AMA: GitLab Group Manager, Product, Derek Ferguson on Product Strategy

Balancing this is a delicate act that requires constant reassessment and a strategic approach. It's essential to recognize that both competitive differentiation and customer retention are critical to a product's success. Differentiation makes you stand out in the market, attracting new customers, while retention ensures that your existing customers stay satisfied and loyal. One approach I use is a cyclical evaluation process. Every month, I reassess priorities to see if anything has shifted. This means regularly checking if new information or changes in market conditions should alter our focus. It also means checking in with strategic customers to ensure that their priorities are still the same. For less mature products, it can be difficult to differentiate when there are table-stakes features that aren't implemented. Definitely not impossible, but difficult. In these situations, it's important to focus on features that deliver the highest ROI and have the broadest appeal. These features might not always be differentiators, but they are essential to build a solid foundation. However, even at this stage, I believe that you should allocate some resources to developing innovative features that set you apart in the market. In more mature products, the balance might shift. A significant portion of your development efforts can then focus on differentiation. These could be features that only apply to a small number of current customers, but grow your ability to reach new customers. Still, customer retention should never be neglected. For the more mature products, here’s a practical breakdown (the actual numbers are going to be different for everyone): if 15% of your sprint is dedicated to maintenance and tech debt, and 20% to bugs, you have 65% left for new feature work. How you split this remaining time between retention and differentiation depends on your current priorities and business needs. For example, if you have a groundbreaking new feature that could dramatically increase your ARR by expanding your total addressable market, it might be worth dedicating 50% (or more) of your sprint to it, leaving 15% for retention-focused features. On the other hand, if customer satisfaction is slipping because you haven’t delivered on requested features, you might flip those numbers to ensure you keep your current users happy. However, it's important to always keep some capacity for innovation. Make sure part of your iteration is dedicated to differentiating your product. Plan for this in your sprints, even if it’s just at the proof-of-concept or validation stages. Think of this balance like balancing spinning plates while standing on a board balanced on a pipe—it's a constant struggle, with the ground always shifting beneath you. But with careful planning and continuous reassessment, you can maintain that balance. It might shift one way one month and a different way the next month, but you can do it. Keep evaluating your strategy regularly. Align your feature development with your company's vision and current needs. By balancing short-term customer retention with long-term differentiation, you can ensure your product not only stays relevant but also leads the market. And remember, never get too comfortable—flexibility and constant reassessment are your best tools in maintaining this balance.

This question is very similar to the question about knowing that your strategy is successful, but I’m going to look at them through two different lenses. For this question, I’m going to look at it as a strategy for a new product that hasn’t been introduced yet, you have no active users, and you want to figure out if your strategy is the right one before you launch. To validate a strategy in this situation, the approach has to be proactive and thorough. The goal is to ensure that when you deliver the product to users, it gains traction and starts building your user base right from the get-go. Here’s how I approach it: * Market research and user persona development: Before anything else, deep market research is critical. Understand the market landscape, identify gaps, and pinpoint the needs that your product aims to fulfill. Develop detailed user personas to represent your target audience. Knowing who you’re building for and their specific pain points helps tailor your strategy to meet real needs. Writing jobs to be done (JTBD) is a great way to distill what you've learned. * Problem-solution fit: Validate the problem-solution fit early. Engage with potential users through surveys, interviews, and focus groups. Present them with your product concept and see if it resonates. Does your solution address their pain points effectively? Are they excited about the prospect of your product? This feedback is essential to refine your strategy before you even write a line of code. * Competitive analysis: Conduct a thorough competitive analysis. Understand what similar products are doing well and where they fall short. Identify your unique value proposition—what sets your product apart? This differentiation is key to attracting users in a crowded market. * Pre-launch campaigns: Depending on the product and market, run pre-launch campaigns to generate buzz and gather initial interest. Create landing pages, run social media ads, and engage in content marketing to build an email list of interested users. Measure the engagement levels and adjust your messaging based on what resonates most with your audience. * Pilot programs and user testing: If possible, run pilot programs with a select group of users from your target market. This can be done through partnerships or exclusive invites. You don’t actually need to have a real product to show them—wireframes and designs can be enough, at this stage. Collect feedback on their experience, what they love, and what could be improved. Iterate on this feedback to fine-tune your product. * Metrics and KPIs: Establish clear metrics and KPIs to track from day one. These might include sign-up rates, engagement metrics, conversion rates, and feedback scores. Thinking through these before you start to build helps you to focus on what you believe will make your product successful. Once you do have something available for customers to actually use, having these metrics in place helps you measure the initial traction and adjust your strategy based on real-world data. * Minimum Viable Product (MVP) testing: Once you have a good understanding from all of the above, build an MVP to test your assumptions. The MVP should have just enough features to solve the core problem for your target users. Release this to a small group of early adopters or beta testers. Their usage and feedback will provide great insights into what works and what doesn’t, allowing you to make necessary adjustments. * Feedback loops: Create robust feedback loops to continuously gather user insights. Use tools like surveys, in-app feedback, and user interviews to keep a pulse on how new users are interacting with your product and what their pain points are. This ongoing feedback is crucial for making iterative improvements. * Alignment with business goals: This is the same as when you have a product that already has usage. Ensure that your product strategy aligns with your broader business goals. This involves regular check-ins with stakeholders to confirm that your product direction supports overall business objectives. Misalignment can lead to strategic drift, where your product might be developing well, but not in a way that supports the company’s long-term goals. In the end, validating a product strategy for a new product involves a mix of thorough research, proactive user engagement, iterative testing, and continuous feedback. Ensure that your product resonates with its target audience. All of these things will help you build confidence that your strategy will enable you to gain traction and grow your user base effectively once you launch.

