Introduction
We all know that planning is essential to achieving success in any endeavor. But what about the other side of the equation? What about after you’ve done your strategic planning and are ready to implement those plans? That’s where tactical after-action reviews come in. Tactical after-action reviews are a chance for you to apply what you’ve learned from your previous projects, analyze what worked and didn’t work, and make sure that next time around, you’ll have even better results!
What is a tactical after-action review?
- What is a tactical after-action review?
After-action reviews are a process to identify and address the causes of poor performance. They’re used in various industries, from healthcare to manufacturing and military operations. The idea behind them is that by learning from mistakes, you can improve your processes and see if your assumptions were correct (or not).
Why do you need to conduct tactical after-action reviews?
The tactical after-action review is a critical part of the strategy development process. It helps you learn from experience and improve your strategy for future success.
- Understand what went wrong and what went right so you can make changes to improve your chances of success in the future.
- Identify opportunities for improvement based on the analysis of your data, which will help increase your marketing ROI (return on investment).
How to conduct a tactical after-action review.
You can conduct a tactical after-action review in many ways, but here are the basic steps:
- Who is your audience?
- What is the purpose of this particular AAR?
- What is the scope of this AAR?
- How will you measure success for this specific AAR? Key takeaways from this after-action review should include the following:
Set the scene and provide context.
Setting the scene and providing context are essential before you jump into the details of your tactical AAR. That means introducing your audience with a summary of what they can expect from this session. You should also give them an idea of what problem or opportunity you’re trying to solve with your strategy–it will help keep them engaged in what follows.
If possible, use this section as an opportunity for some light humor (you know, for fun).
Clarify what went right.
- What went right?
- What was the impact of what went right?
- Which tactics were successful and why?
- How did you know it was working, and how much did you learn from this experience?
Clarify what could have gone better but didn’t go wrong.
The second step to reviewing a campaign is to clarify what could have gone better but didn’t go wrong. This is where you take the time to look at your overall strategy and assess how it could have been improved. Remember that this doesn’t mean everything is perfect–it means that improvements can always be made.
You’ll want to consider where you might have made mistakes or missed opportunities during your campaign planning process (or even while executing). This will help you learn from those mistakes so they don’t happen again! You can also use this information when talking with others who may be involved in similar projects so they can avoid making similar errors themselves in future projects/campaigns.
Identify any key learnings or insights from experience.
- Identify any key learnings or insights from experience.
- Look for patterns in the data.
- Look for trends over time, such as whether certain parts of your audience responded better than others to certain messaging or incentives or whether they were more receptive on Mondays than Wednesdays.
Prioritize action items based on value and urgency.
Once you’ve collected and made sense of all the data, it’s time to prioritize your action items. This is where you will decide what’s most essential and focus on those tasks first.
Prioritizing is essential because it helps you avoid getting overwhelmed by a long list of things that need doing–which can lead to inaction. Prioritizing also ensures that no task gets lost in the shuffle because it wasn’t deemed urgent enough (or valuable enough).
To prioritize effectively:
- Determine which items are valued based on their ability to help achieve your goals (i.e., which ones help solve problems)
- Assign urgency ratings based on when they should be completed
A tactical after-action review is robust because it allows you to practice all the learning from your strategic planning efforts and make fundamental changes that move you toward meeting your goals — even if it’s just getting better at understanding where you need to improve next time!
A tactical after-action review is robust because it allows you to practice all the learning from your strategic planning efforts and make fundamental changes that move you toward meeting your goals — even if it’s just getting better at understanding where you need to improve next time!
In the case of digital marketing strategy, a tactical AAR will help you understand what went well in each campaign or project so that you can repeat those things in future campaigns. You’ll also be able to identify what didn’t go well so that next time, there are fewer surprises when things don’t go according to plan.
Conclusion
Hopefully, this article has given you some new insight into how to conduct your tactical after-action reviews. They’re a great way to get the most out of your strategic planning efforts and make sure that they lead to real change in your business — even if it’s just getting better at understanding where you need to improve next time!
