Importance of Strategic Thinking in Product Management

Principal Product Managers already know this. Every time you say "yes" to a feature, you are saying "no" to a thousand others. But here’s the real problem—most teams don’t realize what they’re saying no to. So they end up: ❌ Saying yes to executive requests instead of customer needs ❌ Filling the roadmap with noise instead of true business impact ❌ Shipping features that check a feature parity box, not create a competitive advantage Saying no isn’t the hard part. Saying no intentionally is. I learned this the hard way. Early in my career, I thought I needed to produce by executing. -> So when an executive requested a feature, I said yes. -> When customers asked for enhancements, I said yes. -> When the roadmap had space, I filled it. And for a while, it felt like we were winning. We were getting things done. But there wasn't impact. ❌ Customers were overwhelmed—the product was getting cluttered. ❌ Engineers were stretched thin—delivering, but not innovating. ❌ Our competitive edge was fading—we were keeping up, not leading. That’s when I realized: Every time you say "yes" to a feature, you're saying "no" to a thousand others. Here's how to avoid my mistake and how to become a better product manager. 🚀 Tie every decision to strategy Every feature request should pass the "Vision Filter": Does this make the product fundamentally stronger? If not, it’s a distraction. A simple way to check: If this didn’t exist, would our core users still love the product? When leadership or customers push for a new feature, ask: -> "How does this align with our strategic goals?" -> "What problem does this solve better than anything else?" -> "Would we prioritize this if a competitor didn’t have it?" 💡 Pro tip: Keep a "Not Now" list—a backlog of good ideas that don’t fit today’s strategy. This keeps discussions productive without derailing focus. ⏳ Measure trade-offs beyond effort A “quick” feature is never quick. And never free—it costs engineering time, product complexity, long-term maintenance debt Instead of asking "How long will this take?", ask: -> "What ELSE could we build with the same resources?" -> "Will this add future maintenance burden?" -> "Will customers even care about this?" 💡 Pro tip: Before greenlighting a feature, ask the team: "If we build this today, what are we committing to maintaining for the next two years?" If that answer makes you hesitate, rethink the priority. 📊 Optimize for Long-Term Impact Not all features are created equal. The best ones don’t just check a box—they create lasting value. Before saying yes, ask: -> "Will this feature still matter in a year?" -> Does it open new revenue opportunities or expand our market? -> Will it strengthen our competitive edge, not just match the market? 💡 Pro tip: The best products prioritize driving customer value over just adding features. --- 👋 I'm Ron Yang, a product leader and advisor. Follow me for insights on product leadership and building better products.

𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝘆 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱𝗻’𝘁 𝗯𝗲 𝗮 𝗴𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗴𝗮𝗺𝗲. 𝗦𝗼 𝘄𝗵𝘆 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝘁 𝗳𝗲𝗲𝗹 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝘀𝗼 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗲𝘀? Some product leaders build it in isolation and hand it down like a mandate. Others leave it entirely to bottom-up input with no north star. Both approaches fail. One loses touch with reality. The other turns into a wishlist with no direction. So - what actually works? The best product strategies I’ve seen are 𝗰𝗼-𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱 - but anchored in a clear company direction. And I don’t mean a vague mission statement. I mean actual clarity on: • What problem are we solving? • For whom? • What kind of company are we building? • And how fast do we need to grow to win? Once that’s clear, product strategy becomes a 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗹𝗮𝘆𝗲𝗿. It helps answer: → What do we build? → What do we prioritize? → What do we say no to? Great strategy doesn’t just define features. It makes 𝗯𝗲𝘁𝘀. It sets 𝗱𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻. And it 𝗳𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗲𝘀 𝗱𝗲𝗰𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀. It’s built on: • Customer insight • Market understanding • Internal constraints • And most importantly - 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗼𝗳𝗳𝘀 It’s also shaped by context: In 𝗕𝟮𝗕, it’s about ROI and enabling sales. In 𝗕𝟮𝗖, it’s iteration and behavior change. In 𝗱𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗿 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁𝘀, it’s extensibility and governance. And in 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗲𝘀, it’s about balancing ecosystems of customers, partners, and devs. And it evolves: • Early stage → Find the wedge • Growth stage → Scale across segments • Enterprise → Defend and optimize The best strategies? They’re clear enough to empower teams to decide without constant top-down guidance. So if you’re leading product: Don’t start by asking, “What should we build?” Start with: “What does winning look like - and how does product get us there?” Then invite your teams to build 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯 that vision - not outside it. 👇 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗼𝗿𝗴 𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗮𝗰𝗵 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝘆 𝘁𝗼𝗱𝗮𝘆?

