Product strategy consulting

Step1: Discovering your agenda
This initial stage is all about exploration and understanding. It’s important to dive deep into your goals, desires, and the needs of your target audience. By conducting thorough research and gathering insights, you can uncover valuable information that will shape the direction of your product.

Step 2: Shaping your product vision
Once you understand your agenda better, it’s time to give form to your product’s vision. This stage involves defining a clear and inspiring purpose for your creation. By envisioning how your product will solve a problem, you set the tone for the rest of the design process.

Step3: Defining product goals
With your vision in mind, it’s essential to establish specific goals that will guide your product’s development. These goals should be measurable and aligned with your vision. Whether it’s improving user engagement, driving sales, or enhancing user satisfaction, clearly defined plans keep your design process on track.

Step 4: Creating a goal-based roadmap
This stage involves creating a roadmap that outlines the steps and milestones required to achieve your product goals. A well-structured roadmap helps to prioritise tasks, allocate resources effectively, and set realistic timelines. It allows for flexibility and adaptation as you navigate through the design process.

Step5: Repeated review and modifications
It is worth remembering that design is an iterative process. You can identify improvement areas by gathering feedback from users, conducting usability tests, and analysing data. Making adjustments and enhancements based on these insights ensures that your product evolves and meets the ever-changing needs of your audience.

A strong product strategy provides a clear vision and purpose for your product. With a well-defined strategy, everyone involved in the product journey, from the development team to the stakeholders, can align their efforts towards a common goal. It brings focus and direction, ensuring everyone is working towards the same vision. Furthermore, it lets you empathise with your target audience, gaining insights into their pain points. By truly understanding your customers, you can effectively tailor your product to meet their specific needs. This customer-centric approach enhances user satisfaction and fosters loyalty, driving long-term success.

It is also worth noting that in a crowded marketplace, having a unique selling proposition is essential. A well-crafted product strategy helps you identify what sets your product apart. It allows you to leverage your strengths and differentiate yourself by offering something distinctive and valuable to customers. This differentiation attracts attention and creates a competitive advantage, enabling you to stand out in the market. However, markets are dynamic and ever-changing. A well-defined product strategy takes into account this fluidity and embraces adaptability. It allows you to respond to market shifts, technological advancements, and changing customer needs. With a flexible strategy, you can pivot, adjust your approach, and seize new opportunities, ensuring your product remains relevant and competitive.

Furthermore, developing a product requires careful resource allocation. A sound product strategy helps you allocate resources effectively by prioritising activities and investments that align with your goals. It ensures you maximise your resources, whether it is time, budget, or workforce.

That is why a solid product strategy focuses not just on short-term gains but also on long-term growth. It helps you set realistic goals and milestones, providing a roadmap for continuous improvement and expansion. By keeping an eye on the bigger picture and planning for the future, you can navigate the product journey sustainably, nurturing growth and maximising the product’s potential.

Product strategy can be applied in a variety of situations, depending on the needs and goals of your product. For example, when you have a new product idea or concept, product strategy helps you lay the groundwork for its development. Creating a solid strategy from the beginning can set a clear direction for your product and increase the likelihood of success.

On the other hand, markets are constantly evolving, and product strategy helps you navigate these changes. Whether emerging technologies, shifting consumer preferences, or new competitors entering the market, a well-defined strategy allows you to adjust your product to meet the evolving demands. It helps you stay agile and responsive, ensuring your product remains relevant and competitive.

Furthermore, product strategy becomes crucial if you’re considering expanding your product offerings. It helps you identify growth opportunities and determine the best approach for diversifying your product line. A thoughtful strategy ensures that your expansion efforts align with your overall business objectives and resonate with your target audience.

Even if you already have successful products, there’s always room for improvement. Product strategy guides you in analysing customer feedback, identifying areas for enhancement, and prioritising new features or updates. By taking a strategic approach to product improvement, you can deliver added value to your customers and maintain their loyalty over time.

Below are some of the most popular strategies used in business. However, it is important to remember that the choice of the right strategy is highly individual and depends on the capabilities of the project as well as the objectives you wish to achieve.

• Cost strategy
  A cost strategy focuses on offering products at a lower price compared to competitors. By streamlining operations, optimising resources, and finding efficiencies, you can reduce production costs and pass on the savings to customers. This strategy aims to attract price-conscious consumers and gain a competitive advantage through affordability.
• Differentiation strategy
  This type of strategy centres around creating unique products that stand out in the market. Organisations employing this strategy emphasise innovation, design, features, or superior quality to set themselves apart. By offering something unique and valuable, they can attract customers willing to pay a premium for amazing products.
• Focus strategy
  A focus strategy involves concentrating efforts on serving a specific target market segment. Rather than catering to a broad customer base, you narrow focus to a particular group with distinct needs and preferences by using this strategy.
• Quality strategy
  This type of strategy revolves around delivering products of exceptional quality and reliability. Companies adopting this strategy prioritise quality control processes, continuous improvement, and superior customer experience. By providing products that consistently meet or exceed customer expectations, organisations can build a reputation for reliability and earn customer trust and loyalty.
• Service Strategy
  A service strategy strongly emphasises providing exceptional customer service and support. Companies employing this strategy go beyond the product and focus on delivering a positive and personalised customer experience. This can involve offering prompt and attentive support, easy returns and exchanges, or additional services enhancing the customer journey.

To give a general overview, it usually takes anywhere from 3 to 6 months to develop a well-thought-out product strategy. However, it’s important to remember that this timeline is not set in stone and can be influenced by the complexity of your product, the market dynamics, and the availability of resources.

During this time, you’ll typically go through several stages, including market research, competitive analysis, customer insights gathering, goal setting, and strategic planning. This process involves conducting thorough research, engaging with stakeholders, and carefully considering various factors that shape your product’s direction.

First, you should understand that Product Strategy is subject to change, even in the most rigid projects, since its primary goal is to help you set the correct SMART goals. A good Product Strategy must come before any other stage of the development process. Furthermore, many variables can affect the time it will take to create a viable Product Strategy draft. Key project elements, such as the product itself, your budget, tech requirements, etc., can all affect the time it will take to prepare the roadmap.

Of course, it’s worth mentioning that each organisation and product is unique so the timeline can vary. Some strategies may require a more extensive discovery phase or involve additional complexities requiring extra time and effort.

At Miquido, we work according to Scrum iterations, meaning that each work cycle takes between 1 or 2 weeks, depending on the team. If you require assistance solely with the business aspect of a Product Strategy, you can count on faster completion of the entire process.