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106 articles in Product Strategy
Full ArticleProduct Strategy
Competitive Analysis: A Strategic Framework for Startups
This article presents a systematic approach to competitive intelligence that goes beyond feature comparison matrices. It covers signal monitoring, competitive positioning maps, win/loss analysis, and frameworks for identifying competitive moats, helping founders and product leaders make strategic decisions based on landscape awareness.
First Round Review·14 min read·Aug 10, 2020
Full ArticleProduct Strategy
The Product Manager's Guide to Prioritization Frameworks
Comprehensive comparison of product prioritization frameworks: RICE (Reach, Impact, Confidence, Effort), MoSCoW (Must, Should, Could, Won't), Kano Model (basic, performance, excitement features), Value vs. Complexity matrix, Weighted Scoring, and Opportunity Scoring. Includes when to use each framework and common pitfalls. A practical reference for every PM.
ProdPad·12 min read·May 1, 2020
Full ArticleProduct Strategy
The Art of Product Roadmapping: From Vision to Execution
Cagan challenges the traditional feature-based roadmap, advocating instead for outcome-based roadmaps that focus on problems to solve rather than features to build. This reframing gives product teams the autonomy to discover the best solutions while keeping stakeholders aligned on business outcomes.
SVPG (Marty Cagan)·9 min read·Jan 10, 2020
Full ArticleProduct Strategy
Business Model Innovation: Patterns That Transform Industries
Osterwalder introduces a systematic methodology for testing business ideas before scaling, using experiments to reduce uncertainty about value propositions and business models. The framework provides a library of experiment types ranked by cost and evidence strength, enabling entrepreneurs to validate assumptions with minimum viable tests.
Strategyzer·13 min read·Nov 12, 2019
Full ArticleProduct Strategy
Wicked Problems: Why Some Challenges Resist Conventional Solutions
Wicked problems, such as climate change, inequality, or digital transformation, have no definitive formulation, no stopping rule, and every solution attempt changes the problem itself. Traditional analytical approaches fail because they assume problems can be clearly defined and decomposed. The article introduces adaptive strategies including stakeholder engagement, iterative prototyping, and shared mental models that help organizations make progress on challenges that can never be fully solved.
Harvard Business Review·14 min read·Aug 19, 2019
Full ArticleProduct Strategy
Product-Led Growth: How to Build a Product That Sells Itself
How companies like Dropbox, Slack, and Zoom built products that drive their own adoption. Covers the PLG flywheel: deliver value before capturing it, invest in the self-serve experience, use data to find conversion moments, and design for virality. Includes practical frameworks for measuring and improving product-led growth metrics.
First Round Review·14 min read·Apr 1, 2019
Full ArticleProduct Strategy
Performance Management: Setting Effective Goals with OKRs
Provides a practical guide to implementing Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) in fast-growing organizations. Covers common pitfalls like setting too many objectives, confusing outputs with outcomes, and failing to create alignment between team and company-level goals.
First Round Review·11 min read·Mar 15, 2019
Full ArticleProduct Strategy
OKRs: The Goal-Setting Framework Used by Google and Intel
A practical guide to Objectives and Key Results (OKRs), the goal-setting framework popularized by Andy Grove at Intel and adopted by Google, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Uber. Covers how to write good objectives (qualitative, inspirational) and key results (quantitative, measurable), cadence (quarterly), and common mistakes (too many OKRs, using as performance review tool).
Harvard Business Review·10 min read·Jul 1, 2018
Full ArticleProduct Strategy
How Superhuman Built an Engine to Find Product/Market Fit
A step-by-step framework for measuring and optimizing product/market fit using the Sean Ellis test, user segmentation, and a systematic approach to building what users love.
Classic Articles·23 min read·Jun 1, 2018
Full ArticleProduct Strategy
How to Build a Great Product Vision
Marty Cagan explains the difference between product vision and company mission, and why both matter. The product vision describes the future you're trying to create (2-5 years out), while mission is the organization's purpose. Covers how to create a compelling vision that inspires the team, attracts talent, and guides strategy without being too prescriptive.
