Map Skills and Capabilities Needed

Assess which skills and competencies are required to execute your strategy. Identify gaps in your current team and prioritize where to hire, upskill, outsource, or redesign roles to align with strategic needs.

Why it's Matters

Strategy means change and change requires new capabilities. Many startups set ambitious goals but don’t assess whether the team can actually deliver on them. Mapping required skills helps prioritize hiring, training, and resourcing decisions.

What You Need to Do

Identify which skills are mission-critical for this phase of growth
Audit current team capabilities against strategic needs
Highlight gaps and plan to fill them (hiring, training, or partnering)

How to Approach It

Review your strategic priorities, team initiatives, and upcoming milestones
For each, list the key skills required (e.g., growth ops, platform security, compliance)
Audit your current team for coverage, stretch, and overload
Tag each gap: hire, upskill, outsource, or defer

Deliverables

Skills gap analysis
Talent roadmap by quarter
Capability scorecard per function/team

How to Tell if You Got It Right

Your team matches your strategy —not just your past
Hiring and upskilling are linked to goals, not fads
Leadership feels confident in execution readiness

What to Watch Out For

Assuming current team can scale without change
Overreliance on generalists when specialists are needed
Not distinguishing between missing skills vs. missing capacity