Crafting a winning strategy doesn't have to be a daunting task. In this book, I'll not only define strategy for you, but also give you a reliable method for developing a successful strategy from the outset.

If you're frustrated with the haphazard approach to strategy crafting in your organization, this book is for you.

I wrote this book to show you what strategy is and provide you with a validated method to design a winning strategy from scratch.

The goal of good strategy is to fundamentally reinvent the existing competitive space or invent an entirely new competitive space in ways that delight customers and discourage competitors.

The future does not belong to those who own a crystal ball, but to those who are willing to challenge the boundaries, assumptions and constraints of their industries and markets.

The goal is not to predict the future and make a plan to achieve it, but to imagine a future made possible by changes in technology, lifestyle, work style, regulation, global geopolitics and so on and iteratively and incrementally build capabilities and exploit opportunities as future unfolds.

This book is based on my experience working as a product strategy coach in different organizations and it will provide you with a practical approach to design and implement business and product strategy.

The three guiding principles upon which my method is based are:

• Strategy is design
• Strategy is both thinking and doing
• Strategy is about winning in the marketplace by establishing positions of power

In this book you’ll learn:

• Strategy fundamentals
• Characteristics of a great strategy
• Why strategy is a design problem
• How to collaboratively design a winning product strategy
• How to implement the strategy with OKRs and roadmaps
• Practical tips and recommendations 

Why this Book?

Strategy is one of those business concepts that if we ask people, they will give us very different definitions.

Its practical application leaves much to be desired in general.

In many companies people talk about strategy when in reality they only have illusory plans full of fictitious hopes, more typical of the former Soviet Union than of a modern business.

In my view, strategy is a blend of both art and science, requiring a combination of creativity and analytical thinking. It is a craft that requires careful consideration and skill.

There is a part of intuition, creativity and design supported by an analysis of reality, forecasting of future movements, data, and the scientific method.

In essence, strategy boils down to identifying a guiding policy and designing a coherent action for a given problem. Hence, to create a sound strategy, we must be able to have a clear picture of the situation and the right diagnose, which is where most businesses operate blindly nowadays due to the uncertainty and volatility of current times.

A common pattern we can find in good strategy books and articles is the constant reference to the military. We firmly believe that the military is about 200 years ahead of us (at least) when it comes to modern strategy. And, if we go to “The Art of Warfare” by Sun-Tzu, then more than 2,000 years of advantage.

For centuries, the military has been at the forefront of developing effective strategies for operating in uncertain and volatile environments, and for adapting to changing circumstances as they unfold.

In this book you will find a step-by-step guideline and recommendations to design and effectively implement a winning strategy using modern techniques such as Design Sprint.

Here you can find everything you need to improve the product strategy implementation in your organization or to start from scratch.

I present a proven method that works for me, but as you will see, it gives a lot of room for you to adapt it to your own knowledge and experience, being able to replace some techniques with others to your liking. 

As a product professional you will agree with me that product roadmaps can easily become a nightmare and they are the source of many of your headaches at work.

Perhaps you think you are using roadmaps wrongly or they are just a waste of time and a continuous source of arguments. But bear with me, Product Roadmaps serve a purpose.

Product roadmaps are central to product management work. But every week I hear how product managers still struggle with planning, creating, and communicating a compelling roadmap.

The Product Roadmap sits in the interface between product strategy and execution. It provides visibility, alignment, focus, and it is a communication tool. However, you cannot achieve the benefits of product roadmapping unless you do certain things properly.

This book is based on my experience working with Product Roadmaps in different organizations and it will provide you with a practical approach to introduce (or improve) product roadmapping into your product organization.

After working with many product teams, I learned that there is no single best way to roadmap. Because there are so many different types of products, companies and product managers, every roadmap is different.

As a product professional you must be clear about the purpose of product roadmaps: To clearly articulate where you’re headed, and to show your strategy to your stakeholders in a compelling way.

