You have a great idea for a product, are passionate about it, and want to share it with the world. But how do you plan, design, and launch your product to achieve your vision?
You can think of Product Strategy as a blueprint for your Development Process, which can help answer questions like the one above. It guides you from the initial concept to the final delivery of your product. This blog post will teach you how to create and execute a Product Strategy for your business!
What is Product Strategy?
Product Strategy is, at first, the process of planning and defining a Product's Development. It's a high-level plan that includes creating a well-defined product vision, figuring out the target customers and their needs, creating a Product Roadmap, prioritizing features, and measuring the product's performance. Additionally, it helps develop products that solve real user problems and deliver value to your business. A good Product Strategy can also guide the product team and stakeholders throughout the whole Product Development process, being a crucial part of Product Management and Product Design.
What are the Benefits and Challenges of Product Strategy?
| Benefits |
Challenges |
| Defines the Unique Value Proposition of a new product, its target audience, and how it will meet key goals |
Requires extensive market research and validating assumptions about the Business Model and user needs |
| Keeps the product team focused and aligned on the product vision and company SMART goals |
May change in response to major shifts in user needs and market conditions |
| Helps Project Managers prioritize features and direct resources |
Creates unrealistic expectations or pressure from stakeholders and executives |
| Makes other departments understand how the product ties into their business goals |
Stifles innovation or experimentation if it becomes too rigid or prescriptive |
How to Create a Product Strategy?
Product Strategy involves several steps. Let’s review each of them .
1. Target Audience. Creating a Product Strategy is understanding who your users are and their problems. You can use various methods such as surveys, interviews, focus groups, personas, and user stories to research target market and user needs.
2. Value Proposition. Next, you must define how your product will solve your users’ problems and deliver value to them. You can use frameworks such as the Value Proposition canvas or the lean canvas to identify your Value Proposition and Unique Selling Proposition.
3. Product Vision. Product Strategy establishes a clear direction and purpose. You can use tools like the vision or mission statements to set your product vision and goals, with which you'll describe the ultimate impact and value your product will create for your users and business.
3. Market Research. By understanding the external factors affecting your Product Development you can dodge possible bottlenecks. You can use methods such as SWOT analysis, PESTEL analysis, and Porter's five forces analysis to conduct Market Research and competitive analysis.
4. Business Strategy. You must ensure that your product supports and contributes to your business's overall vision and mission. You can use tools such as the Business Model canvas or the OKR framework to align your Product Strategy with your Business Strategy and objectives.
5. Product Roadmap. Product Strategy entails planning and designing the Product Development using methods like MoSCoW, RICE, or the Kano model. This way can prioritize features based on their importance and impact.
How to Execute a Product Strategy?
Executing a Product Strategy involves building, measuring, learning, and iterating your product. Here are some of the steps to executing
1. Build. Use Agile Methodologies and user feedback to execute a Product Strategy. Build your product based on your Product Roadmap and backlog. You can use Agile Methodologies such as Scrum, Kanban, or Lean Startup to develop your product in short and iterative cycles.
2. Measure. The second step of executing a Product Strategy is to measure the performance and outcomes of your product based on your product goals and objectives. You can use Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and metrics such as revenue, retention, acquisition, activation, or satisfaction to track and analyze the success and impact of your product.
3. Learn. Validate your assumptions and hypotheses and learn from your failures to learn from the results and feedback of your Product Development and delivery. You can use A/B testing, experiments, or surveys to validate your assumptions and hypotheses about your product. Learn from your failures and mistakes and use them as opportunities for improvement and innovation.
4. Iterate. Improve your product based on your learnings and customer feedback. You can use methods such as Minimum Viable Product (MVP), Minimum Marketable Product (MMP), or Minimum Lovable Product (MLP) to improve your product features and functionality.
Why is Product Strategy Important?
Product Strategy is crucial because it helps you make a product that meets your intended users' needs and expectations while benefiting your business. With Product Strategy, you can find answers to questions like:
●What problem are you solving for your users?
●Who are your target users, and what are their strategic goals, pain points, and preferences?
●How do you differentiate your product from the existing or potential competitors?
●What are the key features and benefits of your product?
●How do you measure the success and impact of your product?
A successful Product Strategy lets you make choices aligned with business objectives and values, so you can decide what problems to solve first and what solutions to offer to your user personas. It's the cornerstone of creating an excellent product.
Conclusion
You might think that Product Strategy is something that only big companies or startups need to worry about, but that’s not true. It's relevant for any product, whether big or small, new or old, straightforward or complex.
Product Strategy is the art and science of defining your product, who it is for, how it solves its problems, and how it stands out from the competition. The roadmap guides you from idea to execution and helps you avoid wasting time while helping with product positioning and using resources on things that really matter. An effective Product Strategy is not a static document but a living and evolving plan that adapts to changing user needs, market conditions, and business objectives.
