Join us on the porch for our series on Product Manager Power Skills. These are the skills that help good product managers become great ones. They stay valuable across tools, processes, and product types, and building them can help you grow your impact and your career.
Have you ever been told to “be more strategic” and wondered what that’s supposed to mean? In this episode, Todd Blaquiere, Joe Ghali, and Ryan Cantwell break down what strategy really is, what it isn’t, and why product managers so often confuse strategy with goals, OKRs, prioritization, or a well-organized backlog.
They talk through how product strategy connects customer value to business goals, why focus matters more than trying to do everything, and how asking better questions can help you uncover strategy even when leadership hasn’t clearly defined one. They also share practical examples for deciding what to say yes to, what to say no to, and how to start behaving more strategically in your day-to-day work.
If you’re tired of vague advice about “thinking bigger,” Pull up a chair on the porch and get a clearer way to think about strategy.
Time Stamped Notes:
Introduction and the Problem with Strategy
[00:20] Power skills series - Strategy as one of the most overused and misunderstood terms in business.
[01:34] “Be more strategic” - Why vague feedback creates confusion about strategic thinking.
[03:29] Strategy confusion - Goals, plans, tactics, and vision are often mislabeled as strategy.
Defining a Good Strategy
[05:30] Strategy framework - Challenge, diagnosis, policy, and coordinated action as core elements.
[06:06] Focus matters - Strategy defines what to do and what not to do.
[07:51] Strategy vs OKRs - OKRs can support strategy, but do not replace it.
[08:34] Product strategy - Connecting customer value to business objectives.
Finding Strategy in the Organization
[10:32] Better questions - Asking why, how, what success means, and who is impacted helps surface strategy.
[12:45] Backlogs aren’t strategy - Prioritizing stakeholder requests does not create strategic direction.
[14:21] Reactive organizations - Delivery-driven cultures can make strategic thinking harder.
[17:56] Bring the data - Customer and market evidence can redirect feature requests toward outcomes.
Building Strategy Through Focus
[19:10] Prioritization problem - Prioritization breaks down when no clear strategy exists.
[21:37] Basketball strategy - Observation, constraints, and deliberate choices create focus.
[23:59] Sink the boat - Concentrated effort beats spreading resources across disconnected features.
[24:30] Find the theme - Focus product work around the biggest customer or market need.
[25:43] Strategy is deliberate - Strategic thinking requires stepping outside day-to-day execution.
Strategy in the Real World
[27:24] Wrong customer - Product direction drifts when internal stakeholders replace real customer needs.
[27:51] Go to the source - Direct customer input helps separate meaningful requirements from noise.
[29:08] Saying no - Clear customer focus makes it easier to cut work that does not support the strategy.
[30:54] Know the customer - Strong strategy requires deeper customer understanding than personas alone.
[32:23] Play to strengths - Strategy should account for existing organizational capabilities and advantages.
Key Takeaways
[33:55] Define strategic - Explain the why, the why now, and what gets deprioritized.
[34:12] Know what to say no to - Clear strategy creates a basis for rejecting work that does not fit.
[34:23] Align to business goals - Connect day-to-day work to the outcomes that matter most.
[35:19] Strategy simplifies decisions - Clear strategy makes product choices easier.
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