the main reason for bringing a business to an end. Thus, to be successful in the race of their rivals, every organization needs to have thoughtful plans, roadmaps and strategies. In particular, Strategic planning is among the most significant processes in any business. 

At the same time, Strategic Planning Templates are useful tools for organizations to develop and implement their strategic plans. Check out what is included in the Strategic planning template, and how to create a good Strategic planning template, plus free templates to direct businesses to thrive. 

Table of Contents

What is a strategic planning template, the importance of strategic planning template, what makes a good strategic planning template, examples of strategic planning templates, bottom line, frequently asked questions, tips for better engagement.

• Process of strategic management
• Strategy formulation

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A strategic planning template is needed to outline the exact steps to build a plan for the short- and long-term future of the business. 

A typical strategic planning template might include sections on:

• Executive Summary : A brief summary of the organization’s overall introduction, mission, vision, and strategic objectives.
• Situation Analysis : An analysis of the internal and external factors that affect the organization’s ability to achieve its goals, including strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
• Vision and Mission Statements : A clear and compelling vision and mission statement that defines the organization’s purpose, values, and long-term goals.
• Goals and Objectives : Specific, measurable objectives and goals that the organization aims to achieve in order to realize its vision and mission.
• Strategies : A series of actionable steps that the organization will take to achieve its goals and objectives.
• Action Plan : A detailed plan outlining the specific tasks, responsibilities, and timelines required to implement the organization’s strategies.
• Monitoring and Evaluation : A system for monitoring progress and evaluating the effectiveness of the organization’s strategies and actions.

A strategic planning framework is important to any company wanting to develop a comprehensive strategic plan to achieve its long-term goals and objectives. It provides a set of guidelines, principles, and tools to guide the planning process and ensure that all critical elements are covered.

When creating a Strategic planning template, make sure to cover significant parts of the Strategic planning framework so that the company can overcome unexpected situations. 

And here are some reasons explaining why every company should have a Strategic planning template.

• Consistency : It provides a structured framework for developing and documenting a strategic plan. This ensures that all key elements of the plan are addressed in a consistent and organized manner.
• Time-saving : Developing a strategic plan from scratch can be a time-consuming process. By using a template, organizations can save time and focus on customizing the plan to fit their specific needs rather than starting from scratch.
• Best practices : The templates often incorporate best practices and industry standards, which can help organizations develop more effective strategic plans.
• Collaboration : Using a strategic planning template can facilitate collaboration and communication among team members who are involved in the planning process. It provides a common language and structure for team members to work together towards a shared goal.
• Flexibility : While strategic planning templates provide a structured framework, they are also flexible and can be adapted to fit the unique needs and goals of an organization. Templates can be modified and customized to include specific strategies, metrics, and priorities

A good strategic planning template should be designed to help organizations develop a comprehensive and effective strategic plan that will guide them toward achieving their long-term goals and objectives. Here are some key features of a good strategic planning template:

• Clear and Concise : The template should be easy to understand, with clear and concise instructions, questions, and prompts that guide the planning process.
• Comprehensive : All key elements of strategic planning should be covered, including situational analysis, vision and mission, goals and objectives, strategies, resource allocation, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation.
• Customizable : To meet the unique needs of the organization, templates should offer customization and flexibility to add or remove sections as needed.
• User-Friendly : The template should be easy to use, with a user-friendly format that facilitates collaboration and communication among stakeholders.
• Actionable : It is essential for the template to deliver specific, measurable, and actionable goals and strategies that can be implemented effectively.
• Results-Oriented : The template should help the organization identify key performance indicators and develop a system for monitoring progress and evaluating the effectiveness of the strategic plan.
• Continuously Updated : Periodically reviewed and updates are needed to ensure that it remains relevant and effective in light of changing internal and external factors.

There are several levels of Strategic planning, each type will have a unique framework and template. To give you a better idea of how these types of templates work, we’ve prepared some template samples that you can refer to.

Functional Strategic Planning

Functional strategic planning is the process of developing specific strategies and tactics for individual functional areas within a company.

This approach allows each department or function to align its goals and objectives with the overall strategy of the company.

