Product Goals
In a recent talk at ProductTank Wellington, Andrew Tokeley, a Product Leadership Coach, dives into the essential role of strategy in helping product managers connect the dots and prove the value of their work. Many product managers struggle due to a lack of clear strategy, making this topic highly relevant.
The Core Issue with Product People
A common challenge among product professionals at all levels is that they often don’t understand their own value. Establishing a defined strategy is crucial for demonstrating the worth of product leaders, whether they are product managers, Chief Product Officers, or Product Owners. According to Andrew, the key value lies in maximizing ROI from the efforts and outputs of product teams.
Understanding Strategy
Strategy is more than just a collection of ideas or actions. For a strategy to be effective, it needs to critically balance and prioritize initiatives. Simply acting on ideas from a roadmap does not constitute a strategy. Instead, strategy should align with and articulate the company’s values and long-term objectives.
Forming Your Strategy
Creating a functional strategy involves several key steps:
1. Goals: Define measurable, prioritized, and specific goals to achieve within a set timeframe.
2. Opportunities: Understand the context you operate in and identify the biggest opportunities or obstacles.
3. Hypotheses: Develop hypotheses to address these opportunities or obstacles.
4. Actions: Outline actionable steps to test each hypothesis.
A strategic roadmap should visually signify your goals, opportunities, hypotheses, and actions, making it easy to communicate these across the organization.
Role of Product Managers
Product managers often wish for a clear business strategy but must remember it is their responsibility to clarify and align their activities with the strategic goals. The PBSO framework can help in this regard:
– Problem: Identify the underlying problem or opportunity.
– Beneficiary: Determine who benefits from solving this problem.
– Scope: Define the scope of the solution.
– Outcome: Set metrics to evaluate the effectiveness of the solution.
The strategy should drive clear actions, align with strategic objectives, and outcomes should be measured and reported regularly.
Visualizing Strategy with Roadmaps
Roadmaps serve as useful tools to visualize a product manager’s impact. A three-month rolling roadmap aligned with strategic goals helps track progress and measure the impact of releases.
Key Takeaways
The essence of strategy lies in its function as the connective tissue between goals and actions. It should be challenging to create but straightforward to explain. A well-communicated strategy helps map the incremental impacts of the work against higher-level strategic goals. This reinforces the importance of continuous storytelling to align product outcomes and strategic objectives.
If you found this talk insightful, there’s more to explore:
– Watch: Demystifying Product Strategy by Amy Zima
– Listen: How to create a product strategy – Nacho Bassino
– Read: Product strategy for beginners: Part 1 and Part 2
These resources can further deepen your understanding and application of product strategy in your role.