Make Things That Matter

Nacho Bassino: How to build your first product strategy

Nov 1, 2023

Nacho Bassino, veteran product leader and author of Product Direction, discusses topics such as adapting to cross-cultural preferences, defining and prioritizing solutions in strategy, the importance of quarterly reviews, empowerment of teams, strategy for startups vs larger companies, and the expansion of opportunity space with company growth.

01:02:46

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Episode guests

Nacho Bassino

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Quick takeaways

A clear and well-defined product strategy provides a framework for identifying and solving problems in a coherent and prioritized manner.

Product leaders should strike a balance between being prescriptive and empowering their teams to drive impactful results.

Strategy is a living, evolving framework that should be regularly reviewed and updated to ensure alignment with business goals and customer needs.

Deep dives

The Importance of Having a Clear Product Strategy

Having a clear and well-defined product strategy is crucial for product leaders. It provides a framework for identifying and solving problems in a coherent and prioritized manner. A strong strategy clarifies the problems that need to be tackled, the order in which they should be addressed, and the reasons why they are the most important challenges to overcome. It also emphasizes the need for product leaders to be accountable for their strategy and continuously evolve it over time. By providing strategic context and setting clear objectives, leaders enable their teams to make high-quality decisions and drive the desired business impact.

Introduction

2min

Navigating Cultural Differences in Product Strategy

9min

Developing and Updating a Product Strategy

22min

Exploring Roadmaps and Opportunity Solution Trees at Tactical and Strategic Levels

2min

Outcome Setting and Prioritization in Product Strategy

4min

Different Approaches to Articulating Objectives in Product Strategy

2min

Empowered Teams and Accountability for Autonomy

11min

Making Difficult Product Strategy Decisions

11min

Nacho Bassino is a veteran product leader and the author of Product Direction, one of my go-to books on how to actually generate a product strategy. There are many excellent books out there on strategy as a whole, but surprisingly few that specifically cover product strategy.

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Topics discussed:

(00:02:12) Nacho's journey into product leadership

(00:09:23) How leaders can adapt to others' communication and cross-cultural preferences

(00:10:50) Strategy: defining problems and prioritizing solutions

(00:19:44) Painful, but typical; a fake strategy

(00:24:20) Time and team needed for first big strategy creation

(00:30:17) Three key aspects of quarterly reviews: OKRs, roadmaps, and Opportunity Solution Trees

(00:35:33) Connection between impact, outcomes, and initiatives with revenue generation

(00:40:11) Empowerment: teams' accountability and autonomy

(00:51:36) Nacho's hard product leadership call

(00:58:15) Strategy for startups vs larger companies