Mastering Product Strategy with Chandra Janakiraman

Chandra shares that involving the team in strategy development leads to clarity and prevents confusion, aiding in hiring and team building.

\"It's not seen as, oh, this PM went off and wrote this strategy doc, and I don't agree with most of it... It comes from you, feels a lot more familiar and easy... It creates a lot of benefits.\"

- Team involvement prevents misalignment and confusion. - Collective ownership of strategy fosters commitment. - Collaborative strategies reduce resistance and enhance execution.

Chandra details how forming a strategy working group enhances hiring, team building, and product success.

\"This is an important concept... The strategy working group are the leads of the team... It's actually very team representative... There's just better results; you get to better problem articulation, better strategic pillars.\"

- A strategy working group brings diverse perspectives together. - Enhances team ownership and accountability in strategy. - Leads to better problem identification and product outcomes.

Chandra advises on engaging leadership early in the strategy process to improve team building and alignment.

\"Engage with your leaders before you actually build a strategy... Leadership interviews are a very important part of a strategy formulation process... It's a very, very positive thing, a very powerful thing.\"

- Conduct leadership interviews to understand expectations and ideas. - Early engagement prevents misalignment and wasted effort. - Leaders appreciate being involved, enhancing overall team alignment.

Chandra uses the physics concept of resonance to illustrate how focusing resources can maximize impact in product building.

\"Think about the concept of resonance... It's selecting that frequency to achieve resonance between the product and the market... When you get close to that frequency, you should see tremendous impact.\"

- Align your product closely with market needs to achieve maximum impact. - Focus resources on key areas to amplify results. - Use the resonance analogy to understand strategic focus.

Chandra explains the difference between 'small s' and 'big S' strategies in building products and finding PMF.

\"There is a smallest flavor of it, which focuses on solving problems I call present forward, and it typically operates in a 2-year horizon... There needs to be an aspirational and cool component to strategy... I call this sort of big S strategy.\"

- Use 'small s' strategy for immediate problem-solving over 2 years. - Develop 'big S' strategy for long-term, aspirational goals (5-10 years). - Balancing both strategies helps in building products and achieving PMF.

Chandra highlights the importance of alignment in hiring and team building during strategy development.

\"There is a ton of alignment built in... It goes back to human psychology of just something that comes from you feels a lot more familiar and easy... This doc is actually not from the PM... it's from the strategy working group.\"

- Involve team members in strategy creation for better buy-in. - Collaborative processes enhance team alignment and commitment. - Strategies developed together are more likely to succeed.

Chandra discusses how AI tools can assist in building product strategies, making the process more efficient.

\"Everybody should be using assistance in the strategy formulation process with the basic tools that we have... You could do trend analysis from a vast library of competitors' release notes... You could also ask an open-ended question like, 'Hey, why is this new product so successful?'\"

- Use AI tools for competitive analysis and trend spotting. - Leverage AI to generate mock strategies and insights. - AI can enhance research efficiency in strategy preparation.

Chandra emphasizes the importance of testing strategy with execution to find product-market fit and be ready to pivot if needed.

\"Ultimately, any strategy is only as good as the results it can produce. So test and iterate through execution and double down on what's working and pivot away from what's not.\"

- Validate your strategy by implementing and measuring results. - Be ready to adjust your strategy based on real-world feedback. - Continuous iteration is key to finding product-market fit.

Chandra outlines a five-step process for developing a product strategy, aiding in building product and achieving product-market fit.

\"We use a five-stage process to get there and it takes about 8 to 12 weeks... There's the preparation phase, there's a strategy sprint, the design sprint, the document writing, and the rollout.\"

- Follow the five-step process: Preparation, Strategy Sprint, Design Sprint, Document Writing, and Rollout. - Allocate sufficient time (8-12 weeks) for strategy development. - A structured approach leads to better product outcomes.

Chandra explains how involving a cross-functional team in strategy development enhances team building and alignment.

\"The strategy working group is sort of a small team. It typically consists of engineering, product, design, and data at a minimum... This is an important concept.\"

- Form a strategy working group with engineering, product, design, and data. - Early collaboration fosters alignment and better strategies. - Cross-functional teams lead to better buy-in and product success.