My department doesn’t need a strategy, we were successful without it so far.
Personally, I am a strong believer in following a strategy to achieve results. And here are some benefits of having one that I experienced personally together with action points.
1. Describing customer needs and the value you deliver to them
Action point: use qualitative and quantitative user research to validate whether your hypothesis of customer needs is correct. Add anecdotal data in the strategy to make it easier to relate.
2. Managing expectations from stakeholders
Action point: Share your strategy with other teams to make sure other teams know what is your focus.
3. Keeping long term benefits in mind when taking difficult decisions
Action point: When asked to build a new feature, check if it aligned with your strategy.
4. Empowering the team
Action point: Spend extra time validating if the team is aligned on the strategy. This way they become your best advocates and make aligned decisions.
5. Storytelling and advocacy
Action point: Make sure the strategy principles and logical flow is easy to digest and remember.
Will strategy solve all the challenges?
No, product strategy will not help with writing the code faster, however it can help to make necessary trade-offs and create MVP when applicable to move faster.
Additional material
1. Book by Richard P. Rumelt. Good Strategy Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why It Matters
Opmerkingen