Choosing where to play and what to leave out, then writing it down in a way a team can act on.
Strategy books divide into the ones that define what a strategy is and the ones that give you a format for writing one. You need both, and in that order. These start with the general strategy thinking that product borrows from, then move to the product specific formats for roadmaps, vision and goals.
Makes the difference between a strategy and a list of ambitions concrete. The diagnosis, guiding policy and coherent action kernel is the most useful test you can apply to your own writing.
Five cascading choices that force the exclusions a strategy needs. The reverse engineering technique for testing options is the part most teams take away.
Connects strategy to the operating model around it, including why a good strategy fails when incentives and structure work against it.
Reframes the roadmap as intent rather than a delivery schedule, and covers the stakeholder conversation that makes or breaks that.
Template driven and concise. The Product Vision Board and goal based roadmap are usable the day you read them.
Why doing everything right for your current customers is what loses you the next market. Useful when deciding what not to defend.
The beachhead segment argument, which addresses the most common strategic mistake in early product work, being trying to serve everyone at once.
How goals connect strategy to what teams actually do each quarter, and the failure modes when they are set badly.
A structured route from vision to prioritisation, for when iteration alone has produced a product with no centre.