How to Build an Awesome Product Strategy (even if it's not your job!) Learn the 4 steps to create a great product strategy to solve the right problems for your business and its customers!

1. Create an Awesome Product & Design Strategy
(even if it’s not your job!)
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@AureliusLab
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2. If we solve the wrong problem,
on time and on budget,
it doesn’t matter

3. What exactly is product strategy?

4. “An informed, intentional approach
for a product or service driven by
both customer needs/behavior and
the goals that will maximize your
success as an organization.”
@zacknaylor@Aureliuslab

5. A product roadmap IS NOT a
product strategy

6. WHAT EXACTLY IS PRODUCT STRATEGY?
A collection of smart, informed decisions

7. DECISION
RESEARCH
INSIGHTS
GOALS METRICS
So then, what makes up a “good” product or design decision?

8. As a heads up…
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aureliuslab.com
This entire presentation is a small part taken from our
free product strategy mini course, brought to you by…

9. Free product strategy email
mini-course
Sign Up For the Mini-Course Now
(there’s way more content and case studies in the course!)
https://www.aureliuslab.com/free-product-strategy-mini-course

10. Step 1: GOALS

11. GOALS
Define what we are trying to accomplish, how it
will affect the experience and what should
happen as a result of this project or effort.

12. “Goals should convey our intentions
in a way that explains the expected
benefit to both our company and our
customers”
@zacknaylor@Aureliuslab

13. statements to improve a certain metric in a vacuum
profitability targets
prescriptive of a solution or action
GOOD PRODUCT/UX STRATEGY GOALS ARE NOT…

14. EXAMPLES OF GOOD PRODUCT STRATEGY GOALS
“Improve our new customer on-boarding process”
“Provide more meaningful content for our first time visitors”
“Deliver deeper value to product managers with our add on mobile app”

15. “Effective strategic goals provide
definition for what good design or
product decisions are”
@zacknaylor@Aureliuslab

16. DEFINING GOALS
An effective strategic goal for your product/experience should have…
Statement of what we’re trying to accomplish
Expected impact to the product/experience
Success indicators

17. Step 2: USER RESEARCH INSIGHTS

18. USER RESEARCH
Why user research is absolutely critical…
Identify customer needs and behavior
Define what problems exist and more importantly why
It’s the way we learn how to meet our strategic goals

19. “In a startup no facts exist inside the
building, only opinions.”
@zacknaylor@Aureliuslab
Steve Blank - The Four Steps to the Epiphany

20. DOING THE RIGHT RESEARCH FOR YOU
Better enable designers and product managers the ability to
communicate designs, features and product recommendations
Step 1:
Review your goal(s)…

21. DOING THE RIGHT RESEARCH FOR YOU
Better enable designers and product managers the ability to
communicate designs, features and product recommendations
Step 2:
Form research questions…

22. DOING THE RIGHT RESEARCH FOR YOU
current tools
Step 3:
Create themes and/or categories to collect notes…
processcommunication challenges
designers product managers

23. CONDUCTING THE RESEARCH
Be relatively organized and prepared
Take notes about EVERYTHING
Follow your themes and categories to ensure you’re
collecting relevant notes and data to your goals

24. CREATING INSIGHTS FROM RESEARCH NOTES
Applying meaning to raw research data
Raw Data + Context = Insight

25. CREATING INSIGHTS FROM RESEARCH NOTES
Creating insights beyond raw data is absolutely critical because…
We need to communicate what we learned from
customers about how to meet our goal(s)
Decision-making from singular or raw data points is dangerous
Meaning is worth more than fact

26. Raw Data
tools
process
People struggle to show their
teams why a design decision/
recommendation is best
because they use separate tools
for tracking research and actual
product/project actions
Research notes about…
+ Context = Insight
Understanding of “why”
we saw/heard what you did

27. Step 3: MAKING DECISIONS & RECOMMENDATIONS

28. DECISIONS
What are we doing and why?

29. “You are not entitled to your opinion.
You are entitled to your informed
opinion. No one is entitled to be
ignorant.”
@zacknaylor@Aureliuslab
Harlan Ellison

30. DECISIONS
Make design decisions and product
recommendations that clearly support
our research insights and goals

31. RESEARCH
INSIGHT
GOAL DECISION
+ =

32. Step 4: METRICS & MEASUREMENT

33. METRICS
Measuring the success of your design
and product strategy

34. METRICS
Choose metrics that tie back to our goal
and its success indicators that will
measure the success of each decision.

35. METRICS
Example Metrics:
GOAL
NPS
Total time on site/page
Sign Up Count
Better enable designers and product managers the ability to
communicate designs, features and product recommendations
Success Indicators:
Which should help us: Improve Adoption and Customer Retention
More people signing up for the product
Follow up Surveys/Usability Testing

36. CREATING YOUR PRODUCT STRATEGY

37. PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER
DECISION
RESEARCH
INSIGHTS
GOALS METRICS

38. HOW PRODUCT STRATEGY FITS INTO YOUR COMPANY
DECISION DECISION DECISION DECISION DECISION DECISION DECISION
PRODUCT STRATEGY
ORGANIZATION VISION STATEMENT ORGANIZATION VISION STATEMENT

39. Free product strategy email
mini-course
Sign Up For the Mini-Course Now
(there’s way more content and case studies in the course!)

40. Aurelius Product Strategy Blueprint:
www.aureliuslab.com/blueprint

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