The development of a product strategy doesn’t need to be complex to be effective. Sometimes the simplest approaches are the most effective. Use this product strategy framework, comprising just three key elements, to streamline and focus your next product journey. The framework includes three driving forces that will help steer any product strategy
The Driving Forces of a Product Strategy
According to Tregoe and Zimmerman, the driving force of any organization can be determined by answering a simple question: Which one of the nine areas is most heavily weighted?
- There may be many complex theories out there, but there should only be three drivers of product strategy.
Reputation
Company’s reputation impacts the success of your product
- Ethical and moral behavior
- Expertise in a particular area
- Adding a new market in which they are unknown to customers is a large hurdle to overcome
- Analyze your company’s reputation from an outsider’s point of view
Kick-start Your Product Journey
When developing your product strategy, take into account the wider goals and vision of the company
- Any product plan must fully support the corporate strategy and be aligned with its ambition
- Market need, capabilities, and reputation: With just these three driving forces, you can begin shaping a powerful and effective strategy, generating the ideas needed to strengthen your product offering and, subsequently, the business as a whole
Market Need
This includes better serving an existing need, uncovering an unknown need, or creating a new need.
- Ask yourself the following questions to develop and guide your new product ideas:
- If you decided to eliminate your current product line in six months, what impact would that have on your customers?
- Does your firm have the financial and skill resources to sustain this impact?
Understanding the Basics
The three key elements to creating an effective product strategy are: market need, capabilities, and reputation
- An excellent product strategy is focused and simple
- It should be aligned with the overall business strategy and be able to meet its objectives with the resources available to the company
Capabilities
Be aware of both the capabilities that are available to you now and those that could be acquired
- The minimum capabilities to consider are: technical, manufacturing, and distribution
- Analyzing these three aspects of your business, and making sufficient investments in any areas where you are currently lacking, will help sustain your product strategy
