Product strategy pitfalls (and how to avoid them)

A well-crafted product strategy lies at the heart of every successful product. History is littered with products that failed because of misconceptions and mistakes in their strategy. Such misconceptions lead to flawed decisions, wasted resources and missed opportunities - and nobody wants that.

There are lots of definitions of product strategy, but fundamentally they all describe it as the high-level plan that outlines the product's vision, goals, and initiatives to meet the vision and goals. It should answer questions like who the product is for, the problem it solves for them, what it does differently from competitors, and the company’s goals for the product. The product strategy also ties product goals to the broader corporate vision and strategy.

As Sam Odio, formerly a product manager at Facebook, put it in this ProductTank San Francisco talk: “The product strategy is a way to overcome a challenge. The product vision is then an outcome of the product strategy. Strategy drives a group to focus on working against a common challenge in an uncommon way and is, therefore, a good story that evolves to articulate a defendable path to meet a challenge.”

Below we examine some of the common misconceptions about product strategy and at some ways to keep on track and deliver a product strategy that everyone can buy into and be excited about delivering.

This can be a problem anywhere, not just in founder-led startups and scale ups where founders may be struggling to delegate. A top-down product strategy can lead to unrealistic and misaligned goals, disengaged staff,  because senior leaders are very unlikely to be as close to customers or the product as staff further down the chain of command. 

Merissa Silk, Principal Product Manager at Onfido says that while senior leaders may set the direction of the corporate and product strategies, any strategy should be created collaboratively. She adds:  “In my experience, the best product strategies come from diverse teams that can provide input based on market trends, customer insights, and technical feasibility. Engaging cross-functional teams ensures that the strategy is grounded and has buy-in from folks who will own the execution.”

Jen Cozier, VP Payroll Product Management at Workday, says the product strategy should also be something that you can share easily. She says: “It should be something that not just the leader could talk about, but everyone, throughout the different layers of the organisation, should know what it is.” 

Think of all those products over the years that became obsolete because their makers stuck to the strategy they knew. Kodak, for example, long dominated the photography market but failed to adapt its product strategy as digital photography emerged in the late 1990s. It clung to its film-based strategy, believing that the business was sustainable, and ended up filing for bankruptcy in 2012. 

Blockbuster is another example - at its height it had 9,000 video and DVD rental stores globally and continued to believe there was a future for physical stores as the world moved online. A strategy can and should be refined iteratively in response to customer feedback and market changes. As Merissa Silk comments, product strategy is a living, evolving entity. She says: “When you build in flexibility and adaptability to your strategic planning processes, you allow your team to pivot when needed without losing sight of the long-term vision or wasting too much effort.”

Hold off and the market could move on so that you miss opportunities. A product strategy doesn’t need to be perfect. Segway is an example that is often cited. Lots of things that contributed to the company’s failure - high price, large size, lack of a clear target market to name a few - but its launch was also delayed by overengineering and perfectionism. As above, a strategy can and should be refined iteratively in response to customer feedback and market changes. 

A strategy is about much, much more than delivering a list of features, it encompasses value creation, solving customer problems and achieving business goals. It should focus on customer outcomes and value creation rather than feature delivery. Roadmaps are not strategy, rather they’re a guide to how and when you can deliver your strategy. As ProdPad CEO Janna Bastow says: “It's a communication tool to help you communicate your strategy. You know what steps you're going to take to meet your vision. I like to think about it as a prototype for your strategy.” 

Microsoft Zune is an often-quoted example of a product where a list of features was mistaken for a strategy. Launched as an iPod beater in 2006, it focused on matching the iPod’s features and didn’t really have a differentiated strategy. It didn’t fill a gap in any users’ needs, consumers had no incentive to choose it over an iPod. Marketing was scant - it failed to make much of an impact and was discontinued in 2011. 