Corporate Strategic Planning

Corporate strategic planning is the process of defining an organization’s mission, vision, goals, and strategies to achieve them.

It involves analyzing the company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, and developing a plan that aligns the company’s resources, capabilities, and activities with its strategic objectives.

Business Strategic planning template

The primary purpose of business strategic planning is to focus on the competitive aspects of the organization.

By allocating the organization’s resources and capabilities, with its overall mission, vision, and values, the company can stay ahead in a rapidly changing and competitive business environment.

Tactical planning

It focuses on developing specific action plans to achieve short-term goals and objectives. It also can be combined into business strategic planning.

In a Tactical strategic planning template, besides, objectives, goals, and action plan, there are some key elements needed to be considered:

• Timeline : Establish a timeline for the implementation of the action plan, including key milestones and deadlines.
• Risk Management : Evaluate potential risks and develop contingency plans to mitigate them.
• Metrics : Establish metrics to measure progress towards achieving the objectives and goal.
• Communication Plan : Outline the communication strategy and tactics to keep stakeholders informed of progress and any changes to the plan.

Operational-level strategic planning

This type of strategic planning aims at developing strategies for day-to-day operations, including production, logistics, and customer service. Both functional strategic planning and business strategic planning can add this type of strategy as an important section into their planning.

When working on Operational-level strategic planning, your company should consider additional factors, as follow:

• SWOT analysis : An analysis of the organization’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT).
• Critical Success Factors (CSFs ): The factors that are most critical to the success of the organization’s operations.
• Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) : The metrics that will be used to measure the success of the strategies.

After finishing your strategic planning, you might need to present it in front of the board of directors. AhaSlides can be a powerful tool to help you have a professional and engaging business presentation . You can add live polls, and feedback to your presentation to earn the best results.

Ref: TemplateLab

Where could I download free strategic plan template?

AhaSlides, ProjectManagement, Smartsheet, Cascade or Jotform…

Best company strategic plan examples?

Tesla, Hubspot, Apple, Toyota…

What is RACE strategy template?

RACE Strategy contains 4 phases: Research, Action, Communication and Evaluation. The RACE strategy is a cyclical process, emphasizing the importance of continuous improvement and refinement. After evaluating the results of a communication campaign, the insights gained are used to inform and adjust future strategies and actions. This iterative approach helps communication professionals adapt to changing circumstances and maximise the impacts.

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Top 5 Strategic Roadmap Timeline Template with Examples and Samples

DivyanshuKumar Rai

As the famous quote by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (French Writer) goes, 'A goal without a plan is just a wish .' A strategic roadmap timeline serves as the plan for a company's success, mapping out steps and milestones to reach its desired destination. But, are you aware that less than 20% of businesses have a clear roadmap in place?"

This alarming statistic highlights the dire need for businesses to adopt a strategic roadmap timeline. Not having an actionable roadmap can lead to missed opportunities, ineffective decision-making, and a lack of focus. A well-crafted Strategic Roadmap Timeline can help businesses stay on track and achieve their goals, by keeping everyone aligned, and focused on the big picture.

SlideTeam has pieced together a well-thought collection of Strategic Roadmap Timeline PPT Templates . These Templates are easy to use, customizable, and designed to help businesses of all sizes, from startups to established companies, build a roadmap that drives growth and success.

Let's explore.

Template 1: Strategic Roadmap Timeline Showing Milestone Key Dates

Are you looking for an effective way to align your organization's development and growth with key dates, milestones, and sales strategy? Look no further! Our Strategic Roadmap Timeline PPT Template is the perfect solution. With its unique and visually appealing timeline Design, this Template helps you take your product development to the next level. Based on extensive research and analysis, this Template covers important aspects of a strategic roadmap. From project milestones to key dates, everything is crafted to help you build a robust strategy that drives success. Whether you're a startup, an established business, or an individual project manager, this Template helps you create a roadmap that is tailored to your specific needs.

Download Now!

