Is engineering strategy useful?

Will Larson's compelling case for why engineering strategy is essential. Key argument: 'There's always a strategy, even if there's nothing written down' - it exists in organizational decisions whether explicit or not. Written strategy provides multiple benefits: creates organizational alignment, concentrates company investment, enables consistent policy adoption, supports knowledge transfer and onboarding, drives organizational learning. Explicit strategy advantages include enabling precise disagreement and evolution, reducing communication errors, providing historical context, supporting personal learning and self-awareness. Risks of implicit/unwritten strategy: vulnerable to misinterpretation, creates team inconsistency, leads to knowledge loss, makes leadership transitions difficult. Larson's core thesis: 'The single biggest act you can take to further strategy in your organization is to write down strategy so it can be debated, agreed upon, and explicitly evolved.' The article emphasizes strategy isn't optional - only whether it's deliberate and visible.