What does a good strategy look like, and how exactly do you build it? In this talk at mtpcon Digital Americas, Nacho Bassino, author of “Product Direction” and Director of Product at Xing, dives into creating a product strategy with a practical approach, using a real-life case study.
Often, we discuss the theoretical aspects of strategy and its importance. However, Nacho offers practical advice on how to construct a good strategy, its benefits, and its key components.
Why You Need a Good Strategy
Product managers typically know it’s time to revisit product strategy when there’s a misalignment between execution and vision, leading to focus issues. The crucial aspect is having a method to create this strategy. As Nacho highlights, the model can vary based on the company, and its components should be adaptable to your specific context.
A solid strategy is vital because, while most product teams excel at discovery and delivery processes, they often lack clear direction and methods to define key problems and goals for the next stage. In essence, strategy is the bridge from vision to identifying the right opportunities, problems, and goals, which then guide discovery and delivery phases.
Steps of a Product Strategy
Creating a product strategy involves four main parts:
1. Insights
2. Selecting the most promising insights
3. Goals and observations
4. Synthesizing to share with others
While gathering information and communication are crucial, they are ongoing necessities rather than distinct steps.
Gathering Information
Though not part of the formal steps, gathering information remains essential. According to Nacho, product managers should focus not only on immediate results but also maintain a multidimensional view for effective strategic decisions.
Insights
Insights are valuable learnings that highlight new problems, tendencies, or opportunities that can revolutionize the product. A strategy without insights is essentially just following a hunch. Different types of insights include changes in the business model, consumer behavior, automation, repositioning, and product behavior. Tools like the opportunity solution tree can help identify valuable insights by linking desired outcomes to potential opportunities.
Selecting Insights
Choosing the most critical insights is not about calculating ROI or prioritizing; it’s about finding focus and positioning. Use your intuition to determine the most impactful opportunities. Nacho suggests using the ‘strengthen the core’ tool for this process. Begin by placing your value proposition at the center and surround it with the insights you’re considering. Then, ask two questions: How does your core value proposition enable this new opportunity to succeed? And, what opportunities enhance your value and differentiation?
Goals and Assumptions
The next step involves setting goals and assumptions based on your selected insights. Establish one-year goals and define your key assumptions. Draft a strategic hypothesis to identify the riskiest insights and determine which ones are most logical to pursue.
Synthesis
Finally, you need a clear and memorable artifact to communicate your strategy. While detailed strategy documents are useful in some contexts, a concise one-pager is more practical for daily use.
Key Takeaways
Nacho concludes with several important points:
– Everyone should have a strategy; it’s not reserved for a select few.
– Be practical; while theory is valuable, practical implementation is crucial.
– Though creating a strategy requires effort, the benefits are significant.