Template 2: Strategic Roadmap Timeline Showing Analytics Cloud Support

Bringing you a pre-designed PPT Template that incorporates the best practices and latest trends in cloud analytics to help you stay ahead of the curve. Our Strategic Roadmap Timeline Template showcases a clear and concise timeline that covers key milestones and deadlines, aligned with your cloud analytics strategy. From identifying your target market to tracking your progress and measuring success, this template has got you covered. It is based on extensive research and real-world data to provide you with a solid foundation for decision-making.

With this Template, you can be confident that your cloud analytics roadmap will be impactful, engaging, and effective.

Template 3: Strategic Roadmap Timeline Showing Product Development and Growth

Attention Product Developers! Are you looking for a tool to plan and communicate your product's roadmap to stakeholders? Our PPT Template on the Strategic Roadmap Timeline is here to help. This Template provides you with a visually-appealing and organized way to outline the development and growth of your product. With a focus on product development and growth, this Template includes a timeline of key milestones and objectives, making it easy to track progress and make informed decisions. Its use of industry-specific insights allows for clear communication. Download now to elevate your product's strategic planning and ensure successful growth.

Template 4: Six-Month Strategic Roadmap Timeline for Entering New Market

Want to take your company to the next level by entering a new market? Make sure you have a solid plan in place with our PPT Template on the Six-Month Strategic Roadmap Timeline for Entering a New Market. This Template provides a clear and concise outline of the four key phases involved in entering a new market: Market analysis, characterization and sizing, optimization and prioritization, and tactical strategy. With a focus on strategy and execution, this PPT Slide will help you stay on track and make informed decisions as you navigate the exciting and often complex process of entering a new market.

Template 5: Strategic Roadmap Timeline Showing Lead Generation Strategies

Our PPT Template on the Six-Month Strategic Roadmap Timeline for Lead Generation Strategies is a must-have resource for your business. This well-crafted Template outlines your lead generation plans for six months. With a focus on lead generation strategies, this presentation template showcases a  professional and easy to use timeline to track operations and make better decisions.

Wrapping Up

Having a Strategic Roadmap Timeline is imperative for the success of any business. Without a roadmap, it's easy to be lost and miss out on opportunities. The cost of ignoring the importance of a Strategic Roadmap Timeline can be significant and impact your business in the long run.

Don't let your business fall into this trap. Our PPT Templates on Strategic Roadmap Timeline are designed to help you build a roadmap that is tailored to meet your specific needs.

A well-crafted roadmap is the key to unlocking your business's full potential and driving success. Download our templates today and get started!

FAQs on Strategic Roadmap Timeline

What is a roadmap timeline.

A roadmap timeline is a visual representation of a plan or strategy that outlines the steps and milestones needed to reach a specific goal or set of goals. It shows a timeline of events or activities and the order in which they will be completed. A roadmap timeline aims to help organizations communicate their plans, set expectations, and track progress toward their goals. It provides a clear and concise overview of steps to be taken to reach the desired outcome.

What should a strategic roadmap include?

A strategic roadmap should include the following elements:

• Goals and objectives: A clear and concise statement of goals and objectives
• Timeline: A timeline that outlines key milestones and events in your plan, along with the projected start and end dates.
• Steps and actions : A detailed list of steps and actions needed to achieve each goal and objective, along with responsibilities and resources required.
• Dependencies: A clear understanding of relationships and dependencies between steps and actions.
• Metrics and KPIs: A set of metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) that will be used to measure progress and track success.
• Stakeholder engagement: A plan for engaging and communicating with key stakeholders within the organization, external partners, and customers.
• Risk management: A plan for managing risk, including a process for identifying, assessing, and mitigating risks.
• Contingency planning: A plan for handling unexpected events or disruptions that could impact the plan, including a process for rapidly responding and adapting to conditions.

What is an agile roadmap?

An agile roadmap is a flexible and iterative approach to planning and achieving long-term goals. It is a type of strategic roadmap designed to be adaptable to change and responsive to shifting priorities and circumstances. Unlike traditional roadmaps, which are created in advance and followed rigidly, agile roadmaps allow for continuous adjustment and adjustment to accommodate changing conditions.

