Ed Biden’s Post

This is a fantastic concise approach to developing product strategies and solutions to business challenges. You can keep it brief or chock it full of information as much as you like. Definitely worth the 5 min read https://lnkd.in/gUrVNf4G

How to write a product strategy in 1 hour… (or 1 day / week / month … ) "𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘐 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘢 𝘯𝘦𝘸 𝘫𝘰𝘣, 𝘐 𝘥𝘦𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘢 𝘚𝘞𝘈𝘎 (𝘚𝘵𝘶𝘱𝘪𝘥 𝘞𝘪𝘭𝘥-𝘈𝘴𝘴 𝘎𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘴) 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘵 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘨𝘺 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯 𝘮𝘺 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘸𝘰 𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘬𝘴." - Gibson Biddle, ex Netflix, Chegg Strategies are never done. There are just times when they need to feel complete so you communicate them (All hands / quarter start / product review). How detailed your strategy is depends on how much time you have before you need to communicate it. Having a 1 hour strategy is useful, because: • It gives you something that other people can react to and build on • You realise where you have most uncertainty and need to do more work • It is likely 80% the same as a 2 week strategy, which is 80% as the same as a 2 month strategy You can document this in Google Doc / Notion / whatever. The most important thing is to answer the following questions in order: 1. 𝗢𝗯𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 What is the change you want to see in the world? (1-2 𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘴) 2. 𝗨𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘀 Who are you building for? What do they want or need? (1 𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘤𝘳𝘪𝘱𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 3-4 𝘣𝘶𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘵 𝘱𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘹1-2 𝘬𝘦𝘺 𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘴) 3. 𝗦𝘂𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗽𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿𝘀 What can you do that no one else can do? (3-4 𝘣𝘶𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘵𝘴) 4. 𝗩𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 Based on your Users and Superpowers, what does the future look like? (2-3 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘱𝘩𝘴 𝘰𝘳 2-3 𝘴𝘬𝘦𝘵𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘴) 5. 𝗣𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗮𝗿𝘀 What are the 2-4 most important themes of work given your Vision, Users and Superpowers? (2-4 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘪𝘵𝘭𝘦 + 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘳𝘵 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘤𝘳𝘪𝘱𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯) 6. 𝗜𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗰𝘁 How will working on these things help you reach your objective? (𝘋𝘦𝘴𝘤𝘳𝘪𝘱𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘮𝘦𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘴𝘮, 𝘦.𝘨. 𝘴𝘰𝘭𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘟 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦 𝘠 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘩 𝘥𝘳𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘴 𝘡; 𝘖𝘳 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘰𝘧 𝘦𝘯𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘰𝘱𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘪𝘧 𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘦) 7. 𝗥𝗼𝗮𝗱𝗺𝗮𝗽 For each pillar, what are the obvious things we should build? (3-10 𝘣𝘶𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘵 𝘱𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘴. 𝘕𝘰 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘴𝘦 𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘱𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘵) More examples, template and notes in Hustle Badger's [FREE] Intro To Product Strategy course: https://lnkd.in/e5XJNR_a

How to Write a Product Strategy in a 1 Day / 1 Week / 1 Month - Ed Biden What is a strategy? A product strategy explains what you will work on, and why. It links the day-to-day work that you are doing to the big picture company strategy and vision. Most helpful for PMs, it provides a clear rationale about what you are NOT going to do. It’s easy to get drowned in requests from users and various stakeholders around the business. Everyone has a great idea or a pressing question that needs answering. You need an approach that allows you to consistently work on high impact features, without going back to first principles on every idea. This is the essence of what a product strategy is. A product strategy is your plan for creating the most value possible for your users and your company. And you do this by focusing your time on a small set of really high impact work, rather than diluting your efforts across all the different things you could potentially do. Good product strategies therefore have two core features that allow you to create amazing value for your users: They are composed of high impact work They are mutually reinforcing Whilst having a solid evidence base for your strategy is undoubtedly good, creating a strategy is much better thought of as an ongoing activity, rather than an ad hoc task. You really need a working understanding of what your strategy is at all times. You want to start with a basic hypothesis as soon as possible, and then strengthen this over time. This approach several benefits: It’s easier to get feedback from stakeholders when they have something to comment on You can focus your discovery by seeing where your evidence is weak You can use your hypothesis as your strategy whilst you firm things up As you ship features, engage with stakeholders, and do more discovery your strategy will naturally shift. That’s fine and normal. It’s almost always better to get going and course correct as you go along, rather than do nothing for several weeks before acting. The rest of this article is a guide to developing a strategy whatever timeframe you’ve got: 1 Day | Snap Strategy - pulling together your initial structure and thoughts 1 Week | Working Hypothesis - building that out to a reasoned narrative which you can test 1 Month | Product Strategy - refining that into a well-evidenced strategy that clearly articulates where you should focus 7 steps to create a strategy Regardless of the timeframe you’re working to, then a solid product strategy has 7 major sections: Objective - what is the challenge we are responding to? Users - what does our audience need? Superpowers - where can we create unique value? Vision - what is the future we are building? Pillars - what are the main themes of work to get there? Impact - does our planned work meet our objective? Roadmap - what are we doing next, and how do we share progress?

