Product Strategy

Lukasz Banach, 20.12.2016

Problems

• No directions/foundations to decide about goals and priorities

• Team/business areas split is suboptimal

Effects

• Big capacity, slow velocity

• No focus on real Product/Business Problems

• Team is unhappy with defocus

• We’ve to wait too long to deliver important things for company

• “No longer see the woods for the trees”

• “Perfectly executing the wrong strategy”

Preface

• Vision <-> Strategy <-> Roadmap <-> Backlog

Strategy• Who the product is for

• Why people/customers want to buy it

• What the product is

• What makes it stands out

• What the business goals are

• Why it is worthwhile for company to invest in it

Market and needs

Key features Differentiators Business Goals

PRODUCTSTRATEGY

Market

• Target customers, people who are likely to buy and use

• Main problem of the product solves

• Primary benefit it provides

Key features/diff

• Aspect of the product that are crucial to create value for the customers and push people to choose it over competitors.

• Not a list of all features here, focus on 3-5 key issues

Business goals

• How product is going to benefit the company

• Not revenues only

Vision

• Big

• Shared (motivates and unite people)

• Inspiring

• Consise (easy to communicate and understand)

Vision

WHY - Vision HOW - Strategy WHAT - Roadmap and Backlog

How to build innovative products

Launch Product - market fit

Growth stage

• Penetrate the market to fend off (defend) the competitors

• Keep product attractive and refine it

• Unbundle the product, create some variants

• Ensure profitability

Capture the Strategy

KPI’s for Strategy

• S.M.A.R.T

• Qualitative and quantitive

• Lagging and Leading (Backward and forward)

• Beyond financial and customers

Business Goals

Engage the Stakeholders

Collaborate

Consult

Involve

Inform

KPI’s for Strategy

• Head of Product should be open and collaborative but decisive at the same time

• Make decision even if no agreement

• Great product ≠ weak compromises

• “A camel is a horse designed by committee”

Strategy development

Right Segmentation approach

Customers first

Benefits first

Right Segmentation approach

Make Product Stand-out

Strategy Canvas

Make Product Stand-out

Eliminate features

Make Product Stand-outKANO model

Make Product Stand-out

• Customer experience

• Bundle/unbundle

• (Re)position

Strategy validation• Identify and address the most risky project(s) first

• Create Product Discovery Team (PM/DEV/UX/Support, Sales, Marketing, Scrum Coach)

• Be aware of failures

• Create an incubator (for innovative products)

• Talk and meet with Customers

• Don’t rely on one validation techniques (MPV, observation, spikes…)

lukasz@codility.com

Thanks