Its critical to understand the company’s business goals and how our Product strategy fits into the

overall direction of the company.

Based on that, We make a set of choices to achieve the company’s objectives and Vision.

These are choices like which products to develop, which market segments to focus on, how to
differentiate, how to price, how to position and message, and so on.

Once we have those in place we focus on the execution part then comes the Product Roadmap and
the Release plan which again boils down to Backlog, Epics and User stories.

I would say we are the guardians of Product Strategy.

We are not necessarily the sole creator of the strategy. Many other people can and should be
involved in that. It's however our responsibility to understand what a real strategy looks like, and
make sure it exists and that it's well documented.

We should see to it, that all the key stakeholders understand what it really means, what value
addition is happening, and we need to prepare them to do their part and when the team
misunderstands or deviates from the focus or fades away, we're the one who needs to bring their
energies back into focus. That's what makes us the guardian of strategy.

It's a tough job to influence without any real authority, but it's critically important.

And I believe it requires a unique set of skills coupled with strong conviction……. the skills required to
articulate a coherent and effective product strategy spanning across many disciplines, from
technology to business operations, finance and marketing.

We need to understand the market dynamics, map out the products and services that are being
offered by different players and appreciate what technology makes that possible.

However, charting a clear path is important but staying on it over time is a whole other challenge.
The real world is messy. It's full of pressures, temptations and distractions that can easily steer us off
the charted path. Hence I personally believe conviction to pursue it vigorously can have a
tremendous positive impact on the organizations vision , teams, and business goals.