StarAgile
Aug 08, 2024
3,325
20 mins
A well-planned line of attack will lead to success. What do we mean by a line of attack here?
The tactics that an individual or a group follows to succeed in accomplishing something is called “line of attack” here. Why do we need a plan? It is because attacking will surely misfire when you go unplanned. You need to know about what you are attacking, how to attack, what is required to attack and what result you can expect.
Does the above discussion seem vague? Let us explain to you in simple words. So far we have been talking about strategy. Yes, a structured way of getting things done. Whether offering a particular service or developing a product we need to devise a plan to bring everyone on the same page.
That being the case, in a development atmosphere, the key success of a product owner (PO) or a product manager (PM) to deliver a thriving product to the client must have a perfect product strategy in place. Let us see what it is, why it is important and how to go about making one.
The direction of the product and the expected results is called a product strategy. It is the beginning of the complete lifecycle of the product. It is nothing but the goal that the business has for the product and the steps required to accomplish the same. The goal of the organization is to develop and deliver products meeting customer expectations. Therefore it needs to plan accordingly to achieve. This high-level plan must describe the best way to make the goal put in action.
By identifying the answers to this question, the company can bring its goal to ground and make an executable plan.
Is it required to make a product strategy? Can the team not start working instead of investing time in devising a plan? Is it always possible to take things forward based on the planning?
Yes, it is required to plan irrespective of the time or cost involved in it as a well-planned work will offer the following benefits to the team, company and the customer.
It is not easy to run the business until the company understands the need of the customer. Only by understanding they can plan for all the resources like people, time, software, etc. The practice of making a product strategy is the key role of the PO who must understand the customer requirement and explain the same to the business with a plan drafted.
Then the business can further analyze and make a detailed plan based on their resource availability. This will allow for prioritizing the work.
The team will feel confident when they have clarity of what they need to do, why, when and how. They will work in synchronization with others as they are not in the dark but aware of the action points and timelines. Further, they can also provide a suggestion for improvement of the total process and delivery of the end product at par in the market.
The customer does not worry about how the company works towards development. All it needs is the end result. The best product strategy designed before starting the development will certainly help the company achieve this. A satisfied customer will provide you more opportunity and thus you can stand ahead of the competition.
Thus making a strategy specific to the product is the first step towards a successful journey in development.
Why do you need to build a product, is discussed in the roadmap. It is the blueprint of the entire action plan from inception until the end of the product development. It is a visual representation done before making the strategy to develop the product.
It is like a map that will allow individuals for navigation between points. Unlike map which traces physical locations, this will help to plot out the progress of a product at any given time.
Every effective product strategy must contain the following three key components.
However, these three components will include the following detailed elements as mentioned in the table below which will help to make a proper strategy.
Components | Definition |
Epic | Collection of user stories which needs to be delivered in different releases |
Feature /User story | Enhanced functionality to add value to the end-user |
Goal | The objective of the product development |
Initiative | Steps taken to reach the goal |
Product | The final item to be delivered to the customer |
Release | Launch of every new functionality of a product to add value to the customer |
Status | The updates received regarding the progression in every stage of product development |
Time | Timelines for each activity |
Vision | Long term mission of the product |
Primary things involved in making the right strategy are the vision, goal, and initiatives. As the name implies you can understand that the vision is a long term mission of the product, the goal is the purpose of the product roadmap and initiative is the efforts taken to reach the goal.
If you want to know how to build the product strategy with scrum then apply for a Scrum Master Certification. Alternatively, check out Scrum Product Owner Certification become a professional product owner.
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