Building internal confidence in the product strategy is all about clear, consistent communication and demonstrating progress through tangible metrics. You need to bring people along with you on the journey, not just ask them to trust you. This goes for everyone from executives to engineers. It's important to build confidence with everyone involved in the product, not just the people at the top of the hierarchy. The engineers who are actually doing the work to execute on the strategy are some of the most important people to build confidence with! So, with that being said, some things that can help with engendering trust and confidence in your strategy are: * Vision and alignment: Start by ensuring everyone understands the overarching vision and how the product strategy aligns with the company’s goals. This involves regularly communicating the "why" behind your strategy. Share this vision in kickoff meetings, strategy sessions, and updates. * Roadmap progress: Regularly update your team and stakeholders on roadmap progress. Highlight what’s been accomplished, what’s in progress, and what’s coming next. Full transparency in this area helps everyone see that the strategy is moving forward and achieving milestones. * Customer feedback: Share insights from customer feedback frequently. Whether it’s from surveys, interviews, or usability studies, showing that you’re listening to customers and incorporating their feedback into the strategy can build a lot of confidence. Make sure that you highlight constructive criticism that’s being addressed, as well as positive feedback, so that everyone knows you are taking everything to heart. * Usage metrics: If you have key usage metrics available, report on them to demonstrate early traction. Metrics like user engagement, feature adoption rates, churn rates, and active user counts are critical things to show that you have created a great strategy. * Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): Identify and regularly report on KPIs that are tied to your strategy. This could include metrics like Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR), churn rates, or customer acquisition costs. Regular updates on these KPIs show whether the strategy is hitting its targets. * Milestones and deliverables: Similar to roadmap progress above. Highlight key milestones and deliverables that have been met. This could be feature releases, successful pilots, or significant project completions. Celebrating these wins builds momentum and confidence. * Market and competitive analysis: Separate from customer feedback, share insights from market and competitive analyses. Showing that you’re aware of market trends and positioning your product effectively against competitors can reassure stakeholders that the strategy is well-informed. * Financial projections: If possible, report on early financial performance or projections. This might include initial sales figures, ARR growth, or new customer acquisitions. Financial indicators are powerful in demonstrating that the strategy is on the right track. As for the frequency of reporting, it depends on who your audience is and what you are communicating. * Weekly (or even daily, depending on the company and product): For immediate team updates and to address any blockers or quick wins. This keeps everyone aligned and aware of day-to-day progress. * Bi-weekly or monthly: For broader updates to stakeholders, including detailed progress reports, customer feedback summaries, and KPI tracking. This interval allows enough time to show meaningful progress without overwhelming with too frequent updates. * Quarterly: For comprehensive reviews that include strategic adjustments, long-term planning, and detailed financial analysis. These reviews provide a big-picture perspective and help in aligning the next quarter’s priorities with the overall strategy. Like I said before, building early internal confidence in your product strategy involves clear communication, regular updates on progress, and demonstrating alignment with both customer needs and business goals. By consistently reporting on vision alignment, roadmap progress, customer feedback, usage metrics, KPIs, milestones, market analysis, and financial projections, you create a transparent and compelling narrative that builds trust and confidence across the organization.

