Your roadmap is not a product strategy.

Your roadmap is not a product strategy.

Of tasks a PM should do , strategy tends to be the most confused. Too often , some window dressing on a roadmap is called strategy.

Strategy needs to be a level higher than roadmaps:

1. It connects vision & roadmap

2. It considers competition

3. It helps prioritize

1. It connects vision & roadmap

?A simple heuristic to remember is the 5 questions.

?Why → Vision?

?What → Strategy

?Who → Segmentation

??When → Roadmap

?How → Specifications

Product strategy helps answer the question, " what are we going to build to achieve the vision ?"

Unlike vision, which is timeless , strategy should be specific to the state of now. It should describe key focusing points to inform the roadmap.

2. It considers competition

Consider the word , " strategy ." It comes from general business strategy.

The reason strategy was a revolutionary concept was accounting for competitors . Great product characterizes competition & counter - positions.

Consider the word , " product . " It is about building something for someone.

?So product strategy is the plan for how the product will drive its part of the company strategy. Great product strategy helps justify why a product team even exists.

3. It should help prioritize

Strategy is created on the 1-2 year timeframe . Roadmap can be as fine grained as next month or quarter.

A roadmap prioritizes the sequence of features you will work on . Its critical input is the strategy.

?Take these examples of different strategies in a similar market - Discord , Slack , & Teams:

? Discord : bringing together communities of gamers & crypto enthusiasts.

Slack : tasteful chat for the technically inclined.

? Teams : integrated chat for 0365 users.

?This informs the roadmap for these teams.

?For instance , a particular quarter might look like:–

?Discord : gamer integrations

Slack : third party bots.

Teams : ability to live edit word docs.

Strategy helps products in the same market pursue different features.

So what does a strategy look like ?

The format itself is different . What I've seen done best is :

Roadmaps : spreadsheets

Strategies : docs

The format itself is different . What I've seen done best is :

Great strategy docs encapsulate the principle of ?"Smart Brevity." It's not a long novel. It's a short, well - written doc.

Summary : A dressed up roadmap is not product strategy.

?Product strategy :

? Connects vision & the roadmap.

?? Characterizes competition.

? & Helps Prioritize.