Strategy consultants
Get a useful brief before the first conversation. Written context helps you assess fit, prepare questions and decide what to discuss next. Review “Company” in particular and adapt it to the detail you need.
Strategy Session Intake Form Template
Transform your strategy sessions from agenda-setting conversations to high-impact working meetings. This intake form collects participants' top priorities, biggest obstacles, recent wins, and 12-month success vision before you meet — so every minute of the session drives toward meaningful strategic decisions.
Free for non-commercial projects, with unlimited forms and responses.
Last updated
About this template
A strategy session intake form ensures that the session itself is the high-value deliverable — not the preliminary conversation. When participants commit their priorities, obstacles, and 12-month vision to writing before they arrive, they show up with clearer thinking. And the consultant or facilitator arrives knowing exactly where to focus, where the tensions lie, and what success looks like to the people in the room.
More about this template
The leadership alignment question is often the most revealing. 'Not aligned — this is part of the problem' is a response that changes the entire facilitation approach. A strategy session with an aligned leadership team is a planning exercise; a session with a fractured leadership team is a negotiation. Knowing which you're walking into before you walk in is invaluable.
formformform makes this form easy to send in the meeting confirmation, collect responses in one place, and review them in a 20-minute prep session before the workshop. No chasing down answers via email, no clipboard questionnaires the morning of the session.
11 fields to make your own9 required in this starting form
Make it fit your workflow.
Use your own copy to change labels, remove questions and add the details you need. Try the preview alongside this guide to see what respondents will be asked.
The questions, explained
Fields in this template
Review the starting questions and choices. You can change them in your own copy.
Participant Name
Alex Johnson
Email Address
alex@company.com
Company
Company name
Title / Role
e.g. CEO, COO, VP Strategy
Top Strategic Priorities
What are the 2–3 most important strategic priorities for your organization right now?
Biggest Obstacles
What internal or external obstacles are preventing you from achieving these priorities?
Recent Wins
What has gone well in the last 6–12 months that we should build on?
Organizational Maturity Level
5 choices
- Start-up (figuring it out as we go)
- Early-stage (some structure, still evolving)
- Growth-stage (scaling established operations)
- Mature (optimizing a well-established organization)
- Transforming (major change underway)
Areas to Focus On in This Session
9 choices
- Vision & Mission
- Competitive Strategy
- Revenue Growth
- Cost & Efficiency
- People & Culture
- Technology & Innovation
- Governance & Risk
- Market Expansion
- Product / Service Portfolio
What does success look like for your organization in 12 months?
Be specific — use metrics where possible (e.g. revenue, headcount, market share).
Is your leadership team aligned on these strategic priorities?
3 choices
- Fully aligned
- Mostly aligned — some differences
- Not aligned — this is part of the problem
Where it fits
Who uses this template
Suggested uses, and why this starting point can help. Adapt the questions to your own process.
Management consultants
Get a useful brief before the first conversation. Written context helps you assess fit, prepare questions and decide what to discuss next. Review “Title / Role” in particular and adapt it to the detail you need.
Business coaches
Turn initial interest into information you can review. Use the answers to prepare a relevant follow-up and decide whether the opportunity fits your work. Review “Top Strategic Priorities” in particular and adapt it to the detail you need.
Executive coaches
Use this as a starting point when you need the same essential information from each person. Review the questions against your process before sharing your copy. Review “Biggest Obstacles” in particular and adapt it to the detail you need.
Organizational development consultants
Gather the details needed before making arrangements. Consistent answers help you spot special requirements and prepare the next step. Review “Recent Wins” in particular and adapt it to the detail you need.
Facilitators running strategy workshops
Collects NPS trends, churn drivers, expansion revenue data, and CS team structure for customer success strategy workshops.
Fractional CMOs and COOs
Use this as a starting point when you need the same essential information from each person. Review the questions against your process before sharing your copy. Review “Areas to Focus On in This Session” in particular and adapt it to the detail you need.
Leadership advisors
Use this as a starting point when you need the same essential information from each person. Review the questions against your process before sharing your copy. Review “What does success look like for your organization in 12 months?” in particular and adapt it to the detail you need.
What's included
Strategic priorities field to surface the 2–3 most critical focus areas
Obstacles field to identify what's blocking progress before the session
Recent wins field to ground strategy in proven strengths
Organizational maturity dropdown to calibrate session depth
Multi-select focus area checkbox to co-create the agenda
12-month success criteria field tied to measurable outcomes
Leadership alignment question to surface internal tensions
Email notifications with responses before each session
How to create a strategy session intake form
- 1
Use this template to create the strategy session intake form in formformform.