Defining product strategy is one of the most critical responsibilities of a product leader. The best leaders take a deliberate, evolving approach, avoiding common pitfalls and focusing on what truly drives success. More importantly, they continuously refine their strategic thinking, ensuring that each iteration is stronger, more informed, and more effective than the last. Here’s what sets them apart: 🚫 They don’t just follow a process. ✅ They define a clear vision and guiding principles that align teams and drive meaningful outcomes for the customer and the business. 🚫 They don’t treat strategy as a one-time activity. ✅ They continuously refine and adapt based on market trends, customer insights, and competitive dynamics—improving their ability to craft strategy over time. 🚫 They don’t prioritize features over impact. ✅ They focus on solving real problems and delivering measurable value rather than simply shipping features. 🚫 They don’t define product strategy in isolation. ✅ They collaborate across engineering, design, marketing, and sales to gather critical insights and ensure alignment. 🚫 They don’t just repeat the same approach. ✅ They analyze past strategies, learn from successes and failures, and refine their methodology—making each strategy more effective, data-driven, and aligned with business objectives than the last. Great product strategy isn’t just about what you build—it’s about how you build it, why you build it, and how you continuously improve your approach.

As head of our product organization at Chase, I often think about how and what we’re delivering to customers, but I recently reflected on the vital role of product managers. While some may view it as merely administrative, in my opinion this couldn't be further from the truth. Product managers are the driving force behind strategy and exceptional experiences, whether for external customers or internal users. Our role demands a deep connection to both the product and its users. Three essential qualities we all have: Customer Obsession: Go beyond empathy by diving into data and insights to understand user behavior, pain points, and opportunities. Decisions should be data-driven, ensuring the product evolves with user needs. Strategic Leadership: Product managers must define and drive the product vision, setting strategies that align with company goals. This involves fostering alignment across cross-functional teams and building strong relationships with stakeholders to ensure everyone is working toward a shared vision. Accountability: Own the outcomes, whether good or bad. Exceptional product managers embrace challenges, learn from mistakes, and continuously iterate to improve. They step into gray areas, connecting the dots to drive cohesive and successful outcomes. This role is strategic and high-impact, requiring us to lead with intention, push boundaries, and always advocate for the user. #productmanagers #productdevelopment

What is a product strategy? Most importantly, it's what you won't work on. Here's how Ed Biden explained it in this week's post: It’s easy to get drowned in requests from users and various stakeholders around the business. Everyone has a great idea or a pressing question that needs answering. But not all these requests will be worth doing. Some might be great ideas, some might be ok, and a few will probably be counter-productive. Assessing each one-by-one would take a huge amount of time. You need an approach that allows you to consistently work on high impact features, without going back to first principles on every idea. This is the essence of what a product strategy is. A product strategy explains what you will work on, and why. It links the day-to-day work that you are doing to the big picture company strategy and vision. A product strategy is your plan for creating the most value possible for your users and your company. And you do this by focusing your time on a small set of really high impact work, rather than diluting your efforts across all the different things you could potentially do. Good product strategies therefore have two core features that allow you to create amazing value for your users: 1. They are composed of high impact work 2. They are mutually reinforcing That is to say, of all the pieces of work that you could do, product strategies choose ones that create more value in a shorter amount of time. But not only that, they also choose pieces of work that when combined create more value than the sum of their parts. 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝘆 𝗶𝘀 𝗻𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗱𝗼𝗻𝗲 A lot of people think creating a strategy is something that should be done on a periodic basis, after huge amounts of research and analysis. Whilst having a solid evidence base for your strategy is undoubtedly good, creating a strategy is much better thought of as an ongoing activity, rather than an ad hoc task. “When I start a new job, I define a SWAG (Stupid Wild-Ass Guess) product strategy within my first two weeks.”  – Gibson Biddle, ex VP Product Netflix You really need a working understanding of what your strategy is at all times. You want to start with a basic hypothesis as soon as possible, and then strengthen this over time. This approach several benefits: 1. It’s easier to get feedback from stakeholders when they have something to comment on 2. You can focus your discovery by seeing where your evidence is weak 3. You can use your hypothesis as your strategy whilst you firm things up As you ship features, engage with stakeholders, and do more discovery your strategy will naturally shift. That’s fine and normal. It’s almost always better to get going and course correct as you go along, rather than do nothing for several weeks before acting.