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Vision

Relative Costs

Trade-offs

Capabilities

How can I inspire people to get up every day and come to work?

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What are we aspiring to achieve? What values do we uphold?

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Start with something simple. Your vision will evolve along with other elements of the strategy.

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What do we optimize for?

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Do we optimize for low cost, like Southwest Airlines, or for unique value, like Starbucks?

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Low costs might be a priority, but they do not necessarily mean having low prices.

Trade-offs define what NOT to do.

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IKEA doesn't sell assembled furniture and limits available choices (e.g., materials).

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Trade-offs create focus, amplify the value and make the strategy difficult to copy by others without sacrificing their existing businesses.

What competencies and resources do we need to acquire?

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Do we need suppliers or partners?

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Are there any systems necessary to support our strategic choices?

Market Segments

Value Proposition

Key Metrics

Can’t / Won’t

The market is defined by the problems people have. For example, IKEA’s market: people that want to get high-quality home furnishings at low prices.�

What are the customer's Jobs to be Done? Within the market, there are groups of people with similar jobs, desired outcomes, and success metrics.

�Why do we want to compete in this market, not others? Have we analyzed Porter’s 5 forces or performed PESTEL analysis? Do we know TAM, SAM, SOM, Average Annual Growth Rate, ARPU, Average CAC, and Average Churn Rate?

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Are there any constraints, e.g., geography, language?

For each Market Segment (persona and jobs to be done):

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  1. What before: Existing, problematic state (e.g., maintaining tasks in Excel)

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  • How: Features and capabilities that change the situation (e.g., Kanban board)

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  • What after: The benefits and outcomes (e.g., organized tasks with clear deadlines, increased productivity)

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  • Alternatives: your unique value, unique attributes, and optionally relative pricing vs. competitors and substitutes (often represented as a Value Curve).

Define a few key metrics to measure how your product is doing and whether the strategy is working.

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Consider the North Star Metric and One Metric That Matters (OMTM).

What makes us think competitors can’t or won’t copy our strategy?

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Is this unique value proposition, unique activities, knowledge, culture, partners, IP?

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It’s essential. The moment you succeed, someone will try to do the same.

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Growth

Ask Yourself

How do we envision growth? Is it PLG or Sales-Led Growth?

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What are our preferred Sales and Marketing channels?

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Will we rely on Social Media, SEO, Influencers, or Resellers?

Do the various elements of our strategy fit together and reinforce each other?

�What needs to be true for this strategy to work? How can we validate these assumptions?

Product Strategy Canvas

[Product Name]

Designed for:

Date:

Tip: Feel free to fill this canvas in any order. Strategy is an integrated set of choices that reinforce each other.

27th April 2024, Ⓒ The Product Compass, Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0

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How to work with the Product Strategy Canvas?

  1. Analyzing the market and the industry:
    1. [Template] Porter’s Five Forces (+video)
    2. [Template] PESTEL Analysis (+video)
    3. [Template] SWOT Analysis (+video)
    4. [Template] Ansoff Matrix (+video)
    5. [Template] Competitive Analysis

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  1. Other templates and frameworks: The Product Frameworks Compendium: Value Chain Analysis, Ansoff Matrix, McKinsey 7S Framework.

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  • Growth
    1. [Book] Hacking Growth (+video)
    2. [Book] Product-Led Growth (+video)
    3. [Book] Product-Led Onboarding (+video)
    4. [Book] Hooked (+video)
    5. [Book] Crossing the Chasm (+video)

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Notes

  1. The Product Strategy Canvas is based primarily on the work of Michael Porter and Roger Martin, in particular, their books Understanding Michael Porter and Playing to Win and articles.
  2. In Bad Strategy & Good Strategy, Richard Rumelt suggested that strategy should contain Coherent Actions. I chose to exclude this idea as it does not align with the definitions provided by Porter and Martin. They posited that a strategy is an integrated set of choices, not a plan or a set of activities.
  3. In Product, we tend to split Product Vision and Product Strategy. However, I am persuaded by Roger Martin's argument that you need to define your vision ("Winning Aspiration") alongside the other elements of the strategy rather than consecutively.
  4. Some distinguish between Product Vision and Product Mission. Vision and Mission are often interchanged, causing confusion. I advocate using a single term because I don't see any value in separating these statements. I've explained this in more detail in this post. I also recommend reading an article by Prof. Roger Martin. You can also see how LinkedIn confuses those terms.
  5. The Business Model (the exact method of generating revenue) is not a strategy. A strategy informs you about your relative costs and revenues. The Business Model evolves from the Strategy. Both elements are crucial.
  6. The Unique Value Proposition alone is not a Strategy. Thus, The Blue Ocean Strategy Canvas is not a Strategy Canvas but a Value Curve. This viewpoint aligns with the work of Porter and Martin.

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The official URL: https://www.productcompass.pm/p/product-strategy-canvas

More PM templates: https://www.productcompass.pm

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This document is offered for license under the Attribution Share-Alike license of Creative Commons, accessible at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode and also described in summary form at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/. By utilizing this Product Strategy Canvas, you acknowledge and agree that you have read and agree to be bound by the terms of the Attribution Share-Alike license of Creative Commons.