SVPG (Marty Cagan)·8 min read·Jun 1, 2018
Full ArticleProduct Strategy
API-First Design: Building Digital Products for the Platform Age
Liew provides a comprehensive guide to understanding and implementing REST APIs, the backbone of modern digital-first organizations. The article covers HTTP methods, authentication, API design best practices, and practical examples that help non-technical leaders understand why API-first architecture enables scalable digital transformation.
Smashing Magazine·15 min read·Jan 15, 2018
Full ArticleProduct Strategy
Inspired: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love
Marty Cagan's comprehensive guide to modern product management. Product discovery (finding the right product to build) is separate from product delivery (building it). Four key risks to address: value (will customers buy it?), usability (can users figure it out?), feasibility (can we build it?), and viability (does it work for our business?). The definitive PM text.
SVPG (Marty Cagan)·15 min read·Nov 1, 2017
Full ArticleProduct Strategy
TRIZ: The Russian Theory of Inventive Problem Solving for Product Teams
TRIZ analyzes patterns from over 200,000 patents to identify 40 inventive principles that resolve technical contradictions, where improving one parameter worsens another. This systematic approach to innovation replaces trial-and-error with directed problem solving based on how similar contradictions have been resolved across industries. Product teams using TRIZ report finding breakthrough solutions in days rather than months, by leveraging existing knowledge rather than relying solely on creative inspiration.
MIT Sloan Management Review·15 min read·Jun 12, 2017
Full ArticleProduct Strategy
The Build Trap: How Effective Product Management Creates Real Value
Explores how organizations become trapped in a cycle of building features without understanding whether they create value. The output trap: measuring success by number of features shipped rather than outcomes achieved. Shows how to shift from project-based to product-based thinking, and from outputs to outcomes. Critical reading for product teams.
Harvard Business Review·12 min read·Mar 1, 2017
Full ArticleProduct Strategy
Platform Revolution: How Networked Markets Transform the Economy
How platform businesses (Uber, Airbnb, Amazon) have upended traditional pipeline businesses. Platforms create value by facilitating exchanges between producers and consumers. Covers network effects, winner-take-all dynamics, platform governance, and the shift from resource control to resource orchestration. Essential reading in digital strategy and technology management courses.
Harvard Business Review·12 min read·Apr 1, 2016
Full ArticleProduct Strategy
The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail
Christensen clarifies and updates his theory of disruptive innovation. Disruption describes a process whereby a smaller company with fewer resources successfully challenges established incumbent businesses. Distinguishes disruption from sustaining innovation and explains why the theory is so widely misunderstood. Essential for technology strategy education.
Harvard Business Review·16 min read·Dec 1, 2015
Full ArticleProduct Strategy
Business Model Canvas: A Practical Guide to Mapping Your Business
Introduces the Business Model Canvas as a single-page strategic tool for mapping the nine building blocks of any business model. Osterwalder's framework has become the standard for entrepreneurs and innovators to design, test, and iterate on business models systematically.
Strategyzer·10 min read·Jun 15, 2015
Full ArticleProduct Strategy
Aggregation Theory
How the internet has fundamentally changed the competitive landscape by enabling aggregators to own the customer relationship while commoditizing suppliers.
Classic Articles·7 min read·Jun 1, 2015
Full ArticleProduct Strategy
The Five Competitive Forces That Shape Strategy
Porter's updated exposition of his Five Forces framework: threat of new entrants, bargaining power of buyers, bargaining power of suppliers, threat of substitutes, and rivalry among existing competitors. The essential tool for understanding industry structure and competitive dynamics. Used in every strategy course worldwide.
Harvard Business Review·18 min read·Jan 1, 2008
Full ArticleProduct Strategy
Product-Market Fit: The Only Metric That Matters Early On
Andreessen's influential essay argues that the single most important factor for startup success is finding product-market fit—being in a good market with a product that satisfies it. The essay reframes startup priorities, placing market selection above team quality or product elegance.
Classic Articles·10 min read·Jun 25, 2007