Components of the Product Strategy Framework There are typically three fundamental parts to a product strategy: your product’s initiatives, objectives, and market vision.
Your market vision consists of two components: the people who are meant for it and the business opportunity. Product strategy examples demonstrates how you intend to position the product and how it stands out from rivals. Also included in your vision should be an explanation of how you intend to provide a competitive offer that solves problems for customers.
A software company that makes a product management tool like Trello or Asana might
Audience: product managers at the executive level Product positioning: a user-friendly, intuitive interface for users who are less tech-savvy Product Goals: Existing products lack specialization, are cumbersome, and are difficult to use. To measure a strategy’s success, you need time-bound, measurable goals. You could, for instance, set a goal of driving $50 million or more in revenue in three years or having a 97% customer retention rate.
A goal addresses a specific issue you want to solve and typically includes a measurable method for tracking progress.
Product Initiatives Your product strategy should include a complementary big-picture component in addition to specific goals. The areas of your company’s focus and investment should be explained in an initiative. You might take action, for instance, to make an app more responsive.
An initiative, in contrast to a goal, necessitates intricate planning and brings together numerous stakeholders to ensure long-term success, frequently spanning the entire product life cycle.
Goals serve as the basis for many initiatives. You could, for instance, set a goal to cut the churn rate by 15% in a single year. Therefore, enhancing the app’s performance and responsiveness might constitute an initiative.
Examples of product strategy Take a company that makes software for managing time.
Perspective on the market: In contrast to competitors’ clunky software, create time management tools for senior managers in the software-as-a-service industry by providing an intuitive and simple interface. Product goal: Maintain a first-year retention rate of 98% Product initiative: Enhance the interface and user experience of the product. Their market vision describes their target audience—senior management—along with their rival’s offering—a user-friendly, easy-to-use interface.
Their product objective has a time limit and a clear, measurable goal. The drive — which has an all the more undeniable level viewpoint — supplements the item objective, as further developing client experience will probably increment standard for dependability.
Another illustration: An artificial intelligence writing startup’s product strategy might include the following elements:
Perspective on the market: Rather than competing with unfocused writing tools, create an AI writing tool that is simple to use for small business owners looking to save money on SEO and content creation. Product goal: In the first three months, get 500 users. Product initiative: Measure and improve advertising campaigns for the AI tool. The company’s market vision explains both their target market and what sets them apart. Similarly, their initiative to improve the marketing of their product goes hand in hand with their objective of acquiring a certain number of users.
The Importance of Having a Product Strategy Teams are given direction by a product strategy; 35% of product teams stated that they wished they had a more precise vision and purpose. It can also help your business work together more, communicate better, and make better products.
A product strategy focuses on a single objective for all stakeholders
Even though product managers, engineers, and developers may be in charge of carrying out a product strategy day-to-day, other departments must be aware of the product’s direction. For instance, in order to create advertisements and promotions that are specifically targeted, marketing and sales must comprehend the most valuable features.
A product strategy can keep everyone on the same page given that nearly nine out of ten professionals attribute workplace failure to a lack of communication.
Defines Your Product’s Place in the Market Serving everyone in a market is nearly impossible, and many startups fail because they misread demand.
Because it answers the why of your product, a product strategy helps you stand out from your rivals. When you make a detailed plan, you have to spend some time thinking about how to set yourself apart from your competitors.
Development of a Product Roadmap During the process of developing a product strategy.
You will set goals, both general and specific. They can then serve as the foundation for a comprehensive product roadmap. A good product strategy makes product management more efficient because ineffective product management wastes 12 percent of resources.
Cost Strategy: Different Product Strategies making the best product at the cheapest price. In sectors like toothbrushes and household cleaners, where customers don’t give their purchases much thought, this tactic works well.
Method of Differentiation: creating a product with a distinctive feature that stands out. This could be adding a feature to a product that has never been seen before or making a product with bizarre branding.
Focus Methodology: developing a product for a single buyer persona. This requires you to concentrate all of your efforts on a select few people. You end up making highly individualized products that get a lot of people to stick with your brand.
Strategy for Quality: utilizing only high-quality materials to create a product. Naturally, customers who are less concerned about price are the target audience for this tactic. For them, a luxury handbag’s high price is justified by its quality or prestige.
Method of Delivery: putting together a product that is complemented by excellent customer service. Even though the product still needs to meet the needs of customers, this strategy uses good customer service to build brand loyalty.
How to Develop a Product Strategy
The first step in developing a product strategy is to determine your market vision, product objectives, and product initiatives.
Create Your Market Vision A high-level overview of your company, competitors, customers, and concept is called your market vision. Consider making bullet points for the following in order to create it:
Competitors: Which businesses currently control the market?
Deficits of the company: Where is your business struggling?
Strengths of the firm: Which areas of your business excel?
Personas for buyers: Who do you want to reach?
Marketspace: How does the industry appear?
Plan for marketing: How will your solution be promoted?
Next, establish product objectives for your strategy. You will be able to track progress and success as you go through the process if you make them both time-bound and numerically focused. Begin by making a few notes for the following:
Timeline: Is it pliable or brittle? What is the market’s volatility?
