The Role of Business Strategy in Product Management
People working in product management are fond of products they manage and this is quite logical.
They care about every single feature but it’s also rather important to not forget about the following statement: Products only exist to create value for their users and the business.
Products help companies move forward and support the overall business strategy. A business strategy describes how a company wants to achieve its goals and create value users and stakeholders.
The business strategy states how the company will be successful, while a product strategy describes how a product will achieve success.
What is an effective business strategy about?
We’ve found the answer on Romanpichler.com. The blog post offers the essential elements of an effective business strategy. Here’re the main extracts:
The approach for creating a strategy involves answering the following questions:
- What is your winning aspiration? What is the company’s vision? State the company’s goal that provides continued guidance and helps in identifying correct objectives.
- Where will you play? Clearly describe the areas in which the company will compete to fulfill its aspiration.
- How will you win? What is your competitive advantage? For answering this question you need to understand the strengths and weaknesses of your business.
- What do you need to be really good at? Which new products or services do you require? Decide how you should adjust your product portfolio.
- What management systems does it require? This might involve creating or strengthening a PM company and hiring or developing product people.
There is no perfect business strategy like there is no —perfect product strategy.
Any strategy should not be fixed. As the market and your competitors change, your product and business strategies have to evolve as well.