New ideas can come from anywhere, but the best ones usually emerge from those who truly understand the challenges within a specific space and are constantly listening to the people experiencing these problems daily. Apart from product managers talking with customers, I've seen great ideas come from engineering, design, sales, and executives. Conferences and user group meetups are also fertile grounds for new ideas. Customer advisory boards are amazing sources of great ideas, as these customers are so invested in your product that they are willing to meet with you on a regular basis to give feedback. Honestly, I’ve rarely encountered an industry where good ideas are lacking. If you’re willing to listen and humble enough to acknowledge that you might not always have the next great idea, you’ll find them. The real challenge is deciding which ideas to pursue. This is where decisions matter most. There are many prioritization strategies out there. I often use the RICE framework (Reach, Impact, Confidence, Effort) and modify it to fit whatever product I'm working on. But, even after I massage it for my needs, it doesn’t always capture all of the necessary details to cover everything. You need to consider your business, customers, market, and team. Aligning ideas with your company’s vision is crucial. Sometimes, a great idea might not align with the company’s direction, so you need to drop it. Other times, a feature requested by a single but major customer might be worth prioritizing due to its significant impact on your business, despite its limited reach. No single framework fits all situations. There isn’t a one-size-fits-all answer. It's important to test each idea against your vision, business strategy, customer interest, and delivery capabilities. Over time, the most impactful ideas will rise to the top. One word of caution: be very careful not to overemphasize the most recent customer feedback; all ideas should be evaluated objectively. Recency bias is a real thing and should be avoided at all costs. Remember, all reasonable ideas are valid initially. Keep them equal in your mind until tested and let the ones with the best outcomes win.

This is the 10 million dollar question, isn't it? Maybe quite literally. The answer to this depends a bit on what market you are in and how large your total addressable market is. It is also going to depend on how established you are or how mature your product offering is. An ongoing successful strategy for a mature, established product involves more than just tracking feature releases. This question is very similar to the question about validating that your strategy is the right strategy, but I’m going to look at them through two different lenses. For this question, I’m going to assume that you have a product that has already been introduced, you believe that your strategy is the right one, you are executing on it, and you are now wanting validation that it has been successful. * Usage trends: Measuring usage trends is always a good thing to monitor. Who doesn't want usage numbers constantly going up and to the right? But, retention is a huge thing to track as well. If your overall usage is growing, but 80% of the new users churn the next month, something is likely wrong with your strategy. Look at metrics like Daily Active Users (DAU), Monthly Active Users (MAU), and feature-specific engagement rates. These numbers can tell you a lot about how well your product is being received and used over time. * Retention rates: Retention rates are critical. It's not just about getting users to try your product but ensuring they continue to use it and see ongoing value. High churn rates can signal that while people are interested enough to sign up, the product isn’t delivering sustained value. Investigate why users are leaving—the feedback they give is invaluable for refining your strategy. * Roadmap execution: Your strategy needs to take into account more than just what features you are going to deliver. You need to know your ability to execute on the roadmap, when you are going to market your product, and how you are going to get feedback. Regularly review your progress against the roadmap. Are you hitting your milestones? Are the features being delivered on time and as expected? Execution efficiency can be a strong indicator of strategic success, when combined with other metrics on this list. * Market and customer feedback: Gather continuous feedback from your market and customers. Are your users excited about what you’re building? Regular surveys, interviews, and usability studies can provide insights into customer satisfaction and pain points. Make sure to act on this feedback—showing customers that you listen and respond to their needs builds trust and loyalty. * Market trends and competitive analysis: Keep an eye on market trends and what your competitors are doing. If your strategy keeps you competitive and you’re able to differentiate your product in a meaningful way, that’s a good sign you’re on the right path. Regularly analyze how your product stands out in the marketplace and where it fits within industry trends. * Net Promoter Score (NPS): Tools like NPS are valuable for gauging customer sentiment. A high NPS indicates that your users are not only satisfied but also willing to recommend your product to others. This is a strong endorsement of your strategy. Use NPS data to identify promoters and detractors and delve deeper into the reasons behind their scores, but don’t just dismiss detractors' comments without understanding why they don’t like what they see. * Financial metrics: Financial metrics like Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) growth, customer lifetime value (LTV), and customer acquisition costs (CAC) are crucial indicators. Positive trends in these areas suggest that your strategy is driving business success. Regularly review these metrics to ensure your strategy is delivering the financial results needed to sustain and grow the business. * Customer engagement: I see this as similar, but different, than direct customer feedback to you. Are customers recommending your product to others? Are they expressing satisfaction through reviews? Are they engaging with your product regularly? These indicators can give you a clear picture of whether your strategy is hitting the mark. Regularly engage with your customers through different channels to understand their level of satisfaction and gather actionable insights. * Alignment with business goals: This is the same answer I give for a new product with no users. Ensure that your product strategy aligns with your broader business goals. This involves regular check-ins with stakeholders to confirm that your product direction supports overall business objectives. Misalignment can lead to strategic drift, where your product might be developing well, but not in a way that supports the company’s long-term goals. * Iteration and adaptation: Finally, remember that no strategy is static. Continuously iterate and adapt based on the feedback and data you collect. Be prepared to pivot when necessary. Flexibility and responsiveness are key to maintaining a successful strategy in a dynamic market. Ultimately, a successful product strategy is reflected in happy, loyal customers who find real value in what you offer and are excited about your product’s future. If they are excited about what you have done, what you are doing, and what you will do—and they are buying your product because of it—then your strategy is successful. Keep your finger on the pulse of customer satisfaction, engagement, and financial performance to ensure your strategy stays on the right track.

