What are the most common mistakes when evaluating your product strategy?

Not defining clear metrics around your market. Market sizing is the # 1 critical focus (and refocus area) outside the product build and launch motions. It's foundational to launching successful, revenue-positive solutions and informs pricing, positioning, and demand generation, among other key activities. Market sizing requires working across teams to clarify: 1) How you'll define the market size: TAM vs. SAM vs. SOM 2) How you'll approach estimating # 1: bottom-up or top-down 3) How you'll translate the outputs from # 1 and # 2 into GTM motions

It's easy to define metrics. We can quickly think of things that we do that can be measured. However identifying the indicators that tell you something important about how you're moving towards your goals (or not) is more tricky. Some advice: 1. At any given time, track no more than 5 'key' metrics (KPIs). If you have too many, you risk creating artefacts from the data, or hiding important results. 2. Balance your metrics between customer behaviour and business success, and between positive and negative directions. 3. Read about Goodhart's Law: targets can drive unintended behaviours. 4. Be clear that data doesn't mean anything; it acquires meaning only when you make subjective judgements, so take that into account when making decisions.

The most common mistakes in evaluating product strategy include not setting clear, quantifiable success metrics, which leads to ambiguity in measuring performance. Relying solely on short-term metrics without considering long-term impact can skew strategy effectiveness. Overlooking customer feedback and market trends may result in a strategy that is out of touch with consumer needs. Failing to conduct a competitive analysis could leave blind spots in understanding the market landscape. Additionally, not regularly revisiting and adapting the strategy based on actual performance data and environmental changes can prevent a company from staying agile and relevant.

Building around a technology rather than a problem/job-to-be-done. This is often the result of: 1) New emerging technology that is popularized + 2) FOMO - fear of missing out and your competition utilizing the technology before you do + 3) Not spending enough time talking to and understanding your customers Technology itself is not a viable product. It is the application of that technology to make simpler, more inexpensively, or quicker the solution your customers need.

The two most valuable attributes of product feedback are: 1) Existing and new customers buy it with increasing volumes with little price sensitivity 2) Your competitors try to imitate it These data provide insights into product positioning, pricing and promotion, as well as, the competitive landscape and value chain assessment.

By categorizing product related data in to features, value, velocity, and cost; strategy maps can be developed to address your value proposition for external customers' and a continuous improvement mindset supported by action plans for product development, operations, sales and marketing teams.

Mistake Number 6: Misalignment on pricing and packaging. Many companies are excited about launching a new product, service, or idea to drive revenue. But they miss the crucial validating pricing and packaging piece. Key pricing strategies include cost analysis, defining the value proposition, thorough market research, setting clear pricing objectives, conducting pricing research, aligning packaging and positioning with brand and audience, selecting the right pricing models, planning promotions and discounts, bundling and upselling, maintaining pricing flexibility, and continually adjusting prices based on market, costs, feedback, and competition. These strategies are essential for effective pricing management and revenue optimization.

Too often focus is only given to solving the customer problem with a product solution, and little or no consideration is given to other factors critical to the products success. For instance, how the competitors will react to such a product; how well your sales channels will get promote it versus the alternatives they offer, and how key internal stakeholders feel about the solution - might they be motivated to sabotage success from start to finish?

‘Product Strategy is intelligent deployment of limited resources’ means that strategy involves making well-thought-out and efficient decisions on how to use the limited resources at your disposal, such as time, money, manpower, or materials. It's about planning and executing actions in a way that maximizes the chances of achieving your goals or objectives, even when resources are constrained. Intelligence in this context refers to the ability to analyze the situation, make informed choices, and adapt as needed to make the best use of what you have. So, a good product strategy is about making wise decisions on how to allocate and use your resources to achieve the best possible outcomes.