Designing a new strategy or changing an existing one without understanding the industry environment will unlikely lead to a successful and elegant solution. The strategy design process begins with a comprehensive understanding of the competitive environment from four critical perspectives: the customers and their jobs perspective, the industry as a whole and its participants’ perspective, the organisation and its own capabilities perspective, and the surrounding environmental constraints perspective imposed by political, economic, societal, technological, legal, and environmental circumstances. Identifying and validating industry trends that influence the organisation and its customers is crucial for gaining a holistic understanding of the industry environment and its implications for strategy design.