This is a great question. Part of it depends on where you are in your career as a PM. It's hard to practice if you aren't given opportunities to contribute to the strategy in your daily job. But, in general, developing your skills here is an ongoing journey that involves practical experience, active learning, mentorship, and community engagement. Here’s how I approach it: * Practice and experience: The most important thing is to keep practicing. Constantly evaluate opportunities, listen to feedback, adjust your roadmap, talk to customers, analyze market data, and conduct competitive analysis. Push yourself to find information that isn’t easily accessible. This hands-on experience is invaluable. If you make a bad decision, learn from it and move on. Don't get stuck and feel like you've failed. Every PM has made bad strategic calls in their career, so file it away and get back on track. * Market engagement: Stay deeply engaged with your specific market. Don’t just rely on your sales team to bring customer insights to you. Attend meetups, conferences, and industry events. Ask questions and listen to the challenges and needs of your target audience. This direct engagement keeps you grounded in the realities of the market. The more you know, the easier it is to evaluate opportunities and develop the right strategy. * Mentorship: Find a mentor who has more experience in product management. Run your strategies and ideas by them and ask for their insights. When they suggest changes, ask why until you fully understand their reasoning. And don’t just take their word for it—validate their advice with data and see how it applies to your situation. I don't know a single good mentor who hates their mentee asking more questions and bringing more data to the table. * Educational resources: Invest time in reading books and attending courses. These resources can provide you with a strong theoretical foundation and expose you to different perspectives and strategies. However, remember that real-world application is key. The examples and exercises in courses can only go so far—you need to apply what you learn to truly understand it. Personally, I found the Pragmatic Institute’s courses and becoming a Certified Product Owner very helpful, but they were just the beginning of my learning journey. These things are especially important if you are just getting started as a PM. * Community involvement: Join a product management community. Ask questions on Sharebird. Find a group on LinkedIn that you can bounce ideas around in. Platforms like these can be great places to ask questions, share experiences, and learn from others. If you’ve taken any courses, see if the organization has an alumni group or message board. The more you interact with other PMs, the more you can learn from their successes and mistakes. * Financial responsibility: If you get the chance, take on responsibilities related to managing P&L or budgets. There’s no faster way to learn than when you’re directly responsible for the financial outcomes of your decisions. Being responsible for and truly understanding the financial implications of your strategy is an amazing way to ensure you are making informed, impactful decisions. No one wants to be irresponsible with someone else's money. While I'm sure that there are things that I've missed here, doing these will help you to continually refine and improve your product strategy skills. Remember, it’s a never-ending process of learning, adapting, and applying new knowledge. Stay curious, stay engaged, and never stop pushing yourself to grow.

Understanding your customer's ideal outcome or Jobs to be Done (JTBD) is always crucial for product managers. It keeps your focus sharp and aligned with what truly matters. Some of the ways that understanding this really helps PMs are: * Solving real problems: When you deeply understand the JTBD, you’re not just building features for the sake of building them (e.g. "It would be really cool if we could do this"). You’re solving actual problems that your customers face. This makes your product indispensable to them because it directly addresses their needs and helps them achieve their goals. Sometimes, those "cool" features actually just get in the way of solving the actual problems...I've seen it happen many times. * Prioritization: Knowing the JTBD helps you prioritize effectively. Like I said above, there are always countless "cool" features you could develop, but if they don't help your customer get their job done, they’re just distractions. Focus on the features that make a real impact and push the rest to the background. * User journey alignment: Understanding the JTBD gives you insight into the order in which your customers perform their tasks. This means you can develop features in a logical sequence that matches their workflow. Implementing features in the right order ensures that you don’t paint yourself into a corner and need to redo work later. * Efficiency and effectiveness: By aligning your product with the JTBD, you ensure that every feature you build makes your customers' lives easier and more efficient. This not only satisfies your current users but also attracts new ones who see the clear value in your product. * Customer loyalty and retention: Everyone likes to be understood. When customers feel that your product is designed with their specific needs in mind, they’re more likely to stay loyal. They see your product as a critical tool for their success, which boosts retention rates and reduces churn. * Competitive advantage: A deep understanding of JTBD can set you apart from competitors. If you can address your customers' needs better than anyone else, you'll stand out in the market and can position your product as the go-to solution. With all of that said, understanding your customer's JTBD is about focusing on what truly matters to them. It guides you in building a product that solves real problems, aligns with their workflow, and delivers significant value. This not only enhances customer satisfaction and loyalty but also strengthens your position in the market. Keep your eye on the JTBD, and you'll be able to navigate the complexities of product strategy with a clear, customer-centric vision.