Trip adviser was started in two thousand right before september eleventh. Company founded on the insight that people were going to start to go less to travel agents and make more of their travel purchases on line. The company monotized by essentially selling leads to the on line travel agents like expedia and booking. In i think it was 20 12, trip adviser was actually rolled out independently from expedient. And so as a result, trip adviser could start thinking about its strategy as an independent company rather than as part of the expedient group. It became quickly clear that one of the things trip adviser could do to drive even moreg was to enable people to book directly on the platform
Today’s episode is with Ravi Mehta, who is formerly the Chief Product Officer at Tinder, and taught product strategy as an Executive in Residence at Reforge.
In today’s conversation, we dive exceptionally deep into product strategy, starting with what Ravi sees as the most common disconnect between product strategy and what product teams actually work on day-to-day. In the bulk of our discussion, we walk through the core tenants of what he calls the product strategy stack, which includes the company mission, company strategy, product strategy, product roadmap, and product goals.
Next, he unpacks his alternative approach to OKRs, called NCTs. He makes the case that outlining narratives, commitments, and tasks sidesteps some of the most common headaches when it comes to OKRs, and gives suggestions for implementing NCTs within your own product teams.
Strategy is often misunderstood and has come to mean all sorts of different things. What struck me about Ravi is how clearly he’s able to articulate these amorphous ideas like “mission” or “vision.” He’s also got plenty of examples from his own career at TripAdvisor and Tinder, plus his work as an advisor for other fast-growing startups.
You can follow Ravi on Twitter at @ravi_mehta.
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