On Time, Off Target
You hit every deadline, then realize nothing actually moved.
Initiatives don't fail in execution.
They fail in design.
They fail in design.
Strategy lives on one side. Results on the other.
Most initiatives were never designed to cross the gap.
Using our Strategic Project Design discipline, we bridge your highest ambitions to successful results.
Most initiatives were never designed to cross the gap.
Using our Strategic Project Design discipline, we bridge your highest ambitions to successful results.
National laboratories, global manufacturers, technology firms, and government agencies we have served
Where Strategy and Execution Break Apart
You have the vision, the budget, and a capable team. Yet your most critical initiatives still stall. If these sound familiar, the problem isn't your talent. It's your design.
The Wrong Problem
You perfect the technical "how" and lose the business "why."
Misdirected Budget
You pour money and effort into activities never linked to the outcome.
Costly Rework
You rush to start without a design, then burn weeks redoing work.
Flying Blind
You launch on gut instead of evidence, and spot the gaps too late to pivot.
Lost Credibility
You're left explaining to leadership why a funded, high-priority project failed.
Every one of these traces back to the same root: a design that was never built to reach the goal. That's exactly what Strategic Project Design fixes.
The Difference
What changes when you work with us
Three shifts that decide whether an initiative crosses the gap between strategy and results — or never makes it across.
From
Misalignment
To
Shared design
Agreement on direction isn't agreement on what success requires. We build a shared design with explicit outcomes, measures, and assumptions.
From
Hidden assumptions
To
Visibility
Every initiative depends on conditions that must hold true. We surface those assumptions early — while leaders can still act on them.
From
Effort
To
Impact
Effort without clear outcomes produces activity, not results. We tie work to measurable outcomes before planning locks decisions in.
How We Help
Three Ways to Design for Success
The Strategic Designer Workshop builds the capability in individual leaders and project professionals. Single Initiative Design and Program Design & Alignment are hands-on consulting engagements conducted with your team, inside your organization — delivered on-site, remotely, or hybrid.
All three use the same core discipline: the Logical Framework, strengthened by AI to accelerate analysis, expose weak logic, and improve the quality of strategic decisions.
INDIVIDUAL TRAINING
Strategic Designer Workshop
In this limited enrollment cohort, you'll leave with a completed strategic design and unique skills. Build this capability yourself — or sample it before your organization commits. Offered quarterly.
TEAM ENGAGEMENT
Single Initiative Design
You have one initiative that matters — forming, restarting, or already showing strain. We work with your team to define the results that matter and the strategy needed to get there.
TEAM ENGAGEMENT
Program Design & Alignment
Make multiple initiatives operate together rather than a collection of competing projects. We identify overlaps and gaps, resolve competing priorities, and strengthen coordination.
Who You'll Be Working With
Who You'll Be Working With
Terry Schmidt has spent his career moving between worlds that rarely connect: engineering and business, government and enterprise, developed and developing countries, the boardroom and the research lab. That range is what he brings to every engagement. He sees an initiative from angles a single-discipline advisor can't, and he catches the flaws that hide in the gaps between them.
An aerospace engineer with a Harvard MBA, he has spent decades bringing an engineer's rigor to the hardest, highest-stakes work leaders face.
Early in his career, he helped field-test a proven method for designing complex initiatives and saw what others had missed: its logic wasn't confined to the field it was built for. He adapted and modernized it into what is now Strategic Project Design.
He founded ManagementPro to bring that discipline to leaders before decisions harden into budgets and schedules. He personally leads every engagement, with no handoffs and no junior teams, and uses AI to sharpen and accelerate the work.
He is the author of Strategic Project Management Made Simple (Wiley) and five other books on strategy. His next, Designing for Execution, arrives in Spring 2027.
An aerospace engineer with a Harvard MBA, he has spent decades bringing an engineer's rigor to the hardest, highest-stakes work leaders face.
Early in his career, he helped field-test a proven method for designing complex initiatives and saw what others had missed: its logic wasn't confined to the field it was built for. He adapted and modernized it into what is now Strategic Project Design.
He founded ManagementPro to bring that discipline to leaders before decisions harden into budgets and schedules. He personally leads every engagement, with no handoffs and no junior teams, and uses AI to sharpen and accelerate the work.
He is the author of Strategic Project Management Made Simple (Wiley) and five other books on strategy. His next, Designing for Execution, arrives in Spring 2027.
In Their Words
What clients say
Leaders at NASA, Microsoft, Sony Pictures, DirecTV, and the Project Management Institute on designing initiatives with Terry.
Terry is the perfect guide to help you and your organization navigate through today’s new reality successfully.
Antonio Nieto-Rodriguezformer Global Chairman, Project Management Institute
We used your method to organize and execute an Awards campaign that earned numerous nominations and awards, including an Oscar®.
Don LevySVP, Sony Pictures Digital
The benefits of planning with your approach are crystal clear.
Adam GilmoreSpace Station Mechanisms Lead, NASA
Hits the nail on the head with fresh approaches to design and implement projects that achieve their goals.
Philippe GoetschelDirector, Microsoft
Terry took us from the surreal to the real world of strategic thinking and planning.
James WhalenVice President, DirecTV, Inc.
You changed how I do my planning and significantly increased my ability to reach my goals.
Laurie TriplettEnvironmental Physicist, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Ready to cross the gap?
Your next critical initiative deserves a clear strategy.
Clarity is a leadership decision — not a deliverable added later.
Book a Discovery CallSee how Strategic Project Design works
A focused conversation about your initiative • No pitch, no obligation