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Execution · Plan

Capability gap analysis

Names what the business cannot currently do that the strategy requires, and what closing each gap costs in money and months. The months are usually the binding constraint.

The printable canvas and the handoff into Claude Code are part of a paid plan. See what a plan includes. It needs the Claude desktop app on this machine, and your team and the prompt library already installed in that project — we cannot see your disk, so open it there.

Stage
04 Plan
Works at
All levels
Maturity
Scaling → Large organisation
Time
Two to three days

What it is

A comparison of the capabilities a strategy requires against those the organisation actually holds, with a costed route to close the difference. It is the step that most often reveals a strategy to be undeliverable in its stated timeframe.

Required capabilities
What the business must be able to do for the strategy to work, derived from the specific moves rather than from a generic framework.
Current level
What it can do today, assessed from evidence of recent performance rather than from job titles.
The gap
The distance, expressed in maturity levels or in specific missing components rather than in adjectives.
Closure route
Build, buy or partner for each gap, decided individually rather than by default.
Cost and lead time
What each route costs and how long it takes. Lead time is usually the binding constraint and the number most often optimistic.
Sequence
Which gaps must close before others can, independent of which matters most.
The mistake people makeCapabilities are relative to an intent — running this without a defined strategy produces a list of things the business is not brilliant at, which is infinite and useless.
What it’s forYou need to know what the business cannot currently do, and what closing that costs in money and months.
What it’s not forYou have not defined the strategy. Capabilities are relative to an intent.

How you run it

  1. Derive required capabilities from the strategyWork backwards from the moves. A generic capability framework produces a generic gap list.
  2. Assess current state on evidenceWhat happened last time you needed this, not how the capability is described in the org chart.
  3. Size the gap in levels, not adjectivesHow far from where you need to be, and what a level of improvement actually involves.
  4. Decide build, buy or partner per gapDifferent gaps warrant different answers, and defaulting to build across the board is how timelines double.
  5. Sequence by lead time, not importanceThe most important gap may take three years and the enabling one six months. Sequence by what unblocks what.

The prompt

Two ways to run it

Run this tool in your own Claude

The short prompt starts your partner against the library on your disk. The long one carries everything with it and needs nothing installed.

🔒 Prompt locked

Everything above is free — what this tool is, what it is for, what it is not for, and how to run it as a workshop. Three tool prompts a month are free with an account; beyond three, and for the printable canvas, it is the paid part.

See plans — from £19 a month

Your playbook

It lands in the earliest stage this tool suits. Move it on the Playbook page.

You’ll need

  • A defined strategy and its required capabilities
  • An honest current-state capability assessment
  • Real cost and lead-time data for building or buying

You’ll end up with

  • Each required capability with current and target level
  • Build, buy or partner decided per gap
  • Cost, time and sequence to close them

Runs well with

AI risk classification and governanceAlliance and partnership designAssumption logBackcasting