AMA: Openly Director, Product & Design, Jonathan Gowins on Product Strategy

Step one (Do not skip this step!): Make sure you understand the company (or division) strategy that your leadership team is accountable for. If it's vague, push for clarity and see if they will provide it. If not, then let them know the product strategy will cascade from their vision/strategy, and there is risk because of the lack of clarity. Help them see how their vision impacts your strategy; how you are trying to help them win. Step two: Anchor execs on the needs of the customer (JTBD) before you share the strategy. Help them understand what customers want; what will cause them to pay. Use quotes, data, interview clips etc. So far, note that your goal is to get clarity on what the company wants (vision) and what the customer wants (JTBD) before you say how you plan to get there. Step three: Source ideas from the executives and other stakeholders before you craft the strategy. This creates early buy-in. Step four: In an artifact (deck or doc) list all the bets you could place to meet the customer needs in a way to accomplish the vision (or other bets you might need to make to get there that might not have to do with the customer, like paying down tech debt, etc.). Step five: Propose which bets you think you will close the gap from where you are today to arriving at the vision. Be clear about the bets you don't think should be placed. Call out the hypothesized outcome for each bet. Ask for feedback and debate!

The stakeholder list is very different for every company. Each dynamic is different. * Approach leaders in 1:1s BEFORE you make a pitch. Ask about their team strategy, what they think about the company vision, etc. * Run ideas for strategy by them and get there feedback informally, ahead of time. * Bake the results of that conversation into a presentation so they feel represented.

Avoid balance. "Balance" very often feels like a political game we are forced to play. Instead, * Make sure everyone understands the company vision, and call out areas that are poorly defined. Ask for definition. * Educate everyone on customer needs. Exposing them to direct quotes or data is more powerful than trying to argue things. * Lay out the options you think are best based on customer needs and vision. (Focus on the outcome of each bet!) Now, the secret is to be willing to 'disagree and commit'. You don't have to 'win' the argument. But you do need to clearly explain your pitch and why you believe it, and if an exec disagrees, but willing to share the outcome you think will result from their path, and calmly, respectively tell them you will disagree but move forward with their proposal since they are accountable. Write all this down if needed - help executives understand your world but remain accountable at the same time.

I revisit the strategy whenever there is new information. Usually, customer needs do not change that much. What changes is company visions and organization structure, budget, risk, etc. So every time there is an internal shift, propose how you think the strategy should adapt to meet the company vision with the new current reality. You can even propose to leadership that you are planning to do this. Or depending on their needs, ask them how they would like to discuss strategy (when and how). Once I had a leader ask me to give a roadmap update once a month in a leadership meeting. I had ten minutes. As you can imagine, that is not nearly enough time to have a rich conversation. So I told them I need more time, or we bore the risk of misunderstanding each other. Partner with them on the best way to discuss strategy.

Without specifics, I fear providing a generic answer, but: Are you defining what a 'market problem' is accurately? I recommend, "People with a specific problem (JTBD) they are willing to pay for a solution to." Have you talked to these specific types of people and validated they would pay for your solution? Are there enough of these 'users' to merit strong revenue? If so, then yes, maybe you have a marketing or messaging problem. That can be easier to solve than poor 'product market fit' (meaning people like what you offer, but not enough to sell it). Or lastly, maybe you have a strong product market fit, and there are a ton of users who are hearing about it and buying it, BUT your growth trajectory is some wildly made up number that would be impossible to hit... there's always that ;)

I'm going to borrow shamelessly from Jeff Gothelf in his book, Lean UX: "With your prioritized list of assumptions in hand, you’re ready to move to the next step: testing your assumptions. To do that, transform each assumption statement into a format that is easier to test: a hypothesis statement. Generally, hypothesis statements use the format: We believe [this statement is true]. We will know we’re [right/wrong] when we see the following feedback from the market: [qualitative feedback] and/or [quantitative feedback] and/or [key performance indicator change]. You can see that this format has two parts. A statement of what you believe to be true, and a statement of the market feedback you’re looking for to confirm that you’re right. Expressing your assumptions this way turns out to be a really powerful technique. It takes much of the subjective and political conversation out of the decision-making process and instead orients the team toward feedback from the market. It also orients the team toward users and customers." Pitch ideas with a mind towards how you can test them. Can you test them beforehand? Or do you need to launch and monitor? How will you know? Call this out to the leadership team for each idea.

It would be pretty challenging to go against sales and try to change their mind. I recommend, 1. Talk to them and really, really listen to understand their concerns and why they believe what they believe. There's got to be some truth in there somewhere you can use. 2. If you need to educate them, show them video clips from user interviews to make your case. 3. Ultimately, be ok disagreeing and make the leadership team accountable. Does someone in the C-Suite (CEO?) need to understand the fundamental delta between the groups and make a decision? If so, that is fine, but don't go to bat until you really understand the sales perspective and have customer validation. Then make your case and let the accountable exec make the call.

Market trends matter a lot less than user insights. I rank user research way higher than industry trends which are aggregate data and usually not base on strong user paradigms like Jobs to be Done. It really depends on your leadership team, company, vision, and industry. If strategy is "bets on how to close the gap from the current reality to the future vision," then use whatever is most helpful. Often (in my opinion) we don't even operate with a shared definition of 'strategy.' Define what the internal expectation is, and if leaders give you an honest definition, you'll probably have your answer.

Reading book and blog posts! Talk to other PMs and leaders, study Jobs to Be Done, and read how others are doing it. Over time you will develop a method that works with your unique leadership team.

Technology can help, but it's only a means to an end. The user reigns supreme. I evaluate all technology in light of whether or not it can help meet user needs. Then the decision becomes much clearer. Many, many companies have lost money by chasing shiny new technologies instead of ferociously focusing on customers.