Developing a winning product strategy is crucial for capturing your market!

Today, products in the modern market are catering to diversified consumer needs. These consumers are self-sufficient and know more about the brand. Businesses must cater to the need for new experiences for the consumers to stay loyal.

It may seem impossible to create a product strategy for the modern business world. But there will always be a need to have a solid foundation for launching your product into the market.

Today, we will talk about product strategy, its importance to your business, and how you can develop a winning product strategy?

What is a product strategy for a business?

Product strategy defines what your product should achieve and how that supports the organization and is brought to life through the product road map. — Wikipedia

For a business owner, it is critical to have a well-planned product strategy. Product strategy describes the goal your business wants to achieve with the product.

Your product strategy must answer some critical questions like

• Who will the product serve, i.e., personas?
• How will the product help these personas?
• What are your company’s goals for the product throughout its lifecycle?

Business owners need a product strategy for deciding their product/service and its features. A product strategy also includes various tasks necessary for achieving the business goals. Team members use it as a guide to get answers to their queries about the product and its development cycle.

70% of businesses refer to the product strategy before making decisions.

Your product strategy outlines

• how the product will help the business
• describes the problem that the product will solve
• the impact on your customers and the company

Based on the strategy, you can create a roadmap explaining

• what will be built (services/features)
• when you will invest in its development

Your product strategy will act as a baseline for measuring the success before, during, and after production.

It is essential to develop a product strategy that is customer and market-driven. Invest your time in developing a product strategy that defines

• what you want to achieve
• context around the market
• work themes for carrying out your goals

What is the importance of product strategy for your business?

Align the organization around a shared product vision. Try to keep your team focused on the work that matters the most. For that, your product manager must take a goal-first approach. Create a strategic plan before you get into building your product roadmap.

This also helps businesses in developing new product features. With your product roadmap, you will tie every element back to a larger business goal. Your product must add real value to your customers and the business.

Here is a graph that outlines the relationship between strategy and roadmap.

Let’s discuss the three major components of your product strategy.

1. Your market visions

Market vision describes

• Who will be using your product?
• What opportunity does it bring for your business?

It highlights target customers, product positioning, and its performance. Market vision must include a go-to-market plan. This plan must explain

• the customer needs
• how you’ll meet those needs?

2. Your product goals

Creating a product strategy without key goals is difficult. Be specific about your goals or metrics as they

• help you achieve the vision behind building your product
• guide your development team
• help you measure the success of your product

It is also essential that your goals are time-based. This creates an urgency while carrying them out. It also adds more importance to your product’s development due to time-constraint.

3. Your product initiatives

Product initiatives are like product goals but more conceptual. They are the various ideas or trends that you’ll influence with your new product.

For instance.

When Rapidops launched Salesmate CRM, they didn’t want only to sell sales software. They wanted to become a thought leader in sales and marketing automation. They wanted to help businesses realize new business opportunities with minimal effort. With that in mind, they created a vision for their product and developed its features over time.

Elements of product strategy

Your product strategy is a guide into the future of your product. It helps you define and find out

• What product will it become?
• Whom will it help?
• How will it create value?

The most crucial part is that it should be focused on the elements of product success. So, your product strategy must help you understand

• Who is the product for?
• Why would consumers buy it?
• How will it stand out amongst the competition?
• How it meets the overarching business goals?
• Why is it essential for your business to invest in it?

The market helps you understand the target market and the end-users, the people who will use it.

The needs include the problem your product is going to solve.

What are the types of product strategies?

We hope you were able to understand the product strategy anatomy. Although how you organize the above information depends on the product you’re creating.

Now, let’s understand the different product strategies businesses can use.

1. The cost strategy

A cost strategy helps a business focus on creating the best product at a lower price. It helps you assess the resource use and decides where to cut costs during production.

You must develop a product that undercuts your competitors’ price points. Coupled with world-class service, businesses can successfully create brand loyalty.

2. The product differentiation strategy

Price isn’t the only differentiation point for your product. You can make it stand out in your industry with other factors too.

It may be a luxury product, or it has ground-breaking features. Whichever it may be, this approach adds personality to your product.

Personality enables consumers to recognize your brand and have a delightful experience.

3. The focus Strategy

If you have a large customer base, your product must appeal to one specific buyer personas. This strategy targets the needs of a selected group of people. The company then creates a personalized solution for them. By doing so, the business can gain brand loyalty while also attracting new customers.

The product strategy roadmap

Conclusion: Your business needs a comprehensive product strategy to win in a competitive market

We hope this article helped you understand why having a winning product strategy is essential. You must consider all the elements of a successful product strategy to see your product win the market race. It is also crucial that you know your market and its gap before inverting yourself in product development.

As mentioned earlier, a product strategy is a holy grail for products as it enables roadmap development. To shift your progress and go beyond the traditional product lifecycle, you need to lay a strong product foundation.

If you need help in creating a product strategy or want to get a consultation, you are at the right place. Rapidops is a digital product development company that has helped startups and Fortune 5000 companies realize their product goals.