Strategic Debt Is the Silent Killer of Startups

With everything you have to do every day, it is so easy to neglect strategy. Not because it’s not important, but because it seems less urgent than everything else you have to deal with right here and now. But much like code, your product strategy also requires maintenance. And when left unhandled for too long, you might barely notice, but the impact can be deadly.

The Right Priorities for Your Roadmap

Roadmaps require massive prioritization. But prioritizing what exactly? Many people prioritize features, epics, or themes. It’s nice, but there is a much higher level of prioritization that needs to happen and would impact your roadmap much more. Here is how to discuss priorities at the right level.

Bad Feedback Doesn’t Always Mean Your Product Is Bad

Bad product feedback is a bummer. But contrary to what you might think, it doesn’t always mean your product is bad. Products are always meant to serve someone, and if it wasn’t built for the person who gave you the feedback, there is no reason to feel bad about it. Here is a quick guide to strategic thinking about product feedback.

How Product-Market Fit Really Works (Part 2)

The journey to product-market fit might seem random, but it actually has a well defined high-level structure. In order to successfully navigate it, you need to understand how it works. Here is part two of the guide that will help you find your way to product-market fit.

How Product-Market Fit Really Works (Part 1)

If you are on the journey toward product-market fit, you know it’s not easy. Part of it is because it’s really hard. Every new product has its own fit to find. But it gets easier when you understand what this journey should look like, and how to navigate it all the way through. Here is a quick guide to help you understand what to expect.

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.