I require some assistance. I have been asked to put together a product strategy deck since there is neither a CPO nor a head of product present. Although I’ve never made one before, I wanted to ask you guys what the ideal deck ought to have.
Can anybody assist? Apparently, I’m looking at Google and ChatGPT as well, but I was curious what other PMs thought.
Sure, I can help with that!
A product strategy deck typically outlines the high-level goals and direction of a product. It can vary based on the company and product, but here are some general sections you may want to include in your deck:
I hope this helps! Good luck with your product strategy deck.
I advise concentrating on differentiation. Due to 123 unmet demands, we will do Y to serve the ACZ section while our competitors will do X to satisfy the ABC sector.
As you’ve probably gathered from the responses so far, everyone has their own take. This is true person to person, team to team, and org to org.
Given that, the biggest tip I can give you is whoever the “sponsor” of this strategy is (I’m assuming someone on the exec team) get them involved early and often to help the development of both the thinking and the messaging. Equally important.
Broadly, from my point of view, strategy decks should answer The What, The Why, and The How. The best way I have found for this is “the strategy cascade.” A series of 5 questions that interlink and have feedback loops to each other.
You can argue one way or the other about whether 4 and 5 should be in a product strategy deck (as opposed to company strategy), but I feel it’s important to complete the picture.
Happy to discuss more if helpful.
A common approach to product strategy decks:
This @EvaRichardson. The only things I would add are a high-level roadmap maybe in conjunction with the features or GTM slide and then KPIs for measuring success of the product.
Everything above is perfect.
When I had to pitch out decks to VCs, they wanted to see some dollar signs (Spend, TAM, ROI), but that’s not a common occurrence.
Thanks for the feedback @BethanyGrey! You’re right, including financial projections and analysis is also important in some cases, especially when presenting to investors or other stakeholders. In those cases, you may want to include additional sections such as:
Including financial projections and analysis in your product strategy deck can help demonstrate the potential business value of the product and its potential for success.
This is actually a pretty good place to start. It’s a great resource. The article provides a clear and concise overview of the key components of a product strategy deck and provides some practical tips for creating an effective deck.
The article emphasizes the importance of clearly defining the target market, value proposition, and competitive landscape, which are critical elements of a product strategy deck. It also highlights the need to have a clear understanding of the customer and the user experience, as well as the importance of a well-defined product roadmap that aligns with the company’s overall business goals and objectives.
One thing I particularly liked about the article is the emphasis on the iterative nature of product strategy. It stresses the need to constantly gather feedback and iterate on the product strategy as you learn more about the market, customer needs, and the competitive landscape.
Overall, I think this is a great resource for anyone looking to create a product strategy deck, and it provides a solid framework for developing an effective strategy.
I think of a strategy deck as the what and the how. The why is probably/hopefully already articulated.
To define the what, consider the goals and outcomes for the year. I really like the OKR framework for this. At a high level, what are the outcomes you plan to achieve by end of year? Quantify this as much as possible (launch 10 new features, acquire X new customers, increase customer engagement by X, whatever). Then it’s helpful to use quarters as a goal post for how you’ll know if you’re on track.
To define the how, you might want to focus on who will be involved and the team structure, as well as what processes are in place for customers and stakeholders to give feedback and get updates. This is also a good place to put any asks you have from leadership, maybe you need X more engineers or X more budget for travel to clients, or X more money for infrastructure upgrades.
Then I recommend stepping back and identifying the top few things you want stakeholders to take away from your strategy deck. Make sure those are repeated throughout the presentation (we are focusing on engagement and we are ok with losing X in revenue in the short term, or whatever).
Good luck!
Strategy is all about trade offs. Not about the how and the what in detail necessarily. What are you doing vs what are you not doing? And why?
Tactics is what you would consider as the layer below. Tactics are the specific activities you will be doing to get there. Get the team, build XYZ, GTM for product ABC etc.
In between the two is where you define OKRs or your goals.
A lot of people confuse strategy with tactics.
Well @HerbertWarnick, this has confused me many times. As OP has written that the presentation is about «this year strategy», I would focus on tactics over strategy.
«As a part of Strategy 1 to reach A within YYYY, we will [insert tactics and a lot of what highest voted comment says] …»
Thank you all for the overwhelming responses over my concern and query. Each one is so precise and well explained. Well, I’d like to add here that my audience is senior stakeholders and the wider org. Outcome I’m aiming for is a clear articulation of our strategy for this year.
Great, in that case, you’ll want to make sure your product strategy deck is clear, concise, and easy to understand, while also providing enough detail to give stakeholders a sense of the product direction and goals for the year. Here are some additional tips to help you achieve this outcome:
By following these tips, you’ll be able to create a clear and effective product strategy deck that articulates the product direction and goals for the year to your senior stakeholders and the wider organization.
Some of what @EvaRichardson has done covers most of it.
It depends if this is a new product or existing products and the goal of the strategy deck (e.g., continue investing, more resources, sunset etc.).
To amend the outline
You can discussion topic anywhere in the deck e.g. in resource staffing (#9), you insert a slide for discussion “We need X additional resources to ship by X public event, else we will miss it. Are we aligned to fund this initiative?”
Do they already have an agreed strategy and they asking you to put it in a pretty deck?
Or do they really asking you to propose a product strategy, with strong indication that they would like to see it done using a PowerPoint?
A bit if both. The broader company goals and objectives have been set and now I’ve been asked for the product team version in a presentation.
I see, best advice I can give you then:
Try to get a 30mins with each of the big fish in the org, ask them to tell you their take on the strategy. Do not overtly ask for advice and suggestions, but steer the conversation this way.
After that see if some of them give you conflicting opinions.
if they agree - just package what they told you in some pretty slides and tell it back to them - all of course from Product side.
if they don’t agree - highlight their differing ideas as “options”, If there are 3 or fewer options, add yours that sits in the middle so they have opportunity to compromise, or see that compromise is not good.
But it’s easy for me to give uninformed advice here. good luck
Great idea! Thank you so much.
I googled “startup strategy pitch decks” and selected this one more or less at random: 12 Pitch Deck Examples from Successful Startups revise. Having a framework is always a good crutch.