What is a product strategy? Most importantly, it's what you won't work on. I wrote up some thoughts in a guest post for Aakash Gupta this week: It’s easy to get drowned in requests from users and various stakeholders around the business. Everyone has a great idea or a pressing question that needs answering. But not all these requests will be worth doing. Some might be great ideas, some might be ok, and a few will probably be counter-productive. Assessing each one-by-one would take a huge amount of time. You need an approach that allows you to consistently work on high impact features, without going back to first principles on every idea. This is the essence of what a product strategy is. A product strategy explains what you will work on, and why. It links the day-to-day work that you are doing to the big picture company strategy and vision. A product strategy is your plan for creating the most value possible for your users and your company. And you do this by focusing your time on a small set of really high impact work, rather than diluting your efforts across all the different things you could potentially do. Good product strategies therefore have two core features that allow you to create amazing value for your users: 1. They are composed of high impact work 2. They are mutually reinforcing That is to say, of all the pieces of work that you could do, product strategies choose ones that create more value in a shorter amount of time. But not only that, they also choose pieces of work that when combined create more value than the sum of their parts. Strategy is never done A lot of people think creating a strategy is something that should be done on a periodic basis, after huge amounts of research and analysis. Whilst having a solid evidence base for your strategy is undoubtedly good, creating a strategy is much better thought of as an ongoing activity, rather than an ad hoc task. “When I start a new job, I define a SWAG (Stupid Wild-Ass Guess) product strategy within my first two weeks.”  – Gibson Biddle, ex VP Product Netflix You really need a working understanding of what your strategy is at all times. You want to start with a basic hypothesis as soon as possible, and then strengthen this over time. This approach several benefits: 1. It’s easier to get feedback from stakeholders when they have something to comment on 2. You can focus your discovery by seeing where your evidence is weak 3. You can use your hypothesis as your strategy whilst you firm things up As you ship features, engage with stakeholders, and do more discovery your strategy will naturally shift. That’s fine and normal. It’s almost always better to get going and course correct as you go along, rather than do nothing for several weeks before acting. Full article here: https://lnkd.in/eTFXX9sy

I really like this approach to product. Following a system like this can speed progress and results. If you keep updated with the best information you can find, and act decisively, you will be succeeding while others are still agonizing, likely over details out of their control. #progressmatters #actionmatters #deliveryhero #productmanagement

How to write a product strategy in 1 hour… (or 1 day / week / month … ) "When I start a new job, I define a SWAG (Stupid Wild-Ass Guess) product strategy within my first two weeks." - Gibson Biddle, ex Netflix, Chegg Strategies are never done. There are just times when they need to feel complete so you communicate them (e.g All hands / quarter start / product review). How detailed your strategy is depends on how much time you have before you need to communicate it. Having a 1 hour strategy is useful, because: * It gives you something that other people can react to and build on * You realise where you have most uncertainty and need to do more work * It is likely 80% the same as a 2 week strategy, which is 80% as the same as a 2 month strategy You can document this in Google Doc / Notion / whatever. The most important thing is to answer the following questions in order: 1. Objective What is the change you want to see in the world? (1-2 sentences) 2. Users Who are you building for? What do they want or need? (1 line description with 3-4 bullet points x1-2 key users) 3. Superpowers What can you do that no one else can do? (3-4 bullets) 4. Vision Based on your Users and Superpowers, what does the future look like? (2-3 paragraphs or 2-3 sketches) 5. Pillars What are the 2-4 most important themes of work given your Vision, Users and Superpowers? (2-4 themes with title + short description) 6. Impact How will working on these things help you reach your objective? (Description of mechanism, e.g. solving X will increase Y which drives Z; Or back of envelope calculation if possible) 7. Roadmap For each pillar, what are the obvious things we should build? (3-10 bullet points. No need to prioritise at this point) Want an example of what this looks like and more details? See Hustle Badger's Intro To Product Strategy course (FREE): https://lnkd.in/e5XJNR_a Incl. loads of free templates and examples. DM me if you need further advice, coaching or private workshops.

