When Your CEO Needs a Strategy Now

If you are the new product leader of your company, your company might be in product leadership debt. In such situations, you would typically be asked to come up with a strategy and roadmap ASAP, but you are still just learning the domain. Here is how to give the CEO what they need while staying true to your professional standards.

Insight From Marty Cagan’s Coach the Coaches Workshop (Part 2)

In part two of this summary, I am moving to talk about strategy and leadership insights. As these are topics close to my heart, I had a lot to say – so here are my thoughts backed by SVPG’s insights on these topics.

How to Help Your Organization Decide

Complex decisions tend to be stuck in endless discussions. People see things differently, and hard decisions are harder to make on your own. As a product leader, you play a key role in helping align everyone and leading towards a decision. Here are the steps you will need to take in order to get there.

A Simplified Strategic Planning Framework

The goal of goals is to help everyone focus and aim in the right direction. But sometimes, in the attempt to achieve more, companies are not willing to give up on any front, which means no focus at all. Here is how to regain focus and help everyone understand what they need and needn’t do.

Ideal World First, Compromise Later

As product leaders, our professional lives are full of constraints. What’s possible to develop, what can be measured, what management wants, and the list goes on. We are so used to working within these constraints that we sometimes forget to even consider a better alternative. Here are a few places where you don’t want to make this mistake.

Do You Need a Roadmap?

We live in an agile world. Plans change all the time. In such conditions, is building a roadmap worthwhile? This question is more interesting if you are following a coherent strategy, which usually means that you know more or less what needs to be done next. Still, a roadmap has many surprising benefits. Here are a few.

How to Find Your Strategic Anchors

Strategic thinking is hard by definition. It deals with many unknowns, as well as multiple dimensions and variables at any given time. The only way to move forward is to identify the real anchors and build around them. Here’s how to do that.

3 Ways to Simplify Complex Decisions

Complex decisions are a natural part of a product leader’s life. Sometimes it is our own decisions that we need to make simpler, and sometimes we need to help management or our teams make better decisions. When a decision is facing a deadlock, here are three simple ways to resolve it and move forward.

Some Things Simply Take Their Time

We all want results, and the sooner the better. But some things – especially the impactful ones – cannot be rushed. How can you tell if it’s time to push harder, or should you let things move at their own pace? Here are three examples of areas that usually take longer to demonstrate results, but progress happens whether you see it or not.

Maturity Model: The Secret Weapon

Creating a successful product requires a deep understanding of your customers. That’s not news. But your customers’ world might be a complex one to navigate through. Here is a simple and powerful tool to help you – and them – understand themselves better.

Why Product Demo Is a Dangerous Selling Tool

Many startups feel that the only thing preventing them from selling their product is a great demo. The truth is quite different. In fact, if you rely on your demo too much, you won’t be able to sell at all. Here’s how to use your product demo smartly, and avoid demo abuse.

3 Hard Conversations Worth Having

Difficult situations are never fun. Unfortunately, as product leaders, we encounter them often. More unfortunately, ignoring them usually isn’t going to make them go away. Having an honest conversation is the first step. Here are three such conversations that are worth getting out of your comfort zone for.