Navigating Implicit Strategies in Product Teams

Topics Covered

• What is product strategy anyway?
• The myth of the “explicit strategy” in most companies
• What discovery tells us about implicit strategy
• How product teams influence (and challenge) strategy
• Why writing any strategy down is better than none
• Shifting from top-down to emergent strategy
• The role of product leaders: Think customer interviews, but with your teams
• Balancing long-term macro trends with day-to-day user discovery
• Strategy ≠ roadmap: Keeping your plan for winning alive and adaptive
• Case studies: Intercom, Spotify, and strategy-in-action
• Product teams as strategic sensors: Patterns, signals, and customer segments
• Building strategy into quarterly and annual planning cadences
• Wrapping up: Strategy is iterative—so treat it that way

Resources & Links:

• Follow Teresa Torres: https://ProductTalk.org
• Follow Petra Wille: https://Petra-Wille.com

Mentioned in this episode:

• Roger Martin’s definition of strategy
• Lenny’s Podcast with Chandra Janakiraman, where he shares a framework for developing strategy
• Megan Murphy’s “priming the wall” concept, introduced in her talk at the - MTP Engage Leadership Forum
• 7 Powers: The Foundations of Business Strategy by Hamilton Helmer
• Blue Ocean Strategy
• Porter's Five Forces Framework
• Good Strategy Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why It Matters by Richard Rumelt
• SWOT analysis
• Intercom’s Fin AI
• Spotify