Initiatives don't fail in execution.
They fail in design.

Strategy lives on one side. Results on the other.

Most initiative were never designed to cross the gap.

We design the bridge that connects your highest ambitions to successful results.

Applied across national laboratories, global manufacturers, technology firms, and complex government programs.

BoeingMicrosoftSonyAppleFerncoWalt DisneyLos AlamosVMwareNokiaNorthrop GrummanDepartment of EnergyDirecTVLawrence Livermore National Laboratory
BoeingMicrosoftSonyAppleFerncoWalt DisneyLos AlamosVMwareNokiaNorthrop GrummanDepartment of EnergyDirecTVLawrence Livermore National Laboratory
BoeingMicrosoftSonyAppleFerncoWalt DisneyLos AlamosVMwareNokiaNorthrop GrummanDepartment of EnergyDirecTVLawrence Livermore National Laboratory
BoeingMicrosoftSonyAppleFerncoWalt DisneyLos AlamosVMwareNokiaNorthrop GrummanDepartment of EnergyDirecTVLawrence Livermore National Laboratory

What Changes When You Work With Us

    Misalignment to Shared DesignAgreement on direction isn't the same as agreement on what success requires. We create a shared strategic design with explicit outcomes, measures, and assumptions.
    Hidden Assumptions to VisibilityEvery initiative depends on conditions that must hold true. We surface those assumptions early — when leaders can still act on them.
    Effort to ImpactEffort without clear outcomes produces activity, not results. We tie work directly to measurable outcomes before planning locks decisions in.

How We Help Organizations Design for Success

We work in three ways—used individually or together depending on where clarity is breaking down. In every case, the work is collaborative. We design alongside your leaders and teams, not around them.
    Strategic Project & Program DesignYou have an important initiative forming, restarting, or already showing strain. We clarify the design before execution begins, so the work is built on solid logic rather than optimistic assumptions. Applies at project, program, and enterprise level.
    Strategy Review & Future-Ready DesignConditions are shifting and leadership needs to know whether the current direction still holds. We pressure-test the strategy, expose trade-offs, and clarify what the organization should pursue — and what it should not.
    Alignment & Decision DesignA critical decision is unresolved and progress has stalled. We structure the decision itself — clarifying the real question, surfacing what is in conflict, and producing an answer the organization can actually execute.

About Terry Schmidt

Founder, ManagementPro | Strategic Project Design

Helping leaders design initiatives that succeed under execution.

Across global enterprises, national research laboratories, and the executive classrooms of UCLA Extension’s Technical Management Program, he observed the same pattern: capable teams working hard on initiatives whose underlying design was never made explicit.

That insight led him to modernize the Logical Framework into a practical discipline known as Strategic Project Design — an approach that clarifies the outcomes initiatives must deliver, the assumptions they depend on, and the logic connecting effort to results.

He has trained more than 25,000 professionals in this approach.

Execution problems usually start as design problems. Strategic Project Design fixes them upstream.
About [Terry Schmidt]{.text-primary}

Strategic Project Design

The Discipline Between Strategy and Results

Strategic Project Design is an upstream discipline — one that operates before planning begins, clarifying the design logic that makes planning coherent and execution reliable. Most organizations move quickly from strategy to planning. When the underlying design is unclear, plans multiply while alignment erodes. Strategic Project Design resolves this by making the architecture of an initiative explicit: the outcomes it must produce, the assumptions it depends on, and the causal chain connecting effort to results. At the center of the discipline is the Logical Framework (LogFrame) — a structured design tool that organizes an initiative across four levels and links them through explicit measures, verification, and assumptions. It provides a clear cause-and-effect hypothesis that leaders can test before execution begins, surfacing gaps and hidden risks while they’re still inexpensive to fix.

Strategic Project Management Made Simple by Terry Schmidt

What Our Clients Say

Terry is the perfect guide to help you and your organization navigate through today’s new reality successfully.
Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez

Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez

former Global Chairman of the Project Management Institute

Hits the nail on the head with fresh approaches to design and implement projects that achieve their goals.
Philippe Goetschel

Philippe Goetschel

Director, Microsoft

Terry took us from the surreal to the real world of strategic thinking and planning.
James Whalen

James Whalen

Vice President, DirecTV, Inc.

We used your method to organize and execute an Awards campaign that earned numerous nominations and awards, including an Oscar®.
Don Levy

Don Levy

SVP, Sony Pictures Digital

The benefits of planning with your approach are crystal clear.
Adam Gilmore

Adam Gilmore

Space Station Mechanisms Lead, NASA

You changed how I do my planning and significantly increased my ability to reach my goals.
Laurie Triplett

Laurie Triplett

Environmental Physicist, Los Alamos National Laboratory

Your Next Critical Initiative Deserves a Clear Strategy.

Clarity is a leadership decision — not a deliverable added later.