#5 Working Bottom-up
Scan your project list to identify themes and define your product strategy.
The key to the Strategy/Metric/Tactic lockup is to identify a high-level product strategy, assign a proxy metric to measure the strategy’s effectiveness, and then brainstorm a set of projects to move the metric. If you get “stuck,” sometimes it helps to turn this process on its head.
I often ask a team to list all the projects they believe are essential, then sort them into “buckets” of ideas. The label for each of these buckets often indicates the implied strategy. For instance, in the case of the “simple” product strategy, there was a set of projects that the team believed were important:
- reduce text and explanations
- provide step-by-step guides for new members
- use customer support dispositioning data to isolate mistakes
- eliminate unused features or functions
- provide context-sensitive information (progressive disclosure)
- provide easy access to self-help systems.
Looking at this list of ideas, we discussed common themes and isolated the “simple” hypothesis.
In contrast, Netflix's personalization efforts are an example of a top-down approach. We decided that the high-level hypothesis—creating a highly personalized experience will improve retention—then identified a proxy metric and brainstormed projects to move the metric.
Product Strategy Exercise (#7)
Look at the list of projects you believe are essential, then sort them to identify high-level themes. These themes are potential product strategies. Now re-evaluate your “Product Strategy/Metric/Tactic Lockup” to see if it warrants changes or edits.
In the following essay, we’ll examine the product organization in more detail to discuss how each product leader can define the strategy for their “swimlane” or “pod.”
Essay #6: A Product Strategy for Each Swimlane.
Enjoy,
Gib
Gibson Biddle
PS. NEW! Check out my cohort-based “Product Strategy Workshop” on Maven.
PPS. Here’s an index of all the articles in this series:
- Intro: How to Define Your Product Strategy
- #1 “The DHM Model.”
- #2 “From DHM to Product Strategy”
- #3 “The Strategy/Metric/Tactic Lockup”
- #4 “Proxy Metrics”
- #5 “Working Bottom-up”
- #6 “A Product Strategy for Each Swimlane”
- #7 “The Product Roadmap”
- #8 “The GLEe Model”
- #9 “The GEM Model”
- #10 “How to Run A Quarterly Product Strategy Meeting”
- #11 “A Case Study: Netflix 2020”
- #12 “A Startup Case Study: Chegg”
- #13 “TLDR: Summary of the Product Strategy Frameworks”
November 2024 Update: Sign up for my new 3-hour virtual “Product Strategy Workshop” on Maven. (Monthly cohorts from 9–12 am PT.)
Click here to purchase my self-paced Product Strategy Workshop on Teachable for $200 off the regular $699 price. The course includes recorded talks, PDFs, my essays, and pre-formatted Google Slides so you can complete your product strategy independently. You can also “try before you buy” — the first two modules are free.
