I often meet companies that realize something isn’t working in their strategy. They see the gap clearly – revenue goals are not met, competitors are pulling ahead, or their story no longer resonates. To fix it, they make a logical move: hire a Chief Strategy Officer, or bring in a VP of Product who is a domain expert to sort things out (the problem is that these domain experts are rarely actual product leaders).

While these companies correctly identify that something is missing, and want to fix the root cause and not the symptom, their solution is often wrong.

Because here’s the catch: a company strategy without a strong product strategy creates what I call an air sandwich. You have a vision at the top, you have execution at the bottom, but nothing in between to connect them. The result is a strategy that sounds good in theory but fails to translate into real progress.

Here are the key differences between a product strategy and a company strategy, and why you need both to succeed.

Market Forces vs. People

When companies talk about strategy, they usually look at it from the company’s perspective. Think SWOT analysis: what are our strengths, where are the opportunities, what threats do we need to respond to. From there, they decide on their big bets – expand into a new market, add a new revenue stream, or outpace a competitor in a specific domain.

But the question remains: do these bets make sense for the market to follow? A company may see an attractive opportunity, but unless customers choose to come along, the bet will fail. And that is where product strategy comes in.

Product strategy takes the customer perspective. It asks: why should people want what the company has to offer, pay for it, and keep using it? What will make them change behavior and align with the company’s big bet? In other words, company strategy can point to the opportunity, but product strategy determines whether customers will actually join you there.

Big Moves vs. Building Blocks

Company strategy is framed as big moves. Enter a new market. Launch a new product line. Become the category leader. These declarations set direction, but they don’t explain how to get there.

Product strategy translates those big moves into building blocks – the concrete steps that build momentum and credibility. It defines where to start, which customer segments to focus on first, and what initial wins will unlock the next stage.

Without this layer, companies often fall into the trap of trying to win by being everything to everyone. Even when “everyone” has already been narrowed down to “SMBs,” that scope is still too broad to succeed. Product strategy forces the hard choice: which part of that market will you serve first, how will you win there, and how will those wins lead to the next phase.

A big move might say “we will dominate the SMB market.” The product strategy adds to is that “we identified the most acute pain to be in companies under 50 people. To win with them our product must be simple to use and deliver value in minutes. Once we are solid in that market segment we can expand from there to either additional problems to solve for that segment or larger SMBs.”

Top-Down vs. End-To-End

Company strategy is often defined in a top-down way. Executives set a vision, declare goals, and decide on bold moves based on market forces and competition. It creates direction, but it rarely engages with two hard realities: the customer’s perspective and the company’s actual starting point.

Product strategy is end-to-end. It takes the company’s ambition and connects it to those realities. On one side, it asks why customers would follow this path, what problems they expect solved, and what would make them adopt and stay. On the other side, it examines the company’s current status – what capabilities already exist, what gaps hold us back, and what new strengths must be built.

By tying ambition to both customers and the company’s starting point, product strategy creates a path that is achievable and credible. Without this end-to-end view, strategy remains an air sandwich: lofty vision on one side, execution on the other, and nothing binding them together.Success comes when both levels work together: company strategy sets the direction, product strategy charts the path. One without the other is incomplete. Together, they turn ambition into results.