Product Strategy

---
name: product-strategy
description: Build product strategy that drives real choices. Use when defining where to play and how to win, creating strategy canvases, defining ICP/Anti-ICP, positioning products, setting pricing strategy, planning GTM motions, or structuring strategic bets. Part of the Modern Product Operating Model collection.
author: YannickMaurice
version: 1.0.0
tags: product-management, strategy, gtm, pricing, positioning
---

# Product Strategy System

> "Strategy is choice, not documentation. If you haven't said no to something, you don't have a strategy."

This skill covers the **Strategy System** — defining where to play and how to win. It creates the guardrails that make downstream decisions coherent and forces the hard choices most teams avoid.

**Part of**: [Modern Product Operating Model](https://github.com/yannickYamo/skills) — a collection of composable product skills.

**Related skills**: `product-discovery`, `product-architecture`, `product-delivery`, `ai-native-product`, `product-leadership`

---

## When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when:
- Defining or refreshing product strategy
- Creating a 1-page strategy canvas
- Defining ICP and Anti-ICP
- Structuring Jobs to Be Done analysis
- Developing positioning and messaging
- Setting pricing strategy and value metrics
- Planning GTM motion (PLG vs SLG vs Partner)
- Creating strategic bets with hypotheses and kill criteria

**Cadence**: Quarterly refresh | **Owner**: Founder/CPO

---

## Philosophy

### Core Beliefs

1. **Strategy is choice, not documentation** — If you haven't said no to something, you don't have a strategy
2. **Pricing belongs in strategy, not GTM** — Pricing decisions constrain segments, problems, features, and competition
3. **Competitive reality shapes everything** — Build easy-to-copy features and wonder why you're not winning
4. **Non-goals are as important as goals** — What you won't do defines focus
5. **Moats are built, not found** — Strategy should articulate how you become hard to copy

### What This Framework Rejects

- Strategy decks nobody reads
- "We serve everyone" positioning
- Pricing as afterthought
- Ignoring competitive dynamics
- Annual planning fiction
- Strategy without non-goals

---

## Framework Components

### 1. Strategic Intent

**What it contains:**
- **Mission**: Why you exist (enduring)
- **Objective**: What winning looks like in 12-24 months (specific, measurable)
- **Non-Goals**: What you will NOT do, who you will NOT serve, which problems you will NOT solve

> **Anti-pattern**: If your non-goals list is empty, you don't have a strategy.

**0→1 Mode**: Mission can be rough. Objective is survival: find PMF. Revisit weekly.

**Scaling Mode**: Mission is refined and externally communicable. Objectives are financial + strategic.

---

### 2. Market & Competitive Reality

**What it contains:**

| Analysis | Purpose |
|----------|---------|
| **Market Diagnosis** | What's broken? Why hasn't it been fixed? What's changing? |
| **5C Analysis** | Company, Customers, Competitors, Collaborators, Context |
| **Porter's 5 Forces** | Buyer power, supplier power, substitutes, new entrants, rivalry |
| **Value Chain** | Where margin is created and captured |

**Key questions:**
- Why do alternatives fail? What's the gap?
- Is this a market where a startup can win?
- Where do value pools exist?
- What creates switching costs?

> "If you don't understand competitive dynamics, you'll build features that are easy to copy and wonder why you're not winning."

---

### 3. ICP & Anti-ICP

**Ideal Customer Profile contains:**
- Company characteristics (size, industry, tech stack)
- User roles (buyer, user, influencer, blocker)
- Problem intensity (how painful?)
- Willingness to pay (can they and will they?)
- Urgency (why now?)

**Anti-ICP (equally important):**
- Who you explicitly won't serve
- Why (wrong economics, wrong fit, wrong timing)

**Segmentation dimensions:**
- Pain severity
- Frequency of problem
- Willingness to pay
- Buying process complexity

**0→1 Mode**: Start with ONE ICP, not segments. Talk to 10-20 people who match.

**Scaling Mode**: Multiple ICPs with clear prioritization. Segment-specific positioning and pricing.

---

### 4. Jobs to Be Done & Pain

**Three job types:**

| Job Type | Question | Example |
|----------|----------|---------|
| **Functional** | What task are they trying to accomplish? | "Find qualified candidates faster" |
| **Emotional** | How do they want to feel? | "Confident in hiring decisions" |
| **Social** | How do they want to be perceived? | "Make defensible decisions colleagues respect" |

**Pain analysis dimensions:**
- **Severity**: How bad is it?
- **Frequency**: How often does it occur?
- **Workarounds**: What do they do today?
- **Willingness to change**: How much friction will they accept?

**How to gather:**
- Weekly customer interviews (2-3/week minimum during discovery)
- Support ticket analysis
- Win/loss interviews
- Usage data (what they do vs. what they say)

---

### 5. Superpower: Where to Play & How to Win

**Where to Play:**
- Target segment (specific)
- Core use case / wedge (narrow)
- Geographic focus (if relevant)
- Channel focus (direct, PLG, partner)
- ACV band (what deal sizes?)

**How to Win:**
- Unique mechanism (what you do differently)
- Moat thesis (why it's hard to copy)
- Proof points (why anyone should believe you)

**Moat Categories:**

| Moat Type | Description |
|-----------|-------------|
| **Data moats** | Proprietary data that improves with usage |
| **Network effects** | Value increases with more users |
| **Switching costs** | Pain of leaving exceeds pain of staying |
| **Workflow integration** | Embedded in daily habits |
| **Brand/trust** | Earned credibility that takes years |
| **Economies of scale** | Cost advantages at volume |

**The Strategic Kernel (Rumelt):**
1. **Diagnosis**: What's the crux challenge?
2. **Guiding policy**: What's your approach?
3. **Coherent actions**: What specific actions follow?

> **Test**: If a competitor could read your strategy and easily replicate it, it's not a strategy.

---

### 6. Positioning & Narrative

**Positioning Statement Format:**
```
For [ICP]
Who are [frustrated by / need]
Our product is [category]
That [unique promise]
Unlike [alternatives]
We [key differentiator]
```

**Messaging Hierarchy:**
- Primary message (10 words)
- Supporting messages (3 pillars)
- Objection handlers (top 5 concerns)

**Proof Points:**
- Customer evidence (logos, quotes, case studies)
- Metrics evidence (outcomes achieved)
- Credibility evidence (team, investors, partnerships)

**0→1 Mode**: Positioning is hypothesis. Keep it simple: "We help X do Y." Iterate weekly.

**Scaling Mode**: Positioning is stable and documented. Consistent across all channels.

---

### 7. Value Creation & Pricing

**Value Equation:**
```
Customer Value = (Benefits Gained + Pain Avoided) - (Price + Switching Costs + Risk)
```

**Value Metric Selection Criteria:**
- Scales naturally with customer value
- Aligns incentives (you win when they win)
- Simple enough to explain in 30 seconds

**Common Value Metrics:**

| Model | Best For |
|-------|----------|
| Per seat | Collaboration tools, team software |
| Per usage | Infrastructure, API products |
| Per outcome | Performance marketing, success-based |
| Per asset | IoT, device management, inventory |
| Flat fee | Simple products, low variance in value |

**Packaging Principles:**
- Good / Better / Best tiers
- Make expansion natural, not forced
- Don't penalize success
- Price on value, not cost

> "Pricing is the most powerful lever in business. Yet most PMs treat it as someone else's problem."

**0→1 Mode**: Run willingness-to-pay conversations early. Start simple: one price, test the market.

**Scaling Mode**: Value-based pricing model. Tiered packaging. Pricing experiments.

---

### 8. Go-To-Market Strategy

**GTM Motion Selection:**

| Factor | PLG | SLG |
|--------|-----|-----|
| ACV | <$10K | >$10K |
| Complexity | Low | High |
| Buyer | User | Executive |
| Time to value | Minutes | Weeks |
| Trust required | Low | High |

**Growth Loops:**
- **Viral loops**: User invites user
- **Content loops**: User creates content → attracts users
- **Ecosystem loops**: Integrations → exposure

**Key Definitions:**
- **Activation**: What specific action = "activated user"?
- **Expansion**: How do customers grow with you?

**0→1 Mode**: Pick ONE GTM motion. Founder-led sales first (even if PLG).

**Scaling Mode**: Multiple GTM motions by segment. Specialized teams.

---

### 9. Strategic Bets

**Bet Format:**
```
Name: [Descriptive name]
Hypothesis: "We believe that [action] will result in [outcome]"
Metric: [How we measure success]
Target: [What number = success]
Timebox: [How long we'll run this]
Kill criteria: [What would cause us to stop]
Scale criteria: [What would cause us to double down]
```

**Bet Categories:**
- **Value creation bets**: New capabilities that solve customer problems
- **Growth bets**: Acquisition, activation, expansion
- **Platform bets**: Infrastructure, scalability, efficiency
- **Trust bets**: Security, performance, compliance
- **Moat bets**: Building defensibility

**Portfolio Balance:**
- 70% core (proven, incremental)
- 20% adjacent (related, moderate risk)
- 10% transformational (new, high risk)

**Prioritization Principle:**
> Validate riskiest assumptions first. Don't polish secondary features while your core hypothesis remains unproven.

