Product Practice #318

How does your Traffic Light Strategy look?

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HERBIG.CO

PUBLISHED

Apr 19, 2024

READING TIME

4 min & 37 sec

Dear Reader,

Here’s the good news: Your Product Strategy doesn’t have to be 100% proven and watertight based on evidence before you can start sharing and working on it. Instead of trying to hide the assumptions present in your strategy, embrace them by using what I like to call the “Traffic Light Strategy.”

This ties in with the idea that your Strategy consists of individual but coherent components that fill universal strategy patterns with life. Once articulated, you can color-code the individual components according to their degree of “unprovenness.”

Green - Let’s go.

Your green strategy components are rock-solid foundations for decision-making. This applies to things you can fully control (like the definition of your Vision) or components that are really well-proven, like the choice of user segments based on the strong qualitative and quantitative signal you received.

Yellow - Just enough Conviction.

Don’t hold back on making decisions based on these components, but be clear about how proven these are. Maybe you have a hunch about the buyer segment you need to serve to reach your target user segment, but not more. Or your strategy metrics sort of tie in with where you want to go, but they lack specificity. Derisking these components shouldn’t be your first priority, but be aware of their somewhat shaky substance.

Red - Beware the Assumption.

Whether due to a lack of data or the high degree of HiPPO decisions, Some components making up your Product Strategy are just wild guesses. These can either be the assumed reasons why customers will pick you over an alternative (no, a nice UI isn’t a strong moat) or how you will reach users to deliver your value proposition. Making these components explicit has two advantages: First, you get your next Discovery priorities “for free.” Second, you avoid working on your strategy for too long in the ivory tower by being upfront about what has to be clarified further by doing the work instead of thinking about doing the work.

HOW TO PUT THIS THEORY INTO PRACTICE

Check your Strategy Components. Be explicit about what is a proven fact vs. the wild guesses that have landed in your Strategy articulations.
Adjust your Discovery Priorities. Are your Discovery efforts focused on derisking the red (and maybe yellow) components?
Watch the Traffic Lights Change. How does the color change over the weeks and months of executing your Strategy?

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Thank you for Practicing Product,

Tim

How to Dive Deeper into Product Strategy

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