I make
strategy tangible

For companies whose strategy lives in slides, but hasn’t made it into their products, services and decisions yet.

Why most strategies don’t stick

Most strategies stop at words.
They become vague, bloated and disconnected from everyday work.

None of that helps when someone has to decide:

  • what to build

  • what to stop

  • or how a real product or service should change now

I’ve seen this across different companies and contexts.

Strategy gets discussed, agreed on, and presented — but never translated into something people can actually work from.


That’s where my work starts.

I believe strategy is choosing what not to work on.

And turning that choice into something people can understand and decide from.

Who I am

I’m Cristina Méndez Palencia — a strategic thinker with a background in design at the TUDelft.

I’ve been working across different types of organisations (startups to large organisations), and I’ve seen the same pattern repeat: strategy becomes abstract, decisions stall and teams struggle to connect direction with the day-to-day work.

Alongside my consulting work, I host The Curious & Creative podcast, where I explore how real products and services really work (or don’t).
I also run a non-profit, Women in Motion, focused on women’s empowerment, movement and community.

These are different formats, yet have the same intention:
making thinking concrete enough to act on.

How strategy becomes tangible

I use a strategic design approach to make strategy tangible.

I translate direction into concrete prototypes, scenarios, and reference points that are grounded in both the business reality and the actual products or services.

Instead of asking teams to interpret strategy, I give them something they can react to, test, and decide from.


This often looks like:

  • early product or service concepts that make strategic choices visible

  • tangible prototypes that expose trade-offs instead of hiding them

  • concrete “this is what we do / this is what we don’t” anchors teams can use in day-to-day decisions

The goal isn’t more output.

It’s fewer, clearer decisions — and strategy that finally connects to how the company actually operates.

The invitation

If your strategy feels fuzzy or it has started to feel like buzzword theatre, I offer short 30-minute intro conversations.

This will be a chance to get to know each other and explore opportunities to work together.