3x resources to help you write a **Product Strategy** Product strategies help you: • Generate more impact • Have a coherent plan of action • Say "no" in incoming requests • Get everyone aligned Here are 3x Hustle Badger resources to help write yours Each covers the same ground, but in increasing detail 𝟭. 𝗦𝗧𝗥𝗔𝗧𝗘𝗚𝗬 𝗢𝗩𝗘𝗥𝗩𝗜𝗘𝗪 20 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘴 | 𝘈𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘭𝘦 | 𝘍𝘙𝘌𝘌 Overview of what a product strategy is, and how to develop one. Link: https://lnkd.in/eV7V75eQ 𝟮. 𝗜𝗡𝗧𝗥𝗢 𝗧𝗢 𝗦𝗧𝗥𝗔𝗧𝗘𝗚𝗬 2 𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴 | 𝘊𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘦 | 𝘍𝘙𝘌𝘌 Step-by-step guide to develop a snap strategy in less than half a day. A snap strategy acts as your working hypothesis: • Use this to get feedback from others • Build on this over time • Sets direction even as you refine it Super effective when you're new in role or don't have an existing strategy. Link: https://lnkd.in/eQK2kG6j 𝟯. 𝗦𝗧𝗥𝗔𝗧𝗘𝗚𝗬 𝗖𝗢𝗨𝗥𝗦𝗘 8-10 𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴 | 𝘊𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘦 | 𝘗𝘈𝘐𝘋 In depth course that walks through each of 7x components of a product strategy: 1. Objective 2. Users 3. Superpowers 4. Vision 5. Pillars 6. Impact Modelling 7. Roadmap Each of these modules is explained in depth with examples. Helps you maximise impact and align stakeholders. Link: https://lnkd.in/eGrsbYGf

Product strategy is always a work in progress. It's a hypothesis that you are continually refining. That means you can come up with your first draft very quickly - say in a day or two. Will that initial hypothesis be great? • Well, probably better than you think. • Your 1 day strategy is ~80% the same as your 1 week strategy • Your 1 week strategy is ~80% as the same as your 1 month strategy Check out the image attached for what that looks like for understanding your users (i.e. just one component of your product strategy). And coming up with a hypothesis early has big benefits: • It provides focus for your discovery to refine your strategy (i.e. you are hypothesis-driven) • It gives you something to share with others to stimulate feedback, which speeds up learning • You can use it to guide what you build as you go along So what is a product strategy? • It explains what you'll build and why • It connects day-to-day tasks to business objectives • It's a group of high-impact activities with mutually reinforcing effects • ... and 80% of the time it's a 2-4 pillars that describe the main themes of work you're going after If you're curious to see what a 1 day / 1 week / 1 month strategy could look like, and create your own, check out our FREE course: https://lnkd.in/e5XJNR_a This includes a free template to create your own product strategy.

A first (and hopefully not last!) foray into publishing content from me. I'd love to hear honest thoughts about what I've written (especially from those of you in the world of product). My first post is all about pitfalls to avoid when crafting a product roadmap, leaning into learnings from my own career. The aim of this (and future) articles is to help those in the world of product through little chunks of advice that can be digested during the time it takes to have a coffee.

The responsibilities of a product manager cannot be over-emphasized. You have to manage the product development process, collaborate with various stakeholders, prioritize features, validate assumptions, measure outcomes, and more. But before you do any of that, you have to answer one fundamental question: What are you building? This question is not as simple as it sounds. It requires you to define and communicate the product vision. The product vision is the overarching goal and purpose of the product. It is the reason why you are building the product in the first place. It is the destination that you and your team are aiming for. But why is the product vision so important? And how do you create a product vision that is clear, compelling, and actionable? How do you paint a picture that not only inspires but guides your team and your users towards success? In this post , I will share some tips I have learned both from books and practice. A product vision answers the questions: What are we building? Why are we building it? How will we measure success? In addition, A product vision helps PMs to: - Focus: A product vision helps PMs prioritize features and tasks that are most important and most impactful to their product. With a Product vision, one can easily avoid distractions and scope creep. - Communicate: A product vision helps PMs to communicate the purpose and the value of their product to their team and other stakeholders. It helps in creating a shared understanding and a common language among everyone involved in the product. - Inspire: A product vision helps to inspire and engage a team. It helps create a sense of ownership and accountability among the team members. Below⬇️ is a simple step by step method of creating a stellar product vision🔭 1. Understand the problem: Know the problem you are solving. Identify the pain points, needs, and goals of your target users. ✅ 2. Define the value proposition: Articulate how your product solves the problem and creates value for your users and your business. Highlight the benefits and the impact of your product.📝 3. Craft the vision statement: This is the final step where you summarize the problem, the solution, and the impact of your product in a simple, specific, realistic, and relevant sentence. You need to use clear and compelling language that resonates with your team and your users. Make sure that your vision statement is aligned with your company’s mission and values. 🚀 Please, bear in mind that creating a product vision is not a one-time activity. It is not something that you create once and forget. It is something that you create, communicate, and execute continuously. It is something that you refine and improve based on research, data, and feedback. It is something that you live and breathe every day as a product manager. #ProductManagement #Productvision #Productsuccess #MyPMNuggets Day 6 of the #InspiredPMchallenge for product enthusiasts with Julia Zinovieva