The key principles of agile roadmaps include:

• Breaking down goals into smaller, achievable steps
• Prioritizing steps based on the most important and impactful activities
• Allowing for flexibility and adaptability to change
• Continuously reassessing and adjusting the roadmap based on new information and insights
• Encouraging collaboration and stakeholder engagement
• Delivering results in a timely and effective manner

Agile roadmaps are useful for organizations that operate in fast-paced, rapidly changing environments where traditional planning methods may not be as effective. With the adoption of an agile approach to roadmap creation and management, organizations can remain nimble, flexible, and responsive to changing conditions, which can help them remain on track to achieve long-term goals.

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Align programs and projects on one slide with multi-level Swimlanes.

Free Timeline Template Collection for Professionals

This free timeline  template collection was created for professionals who need outstanding timeline presentations that will thrill clients and impress management. These timeline chart templates were designed to be powerful, customizable and easy to present in important meetings. You can edit each template manually or automatically with the free timeline maker from Office Timeline. It plugs right into PowerPoint and makes it incredibly easy to add your own data, change template colors and styles, and update timelines instantly as things change.

Instantly customize the templates below or easily make your own timeline right inside PowerPoint.

Timelines are the most effective way to visualize business roadmaps, project plans, event schedules or workflows and to ensure important deadlines are hit. This page offers you a series of project timeline templates for PowerPoint that you can easily download, customize and use to set your project up for success.

PowerPoint Timeline

Easily customizable PowerPoint slide designed as a timeline for professionals who need high-level, clear visuals when reviewing any project plans, program or business summaries.

Swimlane Diagram

Swimlane PowerPoint template that clearly lays out the framework of a project, from scheduling activities to task assignment and resource management.

Project Plan

Intuitive PowerPoint slide that serves as a quick yet visually effective alternative to complex project management tools to produce clear, well-laid-out plans for launching a project.

Easy-to-edit sales plan sample for sales leaders, marketers or account executives to lay out objectives against a timeband in weeks; it can be customized to show campaign plans and targets in months, quarters or years.

Example Timeline

Visual template with Today’s Date indicator that helps enterprise workers get a quick start on creating timelines for project reviews, status reports, or any presentations that require a simple project schedule.

Project Chart

Free timeline chart example that outlines the major deliverables of a project in chronological order, helping project planners and managers visually communicate all the critical project actions, deadlines and events from start to finish.

Project Schedule

Easy-to-follow timeline example to create high-level representations of work breakdown structures that estimate the effort, time and resources needed to achieve a project’s objectives.

Project Implementation Plan

Visual timeline example that provides a bird’s eye view of what a project team is expected to deliver, when, and what steps they need to complete; helpful in tracking task progress as the project moves forward, or in identifying at-risk items.

Hourly Schedule

Simple template with timeband in hours and layout that accommodates overlapping items; useful in creating 24-hour schedules, such as training and class schedules, it can also be used for visualizing plans that take less than 60 minutes or span over multiple hours.

Graphic Chart

Visual timeline template with multi-shaped and -colored milestones to easily create high-level graphic charts that are simple to understand by audiences.

Project Budget

Budget-and-timeline template displaying the major phases and tasks of a project, each accompanied by their duration, cost estimation and budget utilization (%).

Incident Response Plan

Free, downloadable timeline graphic using hours and minutes to give a clear overview on how an organization needs to plan its reaction to incidents so that outage be limited and activity resumed as soon as possible.

Marketing Plan

Free marketing timeline model that, once customized, effectively outlines your overall marketing strategy and serves as a solid visual aid to support marketing plan presentations.

1-Year Plan

Clear timeline sample for outlining the objectives of a business that operates on an annual rhythm, or of a plan that spans over 12 months or less.

Event Planning Timeline

Simple timeline model showing all the major deadlines on a single summary slide, acting as a useful resource for event planners who are managing teams and vendors.

Milestone Chart

Milestone chart sample that focuses on the main sequence of events, targets and objectives that need to be achieved throughout a project’s lifecycle, from which planners can build more comprehensive plans.

5-Year Plan

Easy-to-understand timeline template that helps summarize long-term plans and illustrate the stages, milestones and resources needed to deliver a 5-year project.

