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What is Product Strategy?
Playing to Win by A.G. Lafley and Roger L. MartinGood Strategy, Bad Strategy by Richard Rumels Product strategy is a set of choices informed by product vision and company objectives. A good strategy consists of a diagnosis, guiding policy, and coherent actions. Strategy development requires imagination and creativity; a good strategy is not the result of detailed analysis. Why is ... -
Good Strategy, Bad Strategy
Strategy is not goal-setting, vision creation, or agreeing on principles and aspirations. Good strategy means identifying a core, actionable problem that fundamentally affects your current situation and then identifying a set of coordination actions to resolve the challenge. Bad strategy isn’t the absence of strategy; it’s typically the result of refusing to identify the core problem. If there’s no essential ... -
Why killer products don’t sell
Even the best products cannot overcome a poor sales process. Match your sales culture to your customer’s buying culture to successfully introduce your product and close opportunities. Identify your product’s sales needs and select the right approach to one of four buying cultures. Why Killer Products Don’t Sell by Ian Gotts and Dominic Roswell It has long been understood that ... -
Designing a platform business
Successful platform design requires a focus on interactions, a clear set of incentives for producers and effective filters for consumers. Starting a platform business means solving the chicken-or-the-egg problem. All platforms grapple with jump-starting their communities and ensuring long-term value creation. Carefully designing and monitoring interactions to ensure benefit for both sides, participation, effective matching and curation, and measurable ways to build audiences ... -
Picking the right marketing play
Find your industry gaps, understand your customers and competitors and objectively assess your own capabilities. Then, combine the five essential marketing plays as your business evolves. The Marketing Playbook: Five Battle-Tested Plays for Capturing and Keeping the Lead in Any Market by John Zagula and Richard Tong Zagula and Tong present five key marketing strategies and a method for evaluating which is ... -
The Five Essential Marketing Plays
Assess your market, your competition, and your strengths, then pick one of five essential marketing plays. In The Marketing Playbook: Five Battle-Tested Plays for Capturing and Keeping the Lead in Any Market authors John Zagula and Richard Tong, now both at Ignition Capital, show how all marketing strategies can be condensed into one of five basic plays. Based on their experience at Microsoft ... -
Software platforms: redefining the basis of competition
Competition in the software sector is moving from individual products and services to platform ecosystems. Five key trends are pushing companies to platform strategies. Platform Ecosystems: Aligning Architecture, Governance, and Strategy by Amrit Tiwana Platform Ecosystems describes the dynamics that are driving the new basis of competition in software. This is one of the few books in-depth available on product ... -
Marketing as Strategy
Marketing is uniquely situated to help companies achieve business goals. To do this, the CMO must rise above tactical metrics and the four P’s. Marketing As Strategy: Understanding the CEO’s Agenda for Driving Growth and Innovation by Nirmalya Kumar In Marketing As Strategy Nirmalya Kumar exhorts marