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, and Nacho’s work fills a real gap in this critical area of product leadership.
In this conversation, we make the strategy process concrete and actionable, taking on questions like:
how much time & effort does this actually take to build and evolve over time?
when should we be prescriptive in strategy, and how prescriptive should we be?
which part of this whole thing am I, as a product leader, specifically accountable for?
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
(00:59:02) How the opportunity space expands with company growth
Links & resources mentioned
Find the full transcript at: https://podcast.makethingsthatmatter.com/nacho-bassino-build-your-first-product-strategy/#transcript
Send episode feedback on Twitter @askotzko , or via email
Nacho Bassino
Book: Product Direction
Podcast: 100 Product Strategies
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