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Jonathan Gowins

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

July 25 @ 10:00AM PST
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Openly Director, Product & Design, Jonathan Gowins on Product Strategy
Top Questions
How do you get the exec team on board with your product strategy?
Jonathan Gowins
Jonathan Gowins
Openly Director, Product & Design • July 25
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, an......Read More
437 Views
2 requests
Which stakeholders need to have buy-in for your product strategy, and how do you approach creating alignment?
Jonathan Gowins
Jonathan Gowins
Openly Director, Product & Design • July 25
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 o......Read More
374 Views
1 request
How do you balance market needs driving your product strategy with exec input?
Jonathan Gowins
Jonathan Gowins
Openly Director, Product & Design • July 25
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 dat......Read More
406 Views
1 request
How often do you revisit your product strategy? What is your framework for reevaluating it?
Jonathan Gowins
Jonathan Gowins
Openly Director, Product & Design • July 25
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 v......Read More
454 Views
2 requests
How do I know if we have a product strategy problem or a go to market problem? Our product isn’t growing as fast as we’d like.
Jonathan Gowins
Jonathan Gowins
Openly Director, Product & Design • July 25
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 yo......Read More
404 Views
2 requests
How do we validate that our product strategy is the right one?
Jonathan Gowins
Jonathan Gowins
Openly Director, Product & Design • July 25
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 statem......Read More
501 Views
2 requests
How do I protect our product strategy from sales pushback? Our sales team doesn’t focus, and is trying to make our product easy to sell to anyone, rather that our target market.
Jonathan Gowins
Jonathan Gowins
Openly Director, Product & Design • July 25
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 e......Read More
395 Views
1 request
What role does market trends play in figuring out your product strategy?
Jonathan Gowins
Jonathan Gowins
Openly Director, Product & Design • July 25
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 ......Read More
410 Views
1 request
How do you develop your product strategy skills?
Jonathan Gowins
Jonathan Gowins
Openly Director, Product & Design • July 25

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.

392 Views
1 request
For an industry that changes daily (AI, web3), how do you think about building a product strategy around it?
Jonathan Gowins
Jonathan Gowins
Openly Director, Product & Design • July 25
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 fo......Read More
428 Views
1 request