The main example
FieldArc
A nature restoration platform. Complex offer, sceptical market, a high bar for trust. It walks beside you in every decision lesson.
Read FieldArc →The Brand Strategy System · Free course · Beta
Build the strategy before the brand.
Most brand strategies are built too late. The logo arrives before the logic. This course has you make the decisions first, one lesson at a time, and leaves you with a strategy you can hand to a designer, a copywriter, an investor or your team.
The diagnostic is optional. Run it first if you already have a strategy and want to see where it is thin. Four short reads, then you score your own strategy. Starting from nothing, go to lesson one.
What this is
One working strategy, one decision at a time.
Read it in around two hours. Build your strategy over four to six focused hours, longer if you stop to gather evidence, which you should. It is the system I use in client work, written so you can run it yourself. The lessons are open to anyone, and the working tools unlock with an email, once in this browser.
You leave with
- Seventeen decisions, one per decision lesson, in the order a strategy needs them
- A strategy document that assembles itself as you write, with a research agenda of what still needs evidence
- Seven briefs built from your decisions, for design, copy, pitch, a new starter, the homepage, channels and the offer
- Two worked examples, FieldArc and Tessel, to check your thinking against
Where the work happens
Decide, test, use.
- 01
Decide
Every decision lesson ends in the same panel. Write the decision and how sure you are, from 1 to 10. If it is a claim about the market, record the evidence and how you will test it. If it is a strategic choice, record the rationale, the trade-off and what would make you revisit it.
- 02
Test
The builders and the alignment scan challenge what you wrote. A positioning map you drag, a quick read that catches hype, and checks that later decisions agree with earlier ones. Each lesson also carries a prompt that asks an AI to attack your answer, with your own notes inside it.
- 03
Use
Your strategy document assembles itself as you go. Seven briefs are built from it, ready to hand to the people who will make the brand.
Your strategy answers stay in this browser. They are never sent anywhere.
The system
Five stages, in order.
Build in order for the first pass, then revisit as evidence arrives. The confidence score on every decision tells you where to come back.
- Stage 1Orientation and foundationWhat you are actually building.Lessons 1 to 3 →
- Stage 2Brand essenceWhy it matters. Purpose, mission, vision, values.Lessons 4 to 7 →
- Stage 3Brand positioningWho it is for and why they should choose you.Lessons 8 to 10 →
- Stage 4Brand expressionHow it should sound, feel and behave.Lessons 11 to 13 →
- Stage 5ActionGoals, gaps, roadmap, channels and content.Lessons 14 to 17 →
Worked examples
Two examples beside you.
Every decision is answered twice, by two companies chosen to be as different as possible. Compare your draft with either inside any lesson.
The second example
Tessel
A consumer app for shared household money. Emotional stakes, a crowded category, cheap alternatives.
Read Tessel →Who built this
From client work, written down.
Aaron C. Leaman founded Brighter Future, a brand and communications studio for complex work in science, climate and frontier technology, and leads strategy and storytelling across it. He started in documentary film. He co-founded The Decision Room, an initiative created by Brighter Future.
With thanks to Catherine Flores and Niomi Griffin, who helped develop and evolve this course in its earlier stages.
Tell him what this course got wrong on LinkedIn.