Merissa stresses that, while each is important, the strategy and the roadmap serve different purposes.  She says: “Product leaders need to craft a clear vision and strategy first, defining the why and what. Then the roadmap - the how - detailing the initiatives and sequencing, comes into play. If the roadmap begins to act as your strategy, you're likely to lose sight of the bigger picture and overarching goals. Further, you won't be able to know whether you're aligned with the corporate strategy until it's too late.”

Throwing people and money at a poorly conceived strategy will not magically improve it. Again we could point to Microsoft Zune here - or the Windows Phone or the short-lived Amazon Fire Phone.

There are other misconceptions that crop up of course - for example that a marketing strategy equates to a product strategy, that customers will love the product (talk to them, and not just your biggest customer), that a strategy should always go for revenue maximisation (how about considering sustainability and longevity?). 

Here are some tips and techniques to help prevent strategy misconceptions and mistakes.

Learning about what others have done to help them succeed is always helpful. There are plenty of examples online, and here are a couple of suggestions from Mind the Product:

Anatomy of a real product strategy by Nacho Bassino

Demystifying product strategy by Amy Zima

Everyone needs to understand what the strategy means, so resist the temptation to fall back on in-house jargon and business speak. During her career, Jen Cozier has sometimes seen business leaders lapse into trite and somewhat meaningless corporate language when crafting a strategy and vision. She counsels against this. She says: “A good product strategy and vision provides enough clarity for others to make decisions. The people who do the work and bring the products to life need it to be able to guide them in making the day-to-day decisions that end up making or breaking a product.” She adds that a lack of clarity can lead to delays and to people working on things that really aren't that important. “A good strategy is about what you do, but even more important, what you don't do.”

Merissa says she’s often relied on the product vision canvas to help her craft a product vision. It starts with the problem and helps teams work towards the product’s purpose. The best ones, she says, tell a compelling story about customer pain points and the unique solution a product provides. It should be memorable and energising, she adds, and you won’t get it right first time.

Don’t work on strategy in a vacuum. Jen says: “In previous companies, I’ve seen people lock themselves in a room to work on the product strategy and vision, and that's not typically a recipe for success. It should be collaborative. People should understand why they're being asked to work on it.” 

Understand that it needs to be refreshed and tweaked - probably each year at a minimum. Seek feedback as you develop and refine it. Share it with other product managers and stakeholders before it’s finalised.

The product vision and strategy starts by having a good document, video, whatever format you choose, that is compelling, future looking. Then everyone should know about it. 

Jen suggests a ceremony to take people through the vision and strategy - like an annual kickoff meeting at the start of the year. She recommends also having a way for people to ask questions about the strategy, and making sure that managers are comfortable with answering questions about it. “Everyone needs to feel that their questions will be answered,” she says, “ a strategy and vision needs to be accessible. Everyone should have it, and everyone should know what it is.”

As Merissa says, executives can hand down a strategy or vision that can feel like it steps on the toes of the product leader. A product person may be given prescriptive product details that aren't aligned with the corporate strategy. When this happens she suggests you try and reframe the conversation and shift it back to the broader corporate vision and strategy. 

Dig into the “why”. If you're asked to do something that you feel doesn't chime with the vision make sure you understand the reasoning behind the request. Maybe something has changed, and there’s a pivot? As Jen observes: “If people don’t understand the reason why they’re asked to do something or don’t think it’s right they’ll often ignore it or do something else instead.”

Be ready to push back when necessary. Merissa recommends framing your approach to this in terms of outcomes and how the product team can better execute with more clarity on the vision. 

You’ll see the product team working with a sense of purpose and stakeholders can tell you how the product strategy aligns with broader company goals. As Merissa says: “The product team and the wider org will be aligned, motivated and focused on outcomes.” Jen also looks for her colleagues’ reactions when she presents a strategy: “Do their eyes light up? Are they excited? Or do they seem confused or flat? A good product strategy and vision should leave people saying they can’t wait to work on it.”