Each of the four answers a different question. Is this even a strategy — the plan names forty priorities and leadership keeps arguing tactics because nobody agreed what the central obstacle is → Good Strategy Bad Strategy, which applies Rumelt’s kernel and names the hallmarks of bad strategy in what you already have. Where should we compete — everyone in the category competes on the same five factors and yours is a slightly better version, so deals come down to price → Blue Ocean Strategy, which runs Eliminate–Reduce–Raise–Create and looks hard at the non-customers who outnumber the ones everyone is fighting over. In what order — early adopters signed enthusiastically and the next tier keeps asking for references you can’t produce → Crossing the Chasm, for a beachhead narrow enough to dominate and the whole product pragmatists require. How does this thing start at all — your marketplace has listings and visitors and neither side finds enough of the other → Cold Start Problem, which builds one atomic network dense enough to stand alone before it thinks about the second city.
Run Good Strategy Bad Strategy first regardless of what follows. It’s the one that tells you whether you have a strategy or a wish list, and a beachhead or a value-innovation move built on no diagnosis is only a more specific wish. Then add whichever matches your market: crowded, sequential, or networked.