Illuminating Product Strategy

“We’re looking for a head of product…”

I get a lot of messages that start this way. So when I saw one in my Twitter DMs last week, I started composing my usual response. But as I was typing, another DM came through…

“…but not you.”

I paused. A series of messages from a former colleague came through, asking for advice in her current situation. She’s part of the leadership team at an enterprise SaaS startup, and while they have an active search for a head of product, the exec team is actively mis-aligned on why. She explained that there were 2 camps forming:

• group A believed the company had a clear product strategy, and they needed to hire a seasoned operator to just execute it

• group B believed the company actually lacked a coherent product strategy, and they needed to hire a clear thinker to define it

Her request to me was simple:

“do you have any insightful questions that would illuminate the product strategy, or lack thereof?”

Did I!

I immediately launched into a 3-part answer (side note: it’s always a 3-part answer).

1. clear problem…for which the product was a solution

2. clear user…for whom the problem was worth solving

3. clear metric…by which the value swap was measured

Wait…did that answer her question? Or did I just share a factoid that I like reciting? (future topic / pet peeve: interviewees who answer questions with aphorisms like this).

My framing helped answer whether there was a viable product, but it didn’t do much to clarify what, if any, product strategy existed. I thought a bit more about my favorite ways to “pressure test” strategy for enterprise SaaS products:

1. what is your primary customer acquisition channel?

2. can your go-to-market team explain product value?

3. what levers drive user adoption / account growth?

4. how does product usage tie to a buying decision?

5. can your target customer quantify purchase ROI?

6. do you have a filter for saying “no” to feature asks?

7. is the core motion distilled into a primary loop?

8. are market timing and behavior trends on your side?

If you can answer all these, then in my opinion not only do you have a product strategy, but it’s also aligned from a cross-functional perspective. I haven’t heard back yet, but my hope is this line of thinking helped bring groups A and B together.

I’d love to hear from readers about the different ways they craft and confirm strategy - please chime in via comments👇. And if you enjoyed this post, please consider subscribing.

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further reading / references

• Good Strategy Bad Strategy is full of sanity checking tips

• How to be Strategic explains the secret sauce in 3 steps

• love the strategy formulation machine from Hiten Shah

• here is an incomplete compendium of “strategy smells”

• enterprise SaaS plays can be thought of as a series of loops

• the Product Lexicon highlights vision vs strategy vs …

• what happens when a sales team really gets product value?

• distribution follows the power law (one channel outperforms)

• this First Round Review article lays out a “product strategy stack” which connects many dots

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childish drawing / interpretation