Strategies are never done. However much research you do, there will always be uncertainty, and whenever you ship something, you’ll generate fresh insights that should feed back into your strategy.
However, there are natural times to communicate a clear and coherent strategy to align everyone around you. That might be an All Hands, the start of a new quarter, or team kick off. Whether you have two days, two weeks or two months, you can create a strategy in the time you have available - though obviously with a different level of detail depending on how long you’ve got.
Creating a plan to use the time you have will help you build the most robust strategy possible, and start to build buy-in for your chosen course of action. This article will help you create such a plan, setting you up to develop a thorough product strategy in a limited time.
A solid plan helps you develop the best strategy possible You might also like these other Hustle Badger resources:
-- Article: How to write a great product strategy
-- Course: Product Strategy
Why plan on developing a product strategy?
Creating a plan to develop a strategy can seem like overthinking the process, but there are good reasons for it:
- Make sure it happens - creating a strategy can seem like a daunting task without an obvious starting point. By creating a plan you’ll break down the work into manageable chunks that get you going faster.
- Make best use of time available - by working back from when you need to present your strategy, you can prioritize the most important bits of analysis to address the biggest assumptions up front, leaving you with the strongest strategy possible in the time you’ve got.
- Engage the right people - Strategies are really political exercises in getting everyone aligned on what should be built. By engaging important stakeholders early and taking them on the journey you dramatically improve how effective your strategy will be overall.
Developing a product strategy
When you develop a strategy, the process is typically split into three phases:
- Create a snap strategy
Write a 1-page strategy in a day or less with what you know right now. This gives you a starting point, something for others to build on, and helps you see where the gaps are. - Develop and refine the strategy
Meet with stakeholders and do further analysis to flesh out your strategy. This expands to fill the time until you need to communicate the strategy, and might be anywhere from 3 days to 3 months. Make the most of this time with a strategy development plan (i.e. spreadsheet / gantt chart planning your time). Your strategy itself will develop from your 1-page snap strategy to its final format (e.g. slides) - Communicate the strategy
The big comms point that you are working towards, which acts as a deadline for developing the strategy. This could be an All Hands, board meeting, team kick-off, etc. You should have a final strategy doc (1-50+ pages) and a memorable narrative.
The three phases of developing a product strategy This article does NOT give you a detailed guide of how to write a product strategy.
What it does is get you going:
- Write a snap strategy - create a 1-page starting point for your strategy
- Create a strategy development plan - develop a personal plan to make best use of the time you have to develop the strategy:
- Define the timeline - work out how much time you have realistically to work on your strategy before the next big comms point.
- Plan stakeholder meetings - to challenge your thinking and generate buy in.
- Plan analysis and research - to create insights to base your strategy on.
- Define milestones to consolidate your strategy - to make sure you end up with a coherent, memorable narrative for your strategy.
If you follow the steps in this article, you’ll have a clear plan of how to develop a robust product strategy, and you’ll be ready to communicate this widely.
Let’s run through each of the steps in more detail.
