Strategic planning is a critical exercise for public transit agencies, because it is impossible to be successful unless you articulate what you want to achieve. Unfortunately, strategic planning processes can sometimes devolve into meaningless exercises that create a plan that no one uses or remembers. To be effective, a strategic plan must be a comprehensive undertaking that is developed using a combination of data, interviews, workshops, and consensus-building, all of which must be accompanied by strong executive leadership that pushes the agency towards an ambitious future. Our strategic planning work is premised on the idea that to be successful, a strategic plan must be visionary and ambitious enough to capture hearts and minds, but practical enough to be implemented. This can be achieved through our well-honed process which includes the following: