Build a Snap Product Strategy: How to Succeed as a PM and Product Leader

Product Growth Podcast

1×

0:00

-2:15:27

Build a Snap Product Strategy: How to Succeed as a PM and Product Leader

What's a Snap Strategy? How can you use it to build your strategy collaboratively? Plus - Why is product purity hurting you? Check out today's episode for all the spiciest PM takes with Ed Biden.

Aakash Gupta

and

Ed Biden

Sep 24, 2024

Transcript

Listen now on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube.

Brought to you by:

Zeda.io: Discovery platform to turn your Voice of Customer into product insights
Cello: Your all-in-one platform for partner & user referrals
WorkOS: Your App, Enterprise Ready

Your product strategy might be your biggest roadblock. Sounds counterintuitive, right?

Well, according to Ed, if you're spending weeks crafting the perfect strategy, you're already behind.

In this episode, we are breaking down Ed’s “Snap Strategy” approach that will revolutionize your product management style.

We are challenging everything you thought you knew about building successful products — from debunking the myth of the “product purist” and learning how to become a great product leader to exploring product management in the world of AI, and much more.

Ed is one of the most experienced people in the field. Lately, he’s been applying his expertise as an interim CPTO at FYLD and as founder of Hustle Badger, a paid subscription for PM career newsletters and courses.

Previously, he was SVP of Product at Jobandtalent, CPO at FutureLearn, Director of Product at Depop, and Director of Product at Rocket Internet. He also had a long career before that, stretching back to 2004 where he was at McKinsey.

In our conversation, we cover:

Product Purists aren’t great PMs
Who are Full-Stack PMs
Cost of Product Teams
Ed’s take on Impact Sizing
Ed’s Snap Strategy
Transitioning to Product Leadership
Advice for Job Interview Presentation

Here are the Key Takeaways

1. Product Purists Often Struggle as PMs

While it’s necessary to take the learnings about the ideal way of working from folks such as Marty Cagan, PMs need to understand that they can’t just straight away implement it as it is.

The best PMs adapt their approach based on business context and needs, rather than rigidly following idealized processes.

Be flexible and focussed on delivering value rather than just following a specific methodology.

2. Full-Stack PMs

According to Ed, a Full-Stack PM is one that knows enough about the different areas of product management and product development to be a really amazing partner to the other people in the teams.

And is also someone that can think holistically about the output of the team and how they can create most impact for the team.

Some of the key traits of a full-stack PM:

Recognize when to do deep discovery vs. when to move quickly
Avoid over-indexing on process when speed is critical
Maintain flexibility: What works in one phase may fail in another

Full stack doesn't mean doing everything yourself. It's about knowing when to apply different skills and approaches.

3. Snap Strategy Can Align Teams and Surface Assumptions

Ed’s “Snap Strategy” is a one-pager context document that revolves around creating a quick initial strategy draft early on.

This helps to:

Put your thoughts together for a first draft
Align with your stakeholders
Identify key assumptions to test
Guide discovery efforts

We usually don’t consider writing such a one-pager thinking that it would be garbage. But, in reality, it is quite often close to 80% of what we want to achieve.

To know more around “Snap Strategy” and creating product strategy docs, check out this collab piece with Ed.

Check out the full episode for more details!

Enter the Giveaway

Like and comment the video on YouTube. If you also subscribe to the channel, review on Apple, and send the screenshots, one of the lucky people who responds will receive $100.