An operator’s guide to product strategy | Chandra Janakiraman (CPO at VRChat, ex-Meta, Headspace)

Product strategy creation, explored across multiple formats, emphasizes iterative processes (8-12 weeks or 6 months), team alignment, and 3 strategic pillars. Methods range from data-driven playbooks to aspirational visioning, leveraging AI and emphasizing execution over documentation. Innovation is highlighted, advocating diverse teams and idea protection. This segment introduces a five-stage product strategy process designed for a 2-year horizon and taking 8-12 weeks to complete. The speaker emphasizes the process's effectiveness due to its built-in alignment, aligning with human psychology for easier acceptance and implementation.This segment contrasts "present-forward" strategy with a longer-term, aspirational approach. It highlights the importance of considering a product's vision in 5-10 years and how it improves the world, emphasizing the need for an exciting, aspirational component in strategy beyond immediate problem-solving. This segment introduces Chandra Janc Raman, the guest speaker, and his "operator's guide to strategy." It highlights his extensive experience in product leadership and emphasizes the practical, reliable, and easy-to-follow five-step process he developed, making this episode valuable for anyone seeking to improve their strategic capabilities. This segment clarifies the speaker's approach to strategy, emphasizing that it's not a new theory but a practical interpretation of existing strategic thinking, packaged for product professionals. The speaker highlights its battle-tested nature, having used it multiple times with strong results.This segment provides a concise definition of product strategy, positioning it between mission/vision and the plan. It introduces the concept of "resonance" to illustrate the ideal alignment between product and market, and outlines the three key components of a strategy: focus areas (strategic pillars), areas explicitly excluded, and the "why" behind the choices.This segment introduces the "smallest strategy" approach, a five-phase process taking 8-12 weeks. The speaker justifies the time investment by highlighting the strategy's 2-year usability, emphasizing the importance of managing expectations and allocating sufficient time for a high-quality outcome.This segment details the first phase of the strategy process: preparation. It emphasizes the importance of forming a strategy working group comprising engineering, product, design, and data (minimum), outlining the group's role in collaborative strategy creation and the initial kickoff meeting to set expectations and assign tasks.This segment elaborates on the composition and responsibilities of the strategy working group. It highlights the minimum required roles (engineering, product, design, and data) and the PM's role in leading the group and the process, emphasizing the collaborative nature of strategy development within this group. This segment outlines three crucial preparation phases for strategy formulation: aggregating behavioral insights from data analysis and feature launches; synthesizing UX research and customer feedback; and conducting leadership interviews to align expectations and uncover hidden priorities. These steps ensure a comprehensive understanding of user behavior, product performance, and leadership vision before strategy development.This segment uses an engaging anecdote ("the fruit story") to illustrate the value of proactively engaging with leadership before developing a strategy. It emphasizes that preemptive interviews reveal leadership preferences, avoid wasted effort, foster positive collaboration, and demonstrate strength and humility. The speaker highlights the importance of asking leaders about their vision of success, failure, and preferred approaches.This segment details the importance of competitive analysis to understand market trends and competitor strategies, as well as the inclusion of adjacent team roadmaps to identify potential synergies and avoid conflicts. It also stresses the value of direct user observation, emphasizing the importance of building empathy and challenging preconceived notions through user interaction. The segment concludes by describing the desired output: a comprehensive preparation readout. This segment details the speaker's personal journey into strategy, triggered by a realization that his team lacked understanding of the company's direction. It describes how developing a strategy led to a complete product reimagining at Headspace, transforming it from a meditation app to a broader health and wellness service, resulting in significant company growth and the speaker's promotion.This segment explores the speaker's motivation to make strategy accessible to everyone. He challenges the notion that strategic thinking is an innate ability, arguing that a clear understanding of the process and a repeatable playbook can empower anyone to develop effective product strategies. This segment clarifies the applicability of the described strategy process, differentiating between "big S" strategy (for entire companies) and "small s" strategy (for specific products or verticals within larger companies). It emphasizes the process's adaptability to various organizational structures and product scales, highlighting its effectiveness in growth-stage companies or within specific units of larger organizations. This segment describes the core of the strategy process: the strategy sprint. It details a three-to-five-day process beginning with a share-out of collected information, followed by problem identification and clustering. The key element is transforming problem clusters into opportunity areas, prioritizing them based on expected impact, certainty of impact, clarity of levers, and differentiation, ultimately selecting three to five key areas for focus. This segment emphasizes the transformative power of phrasing problems as "How might we...?" instead of "How do we...?" It explains how this simple change in wording unlocks creative problem-solving by shifting the brain's approach from a restrictive, solution-oriented mindset to a more