Main Takeaways -Inculcate a strategic mindset and thinking -Explore components of a product strategy -Communicate to different stakeholders

1. Develop the Product Strategy Mindset by
Microsoft Product Leader
www.productschool.com

2. CERTIFICATES
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Management Certificate™
Product Management
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Management skills

4. Free Product Management Resources
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5. Develop the Product Strategy Mindset
ANAND VISHWANATHAN Principal Program Manager

6. S P E A K E R
Anand Vishwanathan

7. About Me
Product
Management
ad-tech & monetization enterprise (SaaS & PaaS)
consumer
Product Marketing
Product & Business Strategy

8. Agenda
1. Product Strategy & developing strategic mindset
2. Components of a Product Strategy
3. Communicating to Stakeholders

9. Disclaimer
Content presented here are solely my own and do not represent the views or
opinions of my current or previous employers.

10. Agenda
1. Product Strategy & developing strategic mindset
2. Components of a Product Strategy
3. Communicating to Stakeholders

11. Product Strategy
“a set of choices a company makes to achieve business objectives”
what Products to develop which Market Segments to focus on how to Differentiate & Win how to Position, Price & Sell
a sound Product Strategy will
▪ Outline & clarify the core business values & objectives
▪ Define a Plan to achieve a vision
▪ Guide allocation of organizational resources to deliver results
▪ Focuses on short term execution while keeping an eye on the goal
lack of Product Strategy leads to
▪ Too much emphasis on the short term
▪ No real goal to execute towards
▪ Vague, Incomprehensible strategy

12. Marketing
Finance
Engineering &
Design
Sales & BD
Service & Support
Market & Customers
Product Management
Product Strategy
Product Management

13. Frameworks & Concepts
▪ 5C & 4P Marketing Mix
▪ Porter’s 5 Forces
▪ Jobs to be done
▪ Network Effects
▪ Aggregation Theory
▪ Moats
Resources
▪ “The Business of Platforms”
▪ https://stratechery.com/
Tips
▪ step back
▪ take a broad sweeping view of world
▪ evaluate what-ifs
▪ synthesis as well as analysis
A Product Mindset

14. Agenda
1. Product Strategy & developing strategic mindset
2. Components of a Product Strategy
3. Communicating to Stakeholders

15. Ideation Product Definition
Prototyping
Design & Development
Validation
Commercialization
Markets Trends
Competitive & Ecosystem
Advantage
Customer Needs
Total Addressable Market
Product Vision
Key Features &
Differentiators
Target Market
Goals
Roadmap Business Model
Go-to-Market
Opportunity sizing

16. Agenda
1. Product Strategy & developing strategic mindset
2. Components of a Product Strategy
3. Communicating to Stakeholders

17. Marketing
Finance
Engineering
Sales & BD
Service & Support
Market & Customers
Product Management
• Investment/costs
• profitability
• time to first $
• serviceability of target customer
segments
• feasibility of current
tools/channels
• training
• incentives & quotas
• tradeoff – why build this v/s that
• technical feasibility
• value prop
• segmentation & positioning
• messaging

18. Best Practices
● Know your audience – highlight how their work contributes to the product’s success, how their
needs fit into the overall context of the product strategy
● Over communicate
● brown bags, all-hands, posters, shareable roadmap & scorecards
● Big rocks v/s sand – carve out time separately for strategy, repeat every six months, org not static
(people come and go), company goals change - periodic communication & refresh is needed
● Looking at long-term v/s short-term
● Possess grit and conviction to the longer term product strategy

19. Practice
● Entering or expanding on a market
○ What if Amazon were to sell houses?
○ Should DoorDash deliver packages (B2C, C2C)?
● Change Business Model
○ What if search was a subscription product?
○ Why doesn’t Uber own vehicles?
● Build a business on top of a new technology
○ How would Toyota build an autonomous car?
○ How would FedEx use autonomous trucks?

20. Thank You!
WWW.PRODUCTSCHOOL.COM

21. www.productschool.com
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and
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