how to create a product strategy
TRANSCRIPT
Create an Awesome Product & Design Strategy(even if it’s not your job!)
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@AureliusLab
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If we solve the wrong problem, on time and on budget,
it doesn’t matter
What exactly is product strategy?
“An informed, intentional approach for a product or service driven by both customer needs/behavior and the goals that will maximize your success as an organization.”
@zacknaylor@Aureliuslab
A product roadmap IS NOT a product strategy
WHAT EXACTLY IS PRODUCT STRATEGY?
A collection of smart, informed decisions
DECISION
RESEARCH INSIGHTSGOALS METRICS
So then, what makes up a “good” product or design decision?
As a heads up…
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This entire presentation is a small part taken from our free product strategy mini course, brought to you by…
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Step 1: GOALS
GOALS
Define what we are trying to accomplish, how it
will affect the experience and what should
happen as a result of this project or effort.
“Goals should convey our intentions in a way that explains the expected benefit to both our company and our customers”
@zacknaylor@Aureliuslab
statements to improve a certain metric in a vacuum
profitability targets
prescriptive of a solution or action
GOOD PRODUCT/UX STRATEGY GOALS ARE NOT…
EXAMPLES OF GOOD PRODUCT STRATEGY GOALS
“Improve our new customer on-boarding process”
“Provide more meaningful content for our first time visitors”
“Deliver deeper value to product managers with our add on mobile app”
“Effective strategic goals provide definition for what good design or product decisions are”
@zacknaylor@Aureliuslab
DEFINING GOALS
An effective strategic goal for your product/experience should have…
Statement of what we’re trying to accomplish
Expected impact to the product/experience
Success indicators
Step 2: USER RESEARCH INSIGHTS
USER RESEARCH
Why user research is absolutely critical…
Identify customer needs and behavior
Define what problems exist and more importantly why
It’s the way we learn how to meet our strategic goals
“In a startup no facts exist inside the building, only opinions.”
@zacknaylor@Aureliuslab
Steve Blank - The Four Steps to the Epiphany
DOING THE RIGHT RESEARCH FOR YOU
Better enable designers and product managers the ability to communicate designs, features and product recommendations
Step 1:
Review your goal(s)…
DOING THE RIGHT RESEARCH FOR YOU
Better enable designers and product managers the ability to communicate designs, features and product recommendations
Step 2:
Form research questions…
DOING THE RIGHT RESEARCH FOR YOU
current tools
Step 3:
Create themes and/or categories to collect notes…
processcommunication challenges
designers product managers
CONDUCTING THE RESEARCH
Be relatively organized and prepared
Take notes about EVERYTHING
Follow your themes and categories to ensure you’re collecting relevant notes and data to your goals
CREATING INSIGHTS FROM RESEARCH NOTES
Applying meaning to raw research data
Raw Data + Context = Insight
CREATING INSIGHTS FROM RESEARCH NOTES
Creating insights beyond raw data is absolutely critical because…
We need to communicate what we learned from customers about how to meet our goal(s)
Decision-making from singular or raw data points is dangerous
Meaning is worth more than fact
Raw Data
tools
process
People struggle to show their
teams why a design decision/
recommendation is best
because they use separate tools
for tracking research and actual
product/project actions
Research notes about…
+ Context = Insight
Understanding of “why”
we saw/heard what you did
Step 3: MAKING DECISIONS & RECOMMENDATIONS
DECISIONS
What are we doing and why?
“You are not entitled to your opinion. You are entitled to your informed opinion. No one is entitled to be ignorant.”
@zacknaylor@Aureliuslab
Harlan Ellison
DECISIONS
Make design decisions and product
recommendations that clearly support
our research insights and goals
RESEARCH INSIGHTGOAL DECISION
+ =
Step 4: METRICS & MEASUREMENT
METRICS
Measuring the success of your design
and product strategy
METRICS
Choose metrics that tie back to our goal
and its success indicators that will
measure the success of each decision.
METRICS
Example Metrics:GOAL
NPS
Total time on site/page
Sign Up Count
Better enable designers and product managers the ability to communicate designs, features and product recommendations
Success Indicators:
Which should help us: Improve Adoption and Customer Retention
More people signing up for the product
Follow up Surveys/Usability Testing
CREATING YOUR PRODUCT STRATEGY
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER
DECISION
RESEARCH INSIGHTSGOALS METRICS
HOW PRODUCT STRATEGY FITS INTO YOUR COMPANY
DECISION DECISION DECISION DECISION DECISION DECISION DECISION
PRODUCT STRATEGY
ORGANIZATION VISION STATEMENT ORGANIZATION VISION STATEMENT
Free product strategy email mini-course
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(there’s way more content and case studies in the course!)
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