Product strategies include details on personas that the product seeks to serve, the benefits the product will provide, and the goals the company seeks to meet throughout the product’s lifecycle. Ultimately, the product strategy helps prioritize the product roadmap, improves decision making and provides a clear understanding of the product’s objectives to the company.
What’s in a product strategy?
- A product strategy must include details on the product's benefits, who the product will serve (known as personas), and the ultimate goal or objective the product will accomplish.
To organize this information effectively, a product strategy can be broken down into three components:
Market vision, which explains who will use the product and the opportunities the product will provide to the business
Product goals, which list the specific goals intended to be reached and the metrics that will be used to measure success
Products initiatives, which list big-picture trends and ideas that the product will have an influence over
What are 3 product strategies?
- Three common types of product strategy include comparative, differentiation and segmentation strategies.
These three commonly used types of product positioning strategies take different approaches to product development and launch in order to effectively deliver value to users.
Comparative positioning strategies rely on launching products intended to directly compete with other existing products on the market.
Differentiation product positioning strategies rely on launching a product with an inherent, non-duplicatable uniqueness as its primary focal point to succeed against competitors and match with customers with a unique need.
Segmentation positioning strategies target multiple audiences with the same product by positioning it to meet multiple needs.
What is a product strategy role?
A key product strategy role is the product strategist, helping determine product initiatives and how products can help meet user needs.
Product strategists are key players in the product development process, helping companies determine product growth initiatives and how products can help meet user needs. The primary responsibilities of a product strategist are to identify new opportunities, assess existing product performance and create long-term strategic plans. Product strategists are commonly found within enterprise environments and use research and analytics expertise to guide a company’s overall product vision and product roadmaps. Product strategists will also often work closely with product managers, who are responsible for managing the success of products once launched to market.