---

## Primary Output: 1-Page Strategy Canvas

Every strategy system should produce a single-page canvas that captures all key decisions. See `templates/strategy-canvas.md` for the full template.

```
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ STRATEGY CANVAS: [Product Name]                                 │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ MISSION: [Why we exist]                                         │
│ OBJECTIVE: [What winning looks like, 12-24 months]              │
├───────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────────────┤
│ ICP                       │ ANTI-ICP                            │
├───────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────────────┤
│ CORE JOB TO BE DONE: [In customer's words]                      │
├───────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────────────┤
│ WHERE TO PLAY             │ HOW TO WIN                          │
├───────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────────────┤
│ POSITIONING: [For X, who Y, we are Z, unlike A, we B]           │
├───────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────────────┤
│ VALUE METRIC              │ GTM MOTION                          │
├───────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────────────┤
│ STRATEGIC BETS (Top 3)                                          │
│ 1. [Bet + Metric + Timebox]                                     │
│ 2. [Bet + Metric + Timebox]                                     │
│ 3. [Bet + Metric + Timebox]                                     │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ NON-GOALS: [What we will NOT do]                                │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
```

---

## Templates

This skill includes templates in the `templates/` directory:
- `strategy-canvas.md` — Full 1-page strategy canvas
- `icp-scorecard.md` — ICP and Anti-ICP definition template
- `strategic-bet.md` — Bet hypothesis and tracking template
- `positioning-statement.md` — Positioning and messaging template

---

## Using This Skill with Claude

Ask Claude to:

1. **Create a strategy canvas**: "Help me create a 1-page strategy canvas for [product]"
2. **Define ICP**: "Help me define ICP and Anti-ICP for [product/market]"
3. **Analyze competition**: "Run a 5 Forces analysis for [market]"
4. **Structure JTBD**: "Help me map Jobs to Be Done for [persona]"
5. **Develop positioning**: "Create a positioning statement for [product] vs. [competitors]"
6. **Set pricing strategy**: "Help me think through value metrics and pricing for [product]"
7. **Plan GTM motion**: "Should [product] be PLG or SLG? Help me decide."
8. **Create strategic bets**: "Help me structure 3 strategic bets for [objective]"
9. **Identify moats**: "What moat opportunities exist for [product]?"
10. **Challenge strategy**: "Review this strategy canvas and identify gaps or weak choices"

---

## Connection to Other Skills

| When you need to... | Use skill |
|---------------------|-----------|
| Validate strategy assumptions with customers | `product-discovery` |
| Structure product into blocks and bets | `product-architecture` |
| Plan rollout and measurement | `product-delivery` |
| Adapt for AI-native products | `ai-native-product` |
| Operate as Director/CPO | `product-leadership` |

---

## Quick Reference: Strategy Quality Checklist

Before finalizing your strategy, verify:

- [ ] **Non-goals are explicit** — You've said no to something meaningful
- [ ] **ICP is specific** — You could name 10 companies that fit
- [ ] **Anti-ICP exists** — You know who you're NOT serving
- [ ] **Competitive analysis done** — You understand why alternatives fail
- [ ] **Moat thesis articulated** — You know what makes you hard to copy
- [ ] **Pricing is intentional** — Value metric chosen, not defaulted
- [ ] **GTM motion chosen** — PLG, SLG, or Partner (not "all of them")
- [ ] **Bets have kill criteria** — You know when to stop
- [ ] **Fits on one page** — If it doesn't, you don't understand it yet

---

## Sources & Influences

- **Richard Rumelt** — Good Strategy Bad Strategy, Strategy Kernel
- **April Dunford** — Obviously Awesome, Positioning
- **Marty Cagan** — INSPIRED, EMPOWERED
- **Teresa Torres** — Continuous Discovery Habits
- **Gibson Biddle** — Product strategy frameworks
- **Michael Porter** — Competitive Strategy, Five Forces

---

*Part of the Modern Product Operating Model by Yannick Maurice*