In this book we’ll talk about product roadmaps from two perspectives:

• The process of discovering, designing, and building the roadmap
• The continuous process of managing, updating, and evolving the roadmap.

You’ll learn:

• Product roadmap fundamentals
• Roadmap as a strategic tool
• How to design your roadmap
• How to manage your roadmap
• How to introduce and sell product roadmaps in your organization
• How to get started with product roadmapping, or relaunch your product roadmap
• How to improve product roadmapping with roadmap metrics

Why this Book?

The product roadmap is a very effective and necessary strategic tool, but in many cases its implementation is poor and causes friction and frustration.

The roadmap allows us to connect the product strategy and objectives with delivery in an agile and light way.

Its correct implementation goes far beyond a simple timeline with features. For that reason, I have written this practical book based on experience.

Here you can find everything you need to improve the product roadmap in your organization or to start from scratch.

This book is meant for companies developing software-based products or using software as an enabler of their product or service: market-facing B2B or B2C digital products and services, software products for internal use or embedded software.

Structure of the Book

The book is structured in five sections of three chapters each.

The first section is the most theoretical. But even though it is an eminently practical book, I think it is essential to start by exploring the product mindset and understanding the key role the roadmap plays and how it fits into the strategic fabric of the product organization.

In the second section we explore the fundamentals of the product roadmap from its fit into the strategic gear, the basic principles, and the benefits it brings to the modern product organization.

The third block is devoted to the actual artifact design, with a special emphasis on themes (or initiatives) and the most common design mistakes.

The fourth block is dedicated to roadmap management, including metrics to assess the effectiveness and performance of the roadmap. An aspect that in my opinion is given very little attention and is as important as a good design.

To finish, I offer you a method to effectively introduce the practice of product roadmapping in your organization, including an assessment to evaluate the current situation.

Enjoy!

In preparation for our upcoming book on Product Strategy we have decided to launch this book to explain what strategy is and why is so important right now.

Strategy crafting in most organizations nowadays is still a wishful thinking process. We believe that strategy formulation can be significantly improved.

To this extent we wrote this book with the purpose of showing you what a bad strategy looks like, provide you with our decalogue of a good strategy and some useful tools and real-world examples.

The goal of good strategy is to fundamentally reinvent the existing competitive space or invent an entirely new competitive space in ways that delight customers and discourage competitors. Sustainable and profitable growth is the product of anticipation. In turn, in order to be able to anticipate you must learn to see.

The future does not belong to those who own a crystal ball, but to those who are willing to challenge the boundaries, assumptions and constraints of their industries and markets.

The goal is not to predict the future and make a plan to achieve it, but to imagine a future made possible by changes in technology, lifestyle, work style, regulation, global geopolitics and so on and iteratively and incrementally build capabilities and exploit opportunities as future unfolds.

This book and the next that will follow start with a fundamental premise based on our observation of the business world in last 20 years: we reached the limits of operational effectiveness. Business agility is no longer a strategic advantage, if it ever was. Getting a product to market faster, improving quality and responding to market changes quickly is not enough.

Pursuing incremental advantages while competitors are fundamentally reinventing the business landscape is not very wise.

On the other hand, doing the wrong thing very fast and nimble will send your business over the cliff.

This book is not about survival or resilience, instead we want you to think about growth and getting ahead.

Many companies have already done much of the hard work of catching up on cost, quality, speed, and flexibility. Now they are turning their attention to growth.

This book is about strategy. The intelligent adaptation over an extended period of time in the face of discouraging uncertainty. The domain of entrepreneurs not planners.

The book begins with the seven capital sins of strategy, where we explain the main mistakes many companies make when defining their strategies.

From there we jump into the second chapter, where we describe the decalogue of a good strategy. We explore every point of the decalogue with great detail and provide examples so you can grasp the concepts and put them into practice in your context.

Afterwards we provide you with a catalog of the main strategic design tools for the modern company, and we finish the guide with a strategy assessment that you can use to evaluate your company’s strategic capabilities.