How Product Leaders in Startups Can Build Scalable, Results-Focused Product Strategy Meetings

Scaling Product Strategy in Africa: Moving Beyond Quarterly Meetings

When you’re a product leader at a fast-growing startup, there’s a constant challenge in balancing alignment with agility. In Africa’s rapidly evolving tech landscape, keeping up requires flexibility, real-time insights, and most of all, a deep understanding of the unique challenges our markets face.

I’ve seen firsthand that traditional quarterly product strategy meetings can often slow things down more than they help. Here’s why:

1. Real-Time Data Over Quarterly Insights

Quarterly meetings were designed in an era where feedback cycles were longer and markets slower. Today, we’re operating in a fast-paced, hyper-connected environment where insights need to be acted on as soon as they’re available. Waiting three months to evaluate product strategies risks missing the mark entirely. Instead, I advocate for ongoing, real-time feedback loops—something that’s especially critical in African markets, where tech adoption and consumer expectations are rapidly changing.

Key Practice: At each stage, use agile check-ins and a ‘learning by doing’ mentality. This means aligning not just on big decisions, but on the micro-level tactics that fuel rapid iteration.

2. Strategic Empowerment and Ownership at Every Level

We were taught to ask, “What does the customer think?” rather than “What would the CEO think?” A strong culture of customer-first decision-making is even more vital for product teams here in Africa. At fast-growing companies, especially in SaaS and tech where customer pain points are deeply local, empowering team members with ownership over customer insights and strategy can dramatically improve speed to market and product relevancy.

For example, by creating ownership “swim lanes” for each product manager or team, we turn meetings from approval-seeking sessions into collaborative alignment sessions. This approach has fueled some of our most successful launches at scale, especially when the teams focused on user-driven metrics.

Key Practice: Develop frameworks that make product managers accountable for driving their segment’s KPIs. This also lets us cut down on meeting time—leaders don’t need to wait for a quarterly meeting to find out what’s working.

3. Product Strategy as an Ongoing Conversation

When I’m working with startups across Africa, I often see the misconception that strategy is something carved in stone every quarter. The reality? Your strategy is only as valuable as its adaptability. Instead of quarterly meetings to “align” everyone, I prefer smaller, ongoing syncs with product teams, where we can tackle key questions and challenges as they arise.

In Africa’s tech ecosystem, companies like Andela , Flutterwave C?te d'Ivoire , and 泰雷兹 reshowing how nimble, adaptable product strategies can create outsized impacts. This approach turns strategy into a continuous conversation, not a rigid quarterly review.

Key Practice: Keep strategy iterative. Emphasize that a strong product strategy is not about the quarterly pitch, but about creating solutions that are responsive, real-time, and grounded in local customer insights.

4. Focus on Results, Not Presentation

One of my non-negotiables is this: We don’t “pretty up” our slides. The goal of any product strategy meeting is clarity, insight, and action—not pageantry. In fact, I’ve found that less time spent polishing presentations means more time discussing metrics, learnings, and concrete next steps.

African startups face unique market conditions—whether that’s navigating connectivity challenges, building trust with first-time digital users, or adapting products for diverse and dispersed user bases. Keeping the focus on substance over style helps us zero in on what matters most: creating solutions that are both resilient and scalable.

Scaling Alignment Without Slowing Down

At a hundred-person startup, achieving alignment without losing momentum is tough. But by prioritizing agile strategy updates, accountability-driven teams, and actionable meetings, product leaders in Africa’s SaaS and tech spaces can truly unlock growth and scalability.

We’re building a new wave of product-led companies across the continent. The path to success lies not in copying quarterly strategy meetings designed for slower, traditional markets but in innovating to meet the needs of fast-evolving African tech.

Product leaders at Paystack , M-KOPA , Safaricom PLC —how do you drive agile, customer-focused decision-making on your teams? Let’s keep the conversation going. #AfricanTech #ProductManagement #SaaS #CustomerCentricity