Product Strategy Canvas
Creating a product strategy is a job that most product folk do quite rarely, often under pressure and with not enough time.
Why?
Creating a product strategy is a job that most product folk do quite rarely, often under pressure and with not enough time. Because PMs don't create strategies regularly, many of them aren't natural at the process, so when we need to create one, there’s a good chance we freeze. When we recover from the foetal position, we wonder, “where on earth do I start?”
What!
Enter the Product Strategy Canvas: a tool designed to be repeatable, flexible, and lightweight. Drawing inspiration from various successful models, we aimed to simplify the intricate process of strategy creation, catering to those who find it daunting or simply lack the time.
We're mindful that one size doesn't fit all. This might be a lot to wrap your head around for junior product professionals or those just starting out in product management. Having said that, knock yourself out and give it a go. If nothing else, you’ll learn a lot. For seasoned directors of product, CPOs, or experienced strategists, you likely have your own approach, but there might be something useful here for you as well.
How?
By streamlining the process and focusing on three critical areas (the state of the business, market and product), you can concentrate on the substance of your strategy and the collaboration it demands.
The canvas serves as a beacon, lifting you from the quagmire of your backlog to provide a clear view of the bigger picture, enabling you to chart a strategic course for your product.
Who?
The Product Strategy canvas is a MIRO template that helps product leaders craft a product strategy by following a step-by-step process of gathering data and then using that data to articulate key focus areas that help inform goals, roadmaps, and plans.
This canvas is ideal for Product Managers and Product leaders who wish to follow a repeatable process in order to gather the insights needed to make difficult prioritisation decisions in the form of a Product strategy. This is helpful when you're low on time, do this process rarely and/or wish to approach it collaboratively.
FOSS!
We’ve tested and iterated our canvas with clients, workshop participants, and industry mates and we now proudly share the Product Strategy Canvas in Miro for free under a Creative Commons Licence.
More hows!
To make the most of this canvas, create a copy and try to fill in each frame without getting stuck. If you don't know the answer, capture the name of someone who does. Once all three input frames are filled in, you should have enough insights to decide on what your team(s) will focus on, in other words, to create a product strategy.
Finally, we've woven in an example from the author's experience setting strategy for Spotify's desktop product for Mac & Windows, to help you understand and contextualise the questions. Good luck!
Thanks!
Love, Brendan & Sandra from Organa.com.au
Get started with this template right now.
Stakeholder Mapping Template
Works best for:
Business Management, Mapping, Workflows
A stakeholder map is a type of analysis that allows you to group people by their power and interest. Use this template to organize all of the people who have an interest in your product, project, or idea in a single visual space. This allows you to easily see who can influence your project, and how each person is related to the other. Widely used in project management, stakeholder mapping is typically performed at the beginning of a project. Doing stakeholder mapping early on will help prevent miscommunication, ensure all groups are aligned on the objectives and set expectations about outcomes and results.
Agile Product Roadmap
Works best for:
Product Management, Roadmap
Enhance your agile workflow with the Agile Product Roadmap by HatchWorks. This template helps you plan and track product development in agile sprints, ensuring continuous delivery and improvement. Use it to align teams, prioritize features, and adapt quickly to changes. Ideal for agile teams aiming to maintain flexibility and efficiency in their product development process, ensuring timely and iterative delivery of enhancements.
Kanban Framework Template
Works best for:
Kanban Boards, Agile Methodology, Agile Workflows
Optimized processes, improved flow, and increased value for your customers — that’s what the Kanban method can help you achieve. Based on a set of lean principles and practices (and created in the 1950s by a Toyota Automotive employee), Kanban helps your team reduce waste, address numerous other issues, and collaborate on fixing them together. You can use our simple Kanban template to both closely monitor the progress of all work and to display work to yourself and cross-functional partners, so that the behind-the-scenes nature of software is revealed.
Research Topic Brainstorm Template
Works best for:
Desk Research, Brainstorming, Ideation
Coming up with a topic for a research project can be a daunting task. Use the Research Topic Brainstorm template to take a general idea and transform it into something concrete. With the Research Topic Brainstorm template, you can compile a list of general ideas that interest you and then break them into component parts. You can then turn those parts into questions that might be the focus for a research project.
Define A Winning Product Vision
Works best for:
Product Management, Planning
The Define A Winning Product Vision template assists product teams in articulating compelling visions for product development. By defining goals, target markets, and differentiation strategies, this template aligns teams around a shared vision for success. With sections for outlining product features, benefits, and value propositions, it communicates the essence of the product effectively. This template serves as a guiding light for product development efforts, inspiring creativity and focus as teams work towards bringing the product vision to life.
Cross Functional Flowchart
Works best for:
Org Charts, Business Management
Have a quick look at everyone on a project and see exactly what they’ll contribute. That’s the clarity and transparency a cross-functional flowchart will give you. These are also called “swim lane” flowcharts because each person (each customer, client, or representative from a specific function) is assigned a lane—a clear line—that will help you visualize their roles at each stage of the project. This template will empower you to streamline processes, reduce inefficiencies, and make meaningful cross-functional relationships.