📈Product Strategy Role

The product strategist explores the business problems and refines the vision, then helps deliver what's in scope for products and services.

Apprentice, Lead, and Observer Handbooks

Description

Product Strategy is a role at the center of success for product teams. The role owns the foundation of a strongly sound product. They are the voice of the user and the voice of the stakeholder, understanding the pain points of current state, and prioritize these in product decisions.

To use a term in product life, Product Strategists "herd the cats" in order to lead teams to success.

Common Job Titles

You might be a Product Strategist if

You like defining the "big picture"
You like getting into the technical details of how a product should be engineered
You feel comfortable working through uncertainty to create clarity
You like orchestrating work across teams
You like to facilitate discussions

Cross-functional aspects

With the Client - facilitate requirements discussions; gather insight and feedback about the solutions being delivered
With Research - drive the priorities of research based on the product roadmap / plans
With the Project Lead - facilitate meetings and discussions; pair up to work together on deliverables
With Design - drive the priorities and requirements of design based on the product roadmap / plans
With Development - drive the priorities and requirements of development based on the product roadmap / plans

Lead Responsibilities

You contribute as you lead. You’ll mentor other team members and/or apprentice product owners while others mentor you in areas you want to focus on
Explore the product vision with the client and work with the UX team to form objectives each week
Manage the roadmap
Manage the project backlog and weekly sprint activities on the kanban board
Work with the team to carry out and adjust the project roadmap
Work with the team to define and prioritize weekly tasks and sprint goals throughout the project
Help the team cut or add scope, or change direction when necessary
Facilitate the team’s planning, retros, standups, and working sessions to ensure meetings are successful
Create user stories and acceptance criteria for tasks that are done in the project
Be the voice of the customer along with the UX team for the client

Apprentice Responsibilities

Work with the lead product owner to carry out daily and weekly tasks
Explore the product vision with the client and work with the UX team to form objectives each week
Manage the roadmap
Manage the project backlog and weekly sprint activities on the kanban board
Work with the team to carry out and adjust the project roadmap
Work with the team to define and prioritize weekly tasks and sprint goals throughout the project
Help the team cut or add scope, or change direction when necessary
Facilitate the team’s planning, retros, standups, and working sessions to ensure meetings are successful
Create user stories and acceptance criteria for tasks that are done in the project
Be the voice of the customer along with the UX team for the client

Role Expectations

Ability to work without direct guidance or micromanagement
Take ownership of product ownership-related tasks
Deep understanding of Agile methods and an ability to coach others in Agile. Prior experience with Kanban, Scrum, or another Agile method is helpful but not required.
Ability to work with the team to prioritize the most important tasks each week
Ability to create direction out of uncertainty and explore business problems
Be the “voice of the customer” and “customer expert” for the group, the person who grows their subject matter expertise in the product industry and user groups involved; socialize and evangelize the voice of the customer to the project group and to the client when the group needs to make decisions
Working directly with the other team leads to strategize activities and decisions

Common Deliverables

Roadmaps
User journey maps
Development annotations
Flow charts
Sprint plans
Backlog upkeep
Competitive analysis
Product-market fit plans
MVP and MMP scope
Product requirements specs
1. User stories
2. Acceptance criteria
3. BDD scenarios
4. Annotations

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Last updated 3 months ago

Description

To use a term in product life, Product Strategists "herd the cats" in order to lead teams to success.

Cross-functional aspects

With the Client - facilitate requirements discussions; gather insight and feedback about the solutions being delivered

With Research - drive the priorities of research based on the product roadmap / plans

With the Project Lead - facilitate meetings and discussions; pair up to work together on deliverables

With Design - drive the priorities and requirements of design based on the product roadmap / plans

With Development - drive the priorities and requirements of development based on the product roadmap / plans

Lead Responsibilities

You contribute as you lead. You’ll mentor other team members and/or apprentice product owners while others mentor you in areas you want to focus on

Explore the product vision with the client and work with the UX team to form objectives each week

Manage the roadmap

Manage the project backlog and weekly sprint activities on the kanban board

Work with the team to carry out and adjust the project roadmap

Work with the team to define and prioritize weekly tasks and sprint goals throughout the project

Help the team cut or add scope, or change direction when necessary

Facilitate the team’s planning, retros, standups, and working sessions to ensure meetings are successful

Create user stories and acceptance criteria for tasks that are done in the project

Be the voice of the customer along with the UX team for the client

Apprentice Responsibilities

Work with the lead product owner to carry out daily and weekly tasks

Explore the product vision with the client and work with the UX team to form objectives each week

Manage the roadmap

Manage the project backlog and weekly sprint activities on the kanban board

Work with the team to carry out and adjust the project roadmap

Work with the team to define and prioritize weekly tasks and sprint goals throughout the project

Help the team cut or add scope, or change direction when necessary

Facilitate the team’s planning, retros, standups, and working sessions to ensure meetings are successful

Create user stories and acceptance criteria for tasks that are done in the project

Be the voice of the customer along with the UX team for the client

Role Expectations

Ability to work without direct guidance or micromanagement

Take ownership of product ownership-related tasks

Deep understanding of Agile methods and an ability to coach others in Agile. Prior experience with Kanban, Scrum, or another Agile method is helpful but not required.

Ability to work with the team to prioritize the most important tasks each week

Ability to create direction out of uncertainty and explore business problems

Be the “voice of the customer” and “customer expert” for the group, the person who grows their subject matter expertise in the product industry and user groups involved; socialize and evangelize the voice of the customer to the project group and to the client when the group needs to make decisions

Working directly with the other team leads to strategize activities and decisions