product-strategy

A structured method for producing a comprehensive product strategy using the nine-section Product Strategy Canvas. The canvas moves from Vision (aspiration, impact, and values) to Market Segments defined by people's problems and Jobs to Be Done rather than demographics, then Relative Costs (a low-cost position versus differentiated unique value), and Value Propositions expressed per segment as what-before, how, what-after, and the alternatives customers use today.

The remaining sections force explicit strategic choices: Trade-offs (what the product will deliberately not do, and how saying no creates focus), Key Metrics (a single North Star Metric plus the OMTM, the one metric that matters this quarter), Growth (sales-led versus product-led, acquisition channels, and unit economics), Capabilities (competencies and resources to build versus partner for), and Can't/Won't (defensibility through network effects, switching costs, IP, and barriers to entry).

It expects inputs such as a product description and current positioning, market and competitor context, customer insights, and company resources and constraints, then follows a defined output process — define the vision, identify two to three segments with their JTBD, set cost positioning, develop value propositions, list trade-offs, set North Star and quarterly OMTM, outline growth, document capabilities, and explain defensibility. It closes by validating that all nine elements reinforce each other, surfacing the critical hypotheses that must hold for the strategy to work, and suggesting low-effort experiments to test key assumptions, with a canvas template and further reading provided.