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Product Strategy Stack

  • Define Your Product Strategy Stack Clearly: Establish a clear hierarchy for your company's strategic elements. This includes your Company Mission (e.g., empowering small businesses with accessible digital marketing), Company Strategy (how you'll achieve that mission), Product Strategy (how your software will support the company strategy), Product Roadmap (the features and initiatives planned for your software), and Product Goals (measurable targets for your product). This structure helps in aligning all efforts, from software development to marketing.

  • Prioritize Product Quality: In the current software-driven landscape, the quality of your digital marketing and paid ad campaign software is paramount. Focus on building a robust, user-friendly, and effective platform that genuinely helps small businesses.

  • Ensure Clear Definitions and Alignment: Avoid common misunderstandings between terms like "vision," "mission," "strategy," "goals," and "roadmap." Clearly define what each means within your startup to prevent prioritization difficulties and execution issues. This is especially crucial for a startup juggling software engineering with marketing services.

  • Product Strategy as the Connective Tissue: View your product strategy as the crucial link between your overall company objectives and the actual delivery of your software. For instance, how will a new software feature for ad campaign automation directly contribute to your company's goal of increasing ROI for small businesses?

  • Utilize the Stack for Planning and Evaluation: Use the Product Strategy Stack in a "tops-down" approach for defining your strategic direction and planning your software development. Additionally, employ a "bottoms-up" approach to evaluate your execution status and ensure your software engineering efforts are truly aligned with your product and company goals.

  • Differentiate Goals from Strategy: Do not confuse your product goals with your product strategy. Goals are the measurable outcomes you aim for (e.g., increasing conversion rates for small businesses using your ad platform), while strategy is the approach you take to achieve those goals (e.g., developing AI-driven ad optimization features).

For further details, you can refer to the original article: Product Strategy Stacks vs Product Strategy Frameworks

10 dysfunctions of product management​

Dysfunction 1: Lack of Product Vision In this scenario, the founder lacks a clear understanding of what problems their products or services are trying to solve. To overcome this dysfunction, the founder should define a compelling product vision that aligns with the company's goals and values. This can be achieved by conducting market research, gathering feedback from potential customers, and identifying key pain points.

Dysfunction 2: Inadequate Product Planning The founder may struggle to plan their products or services effectively, leading to poor prioritization and unclear product roadmaps. To overcome this dysfunction, the founder should develop a robust product planning process that involves setting clear goals, defining success metrics, and creating a roadmap for each project.

Dysfunction 3: Insufficient Stakeholder Management The founder may struggle to manage stakeholders effectively, leading to poor communication and conflicting priorities. To overcome this dysfunction, the founder should establish open lines of communication with key stakeholders, including customers, investors, and team members. This can be achieved by setting clear expectations, providing regular updates, and actively listening to feedback.

Dysfunction 4: Inadequate Market Understanding The founder may lack a deep understanding of their target market, leading to poor product decisions and ineffective marketing strategies. To overcome this dysfunction, the founder should conduct thorough market research, gather customer feedback, and stay up-to-date with industry trends.

Dysfunction 5: Optimization to Exclusion of All Else (Excerpt provided) To overcome this dysfunction, the founder can provide plenty of context to engineers by explaining what problems or pain points a particular feature is trying to address. This can be achieved by providing clear product requirements and using tools like Productboard to link features to customer needs.

Dysfunction 6: Lack of Customer Focus The founder may prioritize internal goals over customer needs, leading to poor product decisions. To overcome this dysfunction, the founder should focus on delivering value to customers by conducting regular user research, gathering feedback, and prioritizing features based on customer needs.

Dysfunction 7: Inadequate Team Development As the company grows from a small team of 3 to 25 people, the founder may struggle to develop their team effectively. To overcome this dysfunction, the founder should prioritize team development by providing training opportunities, setting clear goals and expectations, and fostering open communication.

Dysfunction 8: Poor Prioritization The founder may struggle to prioritize features or projects effectively, leading to poor resource allocation and ineffective product decisions. To overcome this dysfunction, the founder can use tools like Productboard to link features to customer needs and prioritize based on business goals and values.

Dysfunction 9: Inadequate Process and Tools As the company grows, the founder may struggle to establish effective processes and tools for managing products or services. To overcome this dysfunction, the founder should identify key pain points, develop a robust process for each project, and invest in tools that support efficient workflow.

Dysfunction 10: Lack of Continuous Improvement The founder may resist change and be unwilling to adapt their product management approach as the company grows. To overcome this dysfunction, the founder can prioritize continuous improvement by conducting regular retrospectives, gathering feedback from team members, and staying up-to-date with industry trends.

By understanding these dysfunctions and taking steps to address them, the small startup founded by a 35-year-old software engineer can navigate common challenges in product management and achieve rapid growth.