/championing-a-strategy-idea

name: championing-a-strategy-idea
description: Primary-Owner playbook for shepherding a Technical Strategy Idea through Architecture's pre-funnel evaluation into the Software Initiative Funnel.
when_to_use: Use when driving a specific TSI as its named Primary Owner. Triggers — "I think Bitwarden should…", "I'm Primary Owner on ARCH-…", "running the Adoption Retrospective". Not for peer-reviewer or portfolio work (use `curating-the-strategy-ideas-backlog`).
allowed-tools: Skill, mcp__plugin_bitwarden-atlassian-tools_bitwarden-atlassian__get_issue, mcp__plugin_bitwarden-atlassian-tools_bitwarden-atlassian__get_issue_comments, mcp__plugin_bitwarden-atlassian-tools_bitwarden-atlassian__get_issue_remote_links, mcp__plugin_bitwarden-atlassian-tools_bitwarden-atlassian__search_issues, mcp__plugin_bitwarden-atlassian-tools_bitwarden-atlassian__get_confluence_page, mcp__plugin_bitwarden-atlassian-tools_bitwarden-atlassian__get_confluence_page_comments, mcp__plugin_bitwarden-atlassian-tools_bitwarden-atlassian__search_confluence, mcp__plugin_bitwarden-atlassian-tools_bitwarden-atlassian__search_confluence_cql

Primary-Owner playbook for shepherding a [Technical Strategy Idea](https://bitwarden.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/EN/pages/2344517656) (TSI) through Architecture's pre-funnel evaluation. Spans filing the ARCH idea, pairing with a peer reviewer, completing the Stakeholder & Engagement Map (with Known Friction Points), presenting at Architecture Council, navigating quarterly prioritization, and running the Adoption Retrospective at Implementation handoff. Time horizon: driven by the quarterly review cadence, not a fixed clock.

For the Peer Reviewer / portfolio-curator side use `Skill(curating-the-strategy-ideas-backlog)`; for the team-tech-lead-as-contributor framing (filing well, driving passes to a Staff+ owner) use `Skill(contributing-to-technical-strategy)` in `bitwarden-tech-lead`.

The Shepherding Model

Per the TSI page, every idea in active status has two Architecture-side roles assigned:

• **Primary Owner.** Drives the idea through the pipeline. Writes the problem statement, conducts research, presents at Architecture Council, shepherds the transition to the funnel. Accountable for progress. **This is you when invoking this skill.**
• **Peer Reviewer.** A second Architecture engineer who acts as a sounding board, stays informed on the idea's progress, and provides a constructive challenge function. Not a co-owner — their job is asking the hard questions, catching cross-initiative conflicts, and ensuring stakeholder engagement is thorough.

The pairing matters. The TSI page is explicit: "No single engineer should carry more than two active reviewer assignments at a time, primary or peer." If you are taking on a Primary Owner role and already have two active assignments, surface that — overloaded review defeats its purpose and stalls ideas you've nominally taken on but can't actually drive.

The Arc: From Thesis to Funnel Intake

Roughly:

1. **Capture.** File the ARCH idea with a lightweight first pass — Problem / Opportunity Statement, Strategic Alignment, rough RICE, theme, customer segments, roadmap placement. 2. **Pair.** Get a peer reviewer assigned. Begin sharing progress with them at the biweekly architecture working session. 3. **Sharpen with peer review.** Together complete the **Stakeholder & Engagement Map** before the idea moves from Backlog to Research. This is the gate. 4. **Research.** Refine the Problem Statement, run stakeholder conversations using the engagement approaches you committed to, surface findings. 5. **Present at Architecture Council.** The peer reviewer attends as informed ally. 6. **Earn intake at quarterly prioritization.** Engineering leadership decides whether this idea enters the funnel — and on what roadmap timing. 7. **Transition to the funnel.** Create the BW Initiative, link it back to the ARCH idea, update statuses, and hand off to `Skill(shepherding-an-initiative)` for the funnel arc.

After implementation completes on the funnel side, you and the peer reviewer run an **Adoption Retrospective** focused on influence effectiveness. That comes back here, not to the funnel skills — see the bottom of this skill.

Filing the Idea (Capture)

The TSI template lives in JPD under the `ARCH` project. The most-load-bearing sections for the Primary Owner are:

• **Problem / Opportunity Statement.** Be specific about current state, pain, and opportunity. The TSI page's example bar: "Five different error handling patterns exist across clients, causing debugging difficulty and user confusion" — not "Error handling is inconsistent." Quantify wherever possible.
• **Strategic Alignment.** Which OKRs, themes, or architectural principles does this support? Which other initiatives does it depend on or enable?
• **Proposed Direction.** Conceptual approach only. Don't design the solution — that comes during funnel Research. Build vs. buy vs. integrate at the rough level.
• **Operational & Quality Considerations.** Key metrics / SLIs, performance constraints, testability, self-hosted vs. cloud, compliance touchpoints.
• **Validation Approach.** What a minimal PoC would look like, success signals, assumptions to test.
• **Rough Sizing.** T-shirt, expected duration, complexity factors.
• **RICE.** Honest. Confidence is what it is — inflating it produces a backlog that lies. The TSI page's RICE scoring page documents the rubric.

You can file with `Skill(contributing-to-technical-strategy)` in `bitwarden-tech-lead` as a reference for template mechanics. That skill is the contributor-side framing; everything past filing — pairing, mapping, sharpening, presenting, prioritizing — is this skill's territory.

The Stakeholder & Engagement Map (the Research Gate)

The single highest-leverage thing this skill does well. Per the TSI page, ideas do not advance from Backlog to Research without a complete map, jointly completed by Primary Owner and Peer Reviewer. Th