- 2
Customize the focus areas checkbox to match the strategic frameworks or service areas your firm uses.
- 3
Update the organizational maturity dropdown if your firm uses a proprietary maturity model.
- 4
Send the form link in your session confirmation email at least 5 business days before the session.
- 5
Review all responses 24 hours before the session and build your facilitation agenda around the themes that emerge.
- 6
Share a summary of key themes with participants at the start of the session to validate your interpretation.
Best practices for your strategy session intake form
Send it at least 5 days before the session
you need time to review responses, identify themes, and adjust the facilitation agenda before you arrive.
Ask for metrics in the success question
'revenue of $10M' is more actionable than 'grow significantly.' Push clients toward specificity with your placeholder text.
Use the alignment question as an opening discussion prompt
if the team isn't aligned, surface it transparently at the start rather than discovering it mid-session.
Review wins before diving into problems
starting a strategy session with what's working primes participants for constructive thinking instead of defensive firefighting.
Focus the checkbox to 3–4 items
a strategy session that tries to cover nine focus areas covers none of them well. Use the responses to prioritize ruthlessly.
Capture the session output in the same system
follow up with a brief post-session summary form so participants record their commitments while the session is fresh.
15 form ideas you can build with this template
Annual Strategic Planning Workshop Intake
Collects each executive's view on annual priorities, resource allocation preferences, and biggest strategic bets before a planning offsite.
Board Strategy Session Pre-Survey
Gathers board members' views on governance priorities, risk appetite, and strategic direction before a quarterly board retreat.
Startup Founder Strategy Session Form
Asks founders about product-market fit confidence, funding runway, team gaps, and 18-month growth targets before a scaling session.
Brand Strategy Workshop Intake Form
Captures brand positioning perceptions, competitive differentiators, and audience priorities from marketing and leadership stakeholders.
Sales Growth Strategy Intake Form
Collects current pipeline health, win/loss patterns, competitive displacement opportunities, and revenue targets for a sales strategy session.
Digital Strategy Workshop Intake Form
Asks leaders about digital maturity, technology investment history, and transformation appetite before a digital strategy offsite.
Post-Merger Integration Strategy Session Form
Gathers integration priorities, cultural friction points, synergy targets, and 100-day milestones from both legacy organizations' leaders.
Nonprofit Strategic Plan Intake Form
Collects mission alignment, program impact data, funding model risks, and community priorities before a strategic planning session.
Product Strategy Offsite Intake Form
Asks product and engineering leaders about roadmap confidence, market signals, technical debt, and innovation priorities.
Market Expansion Strategy Intake Form
Gathers current market share, target geography, competitive landscape knowledge, and entry mode preferences for expansion planning.
Culture Transformation Strategy Session Form
Collects current culture assessment, desired culture attributes, and leadership behaviors to model from senior leaders before a culture workshop.
Pricing Strategy Session Intake Form
Asks about current pricing model, competitive benchmarks, customer willingness-to-pay data, and margin targets.
Innovation Strategy Workshop Intake
Gathers current innovation portfolio, R&D investment levels, idea pipeline quality, and organizational risk appetite for innovation sessions.
Customer Success Strategy Session Form
Collects NPS trends, churn drivers, expansion revenue data, and CS team structure for customer success strategy workshops.
Competitive Response Strategy Intake Form
Asks leaders to characterize the competitive threat, their current defensive and offensive posture, and resource availability for a rapid strategy response session.
Frequently asked questions
Who should complete the strategy session intake form?
Every participant who will attend the strategy session, including the senior leadership team. Aggregating multiple responses reveals where the team is aligned and where there are divergent views — both are valuable inputs.
What if a participant doesn't complete the form before the session?
Follow up once with a gentle reminder 48 hours before. If they still don't complete it, proceed with the session but allocate the first 10–15 minutes to verbal intake for that participant.
Should I share participants' responses with each other before the session?
It depends on your facilitation approach. Some consultants share a synthesized summary of themes (anonymized) in advance to prime discussion. Others keep responses private and use them only to design the agenda. Both approaches work.
Can I use this form for a board offsite or multi-day retreat?
Yes — for multi-day sessions, consider adding questions about session format preferences, dietary requirements, and pre-reading availability to make the form do double duty as logistics intake as well.
How do I turn the responses into a session agenda?
Look for repeated themes across the priorities and obstacles fields — these become your core agenda items. The alignment question tells you whether to open with consensus-building or assumption-challenging activities.
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