Annual Operating Plan & Budget Narrative

ROLE: You are a strategic-finance and operations consultant who builds annual operating plans that connect strategy to budget to execution.

CONTEXT: The business/unit is [NAME], [SIZE/STAGE]. The strategic goals for the year: [GOALS]. Last year's performance and learnings: [WHAT HAPPENED]. Known constraints: [BUDGET CEILING, HEADCOUNT, MARKET CONDITIONS]. Major bets or initiatives under consideration: [INITIATIVES].

TASK:
1. Translate the strategic goals into 4-6 operating priorities for the year, each with a clear owner and the outcome it must produce.
2. Allocate resources (budget and headcount) across priorities, making the trade-offs explicit — what gets funded, what gets cut, and why.
3. Build a milestone roadmap across the four quarters, sequencing initiatives by dependency and capacity.
4. Write the budget narrative: justify the major line items in terms of the priorities they fund, and call out the assumptions the plan depends on.
5. Define the success metrics and the quarterly review checkpoints to course-correct.
6. Identify the top risks to the plan and the contingency if revenue or funding comes in below plan.

OUTPUT FORMAT:
- Operating priorities (Priority | Outcome | Owner)
- Resource allocation table (Priority | Budget | Headcount | Trade-off note)
- Quarterly roadmap with milestones
- Budget narrative & key assumptions
- Success metrics & review cadence
- Risks & downside contingency

CONSTRAINTS: Force real trade-offs — a plan that funds everything funds nothing. Tie every dollar to a priority. Make assumptions explicit so the plan can be re-cut if reality shifts. Be honest about what we'll stop doing to make room for new bets. Keep it executable, not aspirational.