Swimlane-based timeline sample that helps better organize and track tasks across departments and teams, highlighting the impact of changes on other stages of the project.

Action Plan

Flexible timeline example structured into 3 generic process stages set against an adjustable timeline backdrop, complete with fully customizable milestones.

Project Overview

Timeline example with multi-colored and diversely shaped objects to represent tasks and milestones and ensure a clear structure and layout to any project presentation, helping business professionals present the management framework for their project in a clear manner.

Business Plan

Clear, ready-made timeline sample with tasks well-delimited through three separate color codes and in-a-row layout to enable planners to create effective, one-page business plans that channel the audience’s attention to its most important aspects.

Criminal Investigation Timeline

Native PowerPoint timeline slide with a simple-to-follow layout of key facts that lawyers can use to create clear chronological, fact-based visual exhibits for their court arguments.

Daily Schedule

Template displayed graphically as an hourly timeline, providing a simpler way of seeing and checking schedules at a glance.

Meeting Schedule

Meeting schedule template designed in a Gantt chart style to assist with the scheduling and organization of a meeting itinerary or agenda.

Legal Litigation Timeline

Native PowerPoint timeline sample that is easy to edit and share; designed to enable litigators exhibit their trial data and case information to the jury in a refreshing and easy-to-follow way.

Project Management

Intuitive timeline example created to help project managers plan and communicate their projects broadly. Illustrating critical tasks, milestones and general progress, it gives a clear overview at a glance.

Crisis Management Plan

Professionally-designed timeline example structured in swimlanes that covers all the steps and processes one needs to follow in a crisis management process, from when the crisis occurs to response, business continuity process, recovery, and review.

Program Plan

Color-coded timeline split into blocks to help program managers visually map multiple projects or phases with a complex program, thus giving a high-level and complete picture of their plans.

Planner timeline template chronologically illustrating the major milestones and key tasks of a project to make a high-level model of what work needs to be done.

Marketing Swimlanes Roadmap

Swimlane diagram example that provides a crisp, well-structured illustration of the tasks and milestones of your marketing campaign, according to the phase of the campaign to which they belong.

Court Timeline

Intuitive template with multi-colored milestones and simple formatting that lawyers and legal professionals can use to create compelling courtroom chronological visuals for trial presentations, such as opening arguments, witness examination or closing statements.

Weekly Work Schedule

Simple-to-communicate PowerPoint slide that can be used for a variety of scenarios, from simplifying staffing timetables or coverage charts, to creating weekly agendas or shift schedules.

Blank Timeline

Generic timeline example that can be easily customized to quickly make an impressive, high-level summary of important events in a chronological order.

What is a project timeline template?

A project timeline template is a pre-made model of a horizontal bar chart that you can customize with your own data to chronologically display the events and activities involved in a project. Providing you with a predefined structure for your tasks and milestones, a project timeline template will simplify the work of creating a clear schedule of your project.

Does Office have a timeline template?

Yes, Microsoft Office does offer several basic timeline templates within its suite of programs (MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint). However, these timeline templates can prove limited or unsuited for bigger and more complex projects. If you want to learn how to make a timeline using Microsoft Office  tools, we’ve put together a whole collection of free tutorials  to help you get started.

Is there a timeline template for PowerPoint?

As part of the MS Office suite of programs, PowerPoint does provide a few simple types of graphics and charts that users can manually format and adjust to create a basic timeline. However, manually building timelines in PowerPoint is not only time-consuming, but also frustrating when it comes to updating the visual. To help you save time and effort, we’ve created this collection of free PowerPoint timeline templates that you can download and easily customize for your specific purposes. You can modify any of these project timeline templates manually or automatically, after you install the free timeline maker add-in for PowerPoint called Office Timeline. The add-in will automate the entire process of creating, updating and customizing a timeline chart. You also get access to additional professionally-designed project timeline templates right inside the presentation platform.

Updating your template is simple and fast.

Use the Office Timeline PowerPoint add-in to quickly update any of these timeline templates or create your own project visuals. Easily change the texts, dates, colors, shapes and styles of your timeline, right from inside PowerPoint.

Download Free Timeline Maker

Or try our online timeline maker .