Metrics: Which metrics are most important to your company? What is your company hoping to accomplish with the product?
Teams: What inner partners ought to be in the loop? How can you best inform them?
Make product initiatives Product initiatives don’t need as much detail as product goals do, but they work well together. You want to comprehend the larger picture of your business. In this way, glance through your objectives and perceive how they connect with additional undeniable level desires.
Try these different approaches to get started:
Work with other stakeholders: Ask the organization’s other members. Which areas do they intend to give priority to? What are they expecting the business to do with its time and resources?
Examine the buyer personas: What are they most concerned about? Where do you anticipate them to encounter difficulties using your product?
Analyze your business: Which is your company’s greatest need?
Template for a Product Strategy: Define your vision, establish your product goals, and develop your initiatives 1. Define your vision by describing each of the outer circles using the template shown above. This includes the competitors, personas, strategy, strengths, and weaknesses, among other things. You should be able to clearly see what problem you are attempting to solve and who this will benefit in the long run through this process. You can come up with a vision for your product this way.
The long-term mission or objective of the product is discussed in a product vision statement. It ought to be written in a clear and concise manner so that we can explain what the product might accomplish. It ought to remain constant. For instance, “Organize the world’s first information and make it universally accessible and useful” was one of Google’s early vision statements.
2. Set objectives for your product following the definition of your vision. Find a measurable way to measure the success of each goal that has been set. Set a time limit for achieving your objective.
Examples of product objectives are:
Increase free trial downloads by 40% in the next six months, increase average customer ratings, and generate $1.5 million in revenue in the first two years by employing the SMART goals strategy. To learn more about SMART goals, read our blog post.
3. In order for the cross-functional teams to review the goals, break them down into smaller, more specific tasks, and begin working on them, you must add them to your product roadmap after you have established them.
An illustration of a product initiative is:
The following are essential components of a product strategy, according to Roman Pilcher, a product management specialist: Expand into new geographical areas Increase mobile adoption Maintain product features
The product’s key differentiators, also known as its USP (unique selling proposition); the company’s business objectives in relation to the product; the requirements that the product will satisfy, as well as the market for the product; and
Who are the product’s personas?
For these personas, what challenges are we addressing?
How can we make our product stand out and win customers over?
What are our objectives for this product in the short and long term?
The various types of product strategies are outlined in the following table.
1. Cost Technique
Having the option to formulate an item procedure in a savvy way is useful. It enables us to evaluate the utilization of resources and identifies potential savings opportunities. This technique is really great for low-exertion buys and for specific enterprises as it were. Undercutting the competitor’s price point will make you a favorite among the customer base if the product is typically similar to other products and customers have no loyalty to a single brand.
2. The goal of this strategy is to make sure that your product stands out from the others on the market. When trying to set your product apart from others in the market, there are a few things to keep in mind. Use of premium materials, cutting-edge features, or any other feature that gives your product a competitive advantage
3. Focus Strategy When a company has a large customer base, it is helpful to develop a product strategy that targets a single buyer or customer persona. It is an efficient strategy for tailoring a solution to a specific group of people. In addition, this aids in acquiring new customers and instilling brand loyalty.
4. Quality Strategy One thing that can definitely help you stand out from your competitors is the quality of your product. You’ll stand out if you concentrate on making a product of the highest possible quality for the market. If a product has better quality than others on the market, many customers may go out of their way to buy it because it’s worth the money.
5. Service Strategy Customers will make decisions based on a brand’s customer service. People become wary of making purchases if the business does not provide excellent customer service. Customers will be more likely to stick with your brand if you respond to their questions and concerns quickly after the sale.
What is the purpose of a product strategy?
There are a few motivations behind why an item system means a lot to the association. Several reasons exist:
1. Gives clearness to your representatives
When a reasonable and thoroughly examined item methodology is set up, the group will be in a superior situation to convey their best work and accomplish the set targets. Additionally, the developers will have a thorough understanding of the product they are developing. With the help of a strategy that is clearly communicated, you will always have something to fall back on, even though it is easy to lose sight of the goal.
The USPs will be easier to communicate to the marketing and sales teams. Last but not least, your customer success teams will have a better understanding of the use cases, which will help them provide better customer support.
2. aids in setting priorities for the product roadmap The development of a compelling roadmap and a high-level action plan will assist you in setting appropriate priorities. The team may waste time and resources by prioritizing the wrong tasks, measuring the wrong metrics, and not following a clear strategy and roadmap. Working toward the right objectives will be made easier with a straightforward plan.
3. improves the tactical decisions made by your team because the market is always changing and constant factors can always affect our plans. As a result, the team’s ability to make tactical decisions will be improved by being able to adjust plans accordingly. Changing the plan or estimated timelines becomes easier when you have a clear objective in mind.
The blog on product strategy has come to an end with this. Setting yourself up for success will be made easier if you can devise a comprehensive strategy for reaching your audience. Take advantage of the PG Program in Product Management and Analytics to expand your knowledge and advance professionally.