memola-strategy skill

---
name: memola-strategy
description: Strategic operating system for brands, platforms, and digital infrastructure. Use for terrain assessment, strategic diagnosis, platform viability analysis, governance checks, and long-term value system design. Optimized for foundation-terrain environments where trust compounds and legitimacy matters more than speed.
license: MIT
author: MEMOLA Medios S.A.S.
repository: https://github.com/josebarnetche/memola
---

# MEMOLA — Strategic Operating System

## Overview

MEMOLA is a strategic methodology for designing and executing systems of value at the intersection of culture, technology, business, and institutions. It transforms real-world value into structured, durable digital assets.

**Keywords**: strategy, branding, platforms, systems-thinking, governance, terrain-assessment, regime-analysis, institutional-modernization, cultural-intelligence

## When to Use MEMOLA

Use this skill when:
- Assessing whether a client/project fits your methodology
- Designing brand architecture and value systems
- Evaluating platform viability
- Checking governance and decision authority
- Building long-term strategic infrastructure

Do NOT use for:
- Pure execution without strategy
- Trend-based marketing
- Speed-regime environments requiring rapid pivots
- Viral/growth-hacking focused work

## The Five Diagnostic Questions

Before any engagement, answer these:

1. **Can this survive long enough for structure to matter?**
   - If lifespan < 3 years, may be wrong terrain

2. **Does failure here look like erosion, not explosion?**
   - Slow decay = MEMOLA terrain
   - Sudden collapse = not MEMOLA terrain

3. **Is legitimacy more valuable than speed?**
   - If being first matters more than being trusted, exit

4. **Will clarity actually change outcomes?**
   - If strategy is irrelevant to survival, don't force it

5. **Does this work without going viral?**
   - If virality is required for survival, wrong tool

**Scoring**: 4-5 "yes" = proceed. 2-3 = caution. 0-1 = decline.

## Terrain Classification

### Foundation Terrain (MEMOLA Applies)
- Failure mode: weathering over time
- Trust compounds and matters
- Legitimacy > speed
- Reputation outlasts hype
- Examples: institutions, heritage brands, professional services

### Sprint Terrain (MEMOLA Does NOT Apply)
- Failure mode: rupture
- Speed determines survival
- First-mover advantage dominates
- Examples: consumer apps, viral products, speculative ventures

## Foundational Principles

1. **Reality before narrative** — Understand before you position
2. **Structure before execution** — Design before you build
3. **Systems before tactics** — Architecture before sprintaigns
4. **Assets before activity** — Create value containers before filling them
5. **Compounding before scale** — Depth before breadth

Any output that violates this order is invalid.

## Core Workflows

### Workflow 0: Terrain Assessment (Required First)
1. Ask the five diagnostic questions
2. Classify terrain: foundation or sprint
3. Calculate regime fit score
4. If score < 4: recommend decline or adaptation
5. Output: Terrain assessment with proceed/decline recommendation

### Workflow 1: Strategic Diagnosis
1. Confirm terrain assessment passed
2. Gather inputs: business model, power structure, constraints, cultural context
3. Identify 1-3 core strategic problems
4. Define positioning constraints and feasible scope
5. Output: Strategic diagnosis document

### Workflow 2: System Design
1. Review diagnosis outputs
2. Design brand architecture, digital assets, narrative layers
3. Create system map and asset hierarchy
4. Define priority roadmap
5. Output: Structured system ready for execution

### Workflow 3: Platform Assessment
1. Evaluate platform criteria (problem repetition, information fragmentation, aggregation leverage, niche definition)
2. Determine platform type (directory, tool, media, ecosystem)
3. Define phased approach (manual first)
4. Output: Platform feasibility and roadmap

### Workflow 4: Governance Check
1. Verify decision authority exists
2. Confirm scope boundaries
3. Check for ethical alignment
4. Define exit conditions
5. Output: Governance clearance or decline recommendation

## Governance Requirements

MEMOLA requires all four to proceed:
- **Clear Decision Authority** — Someone can say yes
- **Defined Scope** — Boundaries are explicit
- **Explicit Ownership** — Responsibilities are assigned
- **Exit Conditions** — How and when to leave

MEMOLA refuses:
- "Just execution" without strategic authority
- Committee paralysis
- Metric theater
- Ethical ambiguity

## Output Formats

### Terrain Assessment Output
```
TERRAIN ASSESSMENT: [Entity Name]
Date: [Date]

Scores:
1. Survival Horizon: [X/1]
2. Failure Mode: [X/1]
3. Legitimacy vs Speed: [X/1]
4. Clarity Impact: [X/1]
5. Virality Independence: [X/1]

Total: [X/5]
Classification: [Foundation/Mixed/Sprint]
Recommendation: [Proceed/Caution/Decline]
```

### Governance Check Output
```
GOVERNANCE CHECK: [Entity Name]
Date: [Date]

Decision Authority: [Strong/Weak/None]
Scope Defined: [Yes/No/Partial]
Ownership Clear: [Yes/No]
Exit Conditions: [Defined/Not Defined]

Ruling: [CLEARED/CONDITIONAL/NOT CLEARED]
```

## Case Archetypes

MEMOLA work typically fits these patterns:
- **Institution modernization** — Digitizing 50+ year organizations
- **Artisanal to scalable brands** — Heritage producers going digital
- **Cultural events as platforms** — Annual events becoming year-round assets
- **Niche vertical aggregators** — Information platforms for specific sectors

## Best Practices

- Always run terrain assessment first
- Decline misaligned work — self-selection is integrity
- Never execute without completing diagnosis
- Always name trade-offs explicitly
- Prioritize compounding value over immediate output
- Question whether MEMOLA applies before forcing it

## Philosophy

> "MEMOLA doesn't make everything better — it makes the right things durable."

MEMOLA is not possessed. It is enacted. You do not "have" MEMOLA doctrine. You practice it.

Self-selection is a feature, not a limitation. Declining misaligned work is precision, not weakness.

---

**Origin**: Mercedes, Corrientes, Argentina (NEA)
**Author**: Jose Barnetche / MEMOLA Medios S.A.S.
**Repository**: https://github.com/josebarnetche/memola
**Version**: 2.0.0