What is product strategy?

- Yogi Berra once said, "If you don't know where you're going, you'll end up someplace else." Companies just like people or baseball teams need to know where they're going and that's where product strategy comes in. Let's start by exploring the concept of product strategy, what it looks like, and how it fits into the overall direction of your company. Product leaders are the guardians of product strategy. So, let's look at what that means and why I think it's really important. A product strategy is the set of choices a company makes in order to achieve its objectives. These are choices like which products to develop, which market segments to focus on, how to differentiate, how to price, how to position, and message and so on. First, you need to understand your objectives then you can figure out your strategy. Once you have that in place, you can focus on execution and put in place the organization to make it all happen. Let's look at this concept with a simple example. Imagine you're a 10-year-old again, determined to set up your very own lemonade stand. What are your objectives? You probably want to make some money, perhaps to buy yourself a new toy. You may also like to have some fun doing it. So, money and fun. All right, what is your strategy to achieve these objectives? First, the product. Decide what kind of lemonade you want to sell, classic, pink, which recipe are you going to use? Where will you get your ingredients? Will you buy them yourself or get your parents to pay for them and increase your margins? What about pricing? Is a quarter pickup going to cut it or should this be a high-end enterprise? Figure out location and timing. Saturday morning traffic at the mall might work for you. The list goes on and on. All these choices form the product strategy for your start-up lemonade business. Now, that you got all of that squared away, you can start buying ingredients, joining up decorations, secure a ride to the mall, and you're on your way. Now, a real company is a little more complicated than a lemonade stand. There are many people involved and endless priorities compete for resources and people's attention. Product leaders or others who care about strategy have a sacred job, to be the guardians of strategy. So, what does that mean? You aren't necessarily the sole creator of the strategy, many other people can and should be involved in that. It's however, your responsibility to understand what a real strategy looks like and make sure it exists and that it's well documented. You should see to it that all the key stakeholders understand what it means and are prepared to do their part to make it happen. When it fades away, you're the one who needs to bring it back into focus. That's what makes you the guardian of strategy. It's a tough job, but it's critically important. Yogi Berra would have probably agreed that if you do know where you're going, it doesn't guarantee you'll end up there, but it's much better than wondering around aimlessly. Having a clear strategy and guarding it passionately isn't enough to make sure a company is successful, but it's surely makes it much more likely that good things start to happen.