open-ended, exploratory one, leading to a wider range of innovative ideas. This segment discusses the outputs of the strategy sprint: three strategic pillars, associated "how might we" questions, the "why" behind the chosen pillars, and the winning aspiration. It also addresses the possibility of course correction during execution, acknowledging that the initial strategic pillars might need adjustments based on subsequent learnings and market feedback. A real-world example is promised. This segment details a creative exercise called "winning aspiration," where team members imagine a future newspaper article announcing the success of their strategic pillars. The exercise encourages concise, impactful communication, focusing on the key benefits and broader impact, fostering a shared vision and identifying common themes for strategic alignment.This segment describes the process of consolidating individual "newspaper headline" contributions into a single, cohesive "winning aspiration" statement. It explains how the diverse headlines are analyzed to identify common themes and key elements, ultimately creating a concise, impactful statement that encapsulates the collective vision and desired future impact. An example from a Meta project is provided. This segment focuses on the document-writing phase, where the PM synthesizes the insights, analysis, strategic pillars, winning aspiration, and illustrative concepts into a cohesive strategy document. It highlights the abundance of existing material and the challenge of weaving it into a compelling narrative, emphasizing the importance of a well-structured, easily digestible document.This segment provides guidance on structuring the strategy document, suggesting sections for broader context, key insights and analysis, strategic pillars (with explanations and the "why"), the winning aspiration, illustrative concepts, and alignment questions. It also mentions including the full table from day two in the appendix for transparency and defensibility. The segment concludes with a brief sponsor mention. This segment highlights the importance of team alignment achieved through the strategy sprint process. It emphasizes that while the initial strategy might not be perfect, the shared understanding of the "why" and the step-by-step approach fosters buy-in and collaboration. The segment then transitions to the next phase: the design sprint.This segment explains the purpose and process of the design sprint, emphasizing its role in bringing the strategy to life through illustrative concepts. It clarifies that the goal is not to create fully functional designs but rather to generate visual representations that help stakeholders understand and connect with the strategy, overcoming potential ambiguity. This segment introduces an alternative strategy framework based on Roger Martin's five questions: winning aspiration, where to play, how to win, required capabilities, and management systems. It offers this as a complementary approach to the described process and suggests the possibility of a template for the strategy document.This segment discusses the length of the strategy document (3-4 pages plus appendix), the approach to team feedback (minimizing disruption after significant contributions), and the crucial distinction between the strategy document and the product roadmap. The strategy document is a companion to, not a replacement for, the roadmap. This segment introduces a case study of Zinga, highlighting its strategic clarity and three core pillars: viral game loops, paying to complete, and network cross-promotion. The presenter emphasizes the importance of these pillars in Zinga's success and the power of focus, noting that no strategy guarantees success but that a well-defined, focused approach significantly increases the chances of positive outcomes.This segment delves deeper into Zinga's strategic success, emphasizing the three key pillars and how they were consistently applied across different game genres. The presenter discusses the importance of alignment, team representation in strategy development, and the creation of clearly defensible criteria and outputs. The segment also highlights the importance of adapting to changing market conditions.This segment continues the Zinga case study, emphasizing the power of focus and differentiation in achieving strategic goals. The presenter highlights how Zinga's three strategic pillars were unique and differentiated in the market, contributing to its success. The discussion also touches upon the importance of recognizing existing strategic frameworks, even if initially unaware of their presence.This segment introduces a case study from Meta, focusing on the application of the same strategy process to both Oculus and Portal products. The presenter notes that while the process was similar, the outcomes differed significantly, highlighting the importance of testing strategy with execution and adapting based on results.This segment continues the Meta case study, detailing the successes of the Oculus initiative and the less successful outcome for Portal. The presenter emphasizes that strategy's value lies in its execution and impact, not just in the document itself. The discussion highlights the need for intellectual honesty, humility, and courage to adapt or pivot based on results.This segment differentiates between "small s" and "big S" strategies. Small 's' strategies are problem-focused and present-forward, typically led by product managers. Big 'S' strategies incorporate aspiration and a longer-term vision, acknowledging that life and business should be about more than just solving problems. The segment sets the stage for a discussion on longer-term strategic planning. This segment details the rollout phase of a strategy, emphasizing the importance of pre-flighting with key gatekeepers (2-3 individuals) for alignment before presenting to a broader group of stakeholders. The presenter advocates for a roadshow approach with smaller groups (8-10 people) to foster a more conversational environment, allowing for clarifications but maintaining the core strategic pillars. The process includes addressing potential concerns and justifying decisions based on established criteria.This segment addresses the role of the manager in the strategy process, suggesting a lightweight approach involving regular updates and alignment throughout the process, culminating in the manager's support during larger meetings. The presenter advises against considering resource allocation during the strategy phase, instead suggesting it's a roadmapping concern, focusing on prioritizing strategic pillars after the strategy is defined. This segment details the "Big S" strategy, a six-month process starting with company mission and vision, analyzing long-term trends, and conducting leadership interviews to envision future scenarios (e.g., autonomous travel, high-speed travel, virtual travel). These distinct future possibilities are then used to generate prototypes, acting as concept cars to inspire innovation and identify resonant elements.The segment explains how prototypes, similar to concept cars in the automotive industry, are created to drive inspiration and are not intended for immediate commercialization. These prototypes are then tested with potential users to identify winning components, which are subsequently integrated into live product testing, led by design and UXR teams, rather than solely the PM team.This segment describes the parallel implementation of "Big S" and "Small S" strategies, with product management leading the "Small S" (incremental improvements) and design leading the "Big S" (long-term vision). The two approaches are presented as complementary, ultimately merging into a unified roadmap, similar to two tributaries flowing into a single river. This segment emphasizes the deeply satisfying but challenging nature of both "Big S" and "Small S" strategies. It highlights the importance of selecting leaders who are good integrators, capable of connecting diverse viewpoints and maintaining momentum despite setbacks and self-doubt. A playful approach is recommended to make the intensive process more tolerable. This segment summarizes the five steps of the "Big S" process: preparation (defining mission, vision, and trends), envisioning three distinct futures, building prototypes, testing these prototypes (initially with UXR, then live product testing), and finally, translating the findings into a roadmap. The iterative nature of testing and refinement is highlighted. This segment presents a debate on whether AI will excel at generating strategies or if human judgment will remain essential. The discussion uses the example of a self-driving car's parallel processing of multiple signals to illustrate how AI's ability to process multiple signals simultaneously might surpass human capabilities in certain aspects of strategic decision-making. This segment discusses how AI tools can assist in strategy formulation, particularly in the preparation phase (competitive analysis, trend analysis, user review analysis) and in generating "mock strategies." While AI can provide comprehensive strategies, human judgment remains crucial for selecting the most important areas for investment.The segment explores the potential for future AI-driven strategy, envisioning multi-agent models where different agents (strategy, roadmap, engineering) communicate and iterate. The example of AI-generated onboarding variations tested through advanced experimentation frameworks illustrates the potential for AI to generate innovative solutions beyond human capabilities. However, the fundamental principles of strategy are expected to remain relevant. This segment features book recommendations focusing on creativity and innovation. The speaker discusses biographies of Walt Disney and Ed Catmull, highlighting their approaches to innovation and problem-solving, and mentions "The 10 Faces of Innovation," emphasizing the importance of diverse team roles in successful innovation.This short segment uses the memorable "ugly baby" metaphor to illustrate the initial unattractiveness of new ideas and the need to protect and nurture them through the development process. The speaker emphasizes the importance of perseverance in overcoming initial resistance to novel concepts.This segment shares the speaker's recent entertainment choices, including animated films watched with children and the movie "Imaginary Friend," offering a glimpse into their personal life and preferences. The discussion also touches upon the "Dune" franchise, highlighting the speaker's interest in science fiction.The speaker discusses recently discovered products, including a mobile game and the "Blue Sky" platform, highlighting their features and potential. A key life model is introduced: the significant craftsmanship required to transform a great idea into a great product, emphasizing the effort needed to create something truly special. This segment defines product strategy as the bridge between mission/vision and execution plans, emphasizing its role in resource allocation and problem-solving. It highlights the three key components: strategic pillars (focus areas), areas explicitly excluded, and a present-forward, two-year time horizon.The speaker outlines a five-stage process for product strategy, taking 8-12 weeks, and contrasts it with a longer-term "future backward" approach. The importance of testing, iterating, and adapting based on results is stressed, emphasizing the iterative nature of strategy development and execution. This segment connects the previous life model to the concept of "founder mode," explaining its importance in driving the necessary effort and commitment to refine an idea into a successful product. The speaker contrasts this with a less effective approach of simply building an idea without sufficient refinement.The speaker shares a personal anecdote about a cherished family photo displayed in their background, highlighting the importance of family and personal life. This segment offers a more personal and relatable side to the speaker.The speaker concludes by sharing their online presence (LinkedIn) and encourages listeners to test, modify, and share their experiences with the concepts discussed, promoting an open-source approach to product strategy and innovation.