AMA: Google Group Product Manager, Wear OS, Shahid Hussain on Product Strategy

Prioritise with respect to the key goal that is important to the org -- but balance with your estimation of what you think can land. That sounds simple, but in large matrixed organisations, that can get hard quickly. Sometimes it's not clear what advances the org's goal -- is there a key metric? Can you forecast a project's impact on that metric, and is that forecast credible? If shipping a particular project needs alignment from lots of teams, do all of them share the same incentives you do? If ...Read More

If you know that customers are not willing to adopt your solution, that's a bad spot to be in. Re-evaluate what led you to the decision to build & when to do it. Was there a gap in your methodology, or a piece of research that led you down this path? How can you avoid this for the next piece of strategy planning? Don't hope for better adoption -- test and prove this out. Can you get a high quality signal that customers will adopt, e.g. customers will pay you now for access to it? Is there a ...Read More

No-one can, or should ever be sure that they have a 100% right product strategy. But you can do a lot to de-risk your approach, and your tactics should vary depending on how much time you have to plan. Is your strategy ultimately going to drive the change in behaviour you want? Find the key participants in your strategy -- e.g. the customers -- and talk, talk, talk to them. You'll learn a ton from the first 5-10 conversations, and suddenly you'll start to hear the same themes and be able to pred ...Read More

If your org is driving significant benefit from a leadership position in the market -- whether that's a brand that drives an acquisition funnel, operating efficiency from scale or something else, it's reasonable to think about how to maintain that lead. Consider carefully why you are in a leadership position versus other customer options (competitors, substitute products etc). Is it unique? Sustainable? Are there small firms that could steal share by, for example, providing a more specialised or ...Read More

Market trends can be a good indicator of what will matter to users, investors or stakeholders. Don't ignore them, but also don't let them distract you from the fundamentals. Do you think this trend will drive a permanent shift in the market you operate in? If so -- consider how you can position yourself for success in the long term and the pros / cons of investing in alignment. If not, consider whether there are short / mid term changes you want to make to take advantage, or whether you just wan ...Read More