1 tip & 3 resources per week to improve your Strategy, OKRs, and Discovery practices in less than 5 minutes. Explore my new book on realprogressbook.com
Your Strategy Can't Help You If It Can't Help You Say No during Execution
Your Strategy Can't Help You If It Can't Help You Say No during ExecutionDear Reader, Stephanie walked out of her strategy presentation feeling confident. The executives had nodded approvingly. Every field on her strategy canvas was filled in. Her product strategy for GearSwap, an outdoor gear marketplace, conveyed a clear message: “The GearSwap marketplace will proactively help weekend warriors and professional adventurers alike match trip challenges with the right gear through peer-to-peer and professional seller options across all outdoor categories.” Two weeks later, three requests landed on her desk:
Stephanie pulled up her strategy doc to prioritize. Instead of clarity, she found endless ways to justify each request. Gear insurance? It could help both buyer segments. Warehousing integration? Supports their sellers. Water sports? Just another category. This is what I call Alibi Progress: A strategy that ticks all the template boxes but fails to create value when teams need to make actual decisions. The problem isn’t that Stephanie didn’t create a strategy—it’s that she optimized for theoretical correctness instead of practical usefulness. Her strategy couldn’t help her say no because it never made real choices. Most product strategies fail this same test. When a new opportunity emerges, teams can’t use their strategy to decide. They escalate, debate, or try to rationalize doing everything. Strategy has one job: helping you confidently say yes or no to opportunities. Ever since I started following his work, collaborating on a piece with Ravi Mehta was a big dream of mine. Following his tremendous support for my book, Real Progress, we put together a complementary piece for his blog and newsletter. In it, I break down:
Thank you for Practicing Product, Tim PS.: I had the pleasure of appearing on Jason's One Knight in Product Podcast and enjoyed every minute of it:
Join my In-Person Workshops in BerlinI'm excited to bring my beloved in-person workshops back to Berlin in January 2026. You can choose between 1-day workshops on Product Strategy, Product OKRs, or Product Discovery, or opt for the full 3-day experience for you or your team.
(reach out for custom team quotes) As a Product Management Coach, I guide Product Teams to measure the real progress of their evidence-informed decisions. I focus on better practices to connect the dots of Product Strategy, Product OKRs, and Product Discovery. |
Product Practice Newsletter
1 tip & 3 resources per week to improve your Strategy, OKRs, and Discovery practices in less than 5 minutes. Explore my new book on realprogressbook.com
Product Practice #420 What to think abouton a Slow Summer Friday PUBLISHED Aug 7, 2026 READ ON HERBIG.CO Dear Reader, This newsletter is going to be a bit different. I hope many of you have a chance to enjoy a well-deserved break or at least are preparing for it. I'm in the midst of some quality time off and wanted to use this Friday to simply reach out, say hi, and leave you with one really good reading recommendation to consider (which you can always find below). Next week I will be back in...
Product Practice #419 Decision Journaling YourWay to Product Sense PUBLISHED Jul 31, 2026 READ ON HERBIG.CO Dear Reader, I know, I know. You probably can't hear the term product sense anymore (welcome to the club). But I recently arrived at a non-thought-leader-y practical angle for cultivating it. "Product Sense is the ability to usually make correct product decisions, both macro & micro, even in the face of major ambiguity"- Shreyas Doshi In a recent client workshop, the topic of product...
Product Practice #418 The Essence of Every Mapping Technique PUBLISHED Jul 24, 2026 READ ON HERBIG.CO Ways we can work together 1️⃣ Order my book: Real Progress: How to Connect the Dots of Product Strategy, OKRs, and Discovery, which readers call "a practical guide you can return to again and again." 2️⃣ Join my Workshop From Staring at KPIs to Prioritizing with OKRs, in 6 Hours, for turning generic dashboard metrics into useful goals, helping you prioritize and measure your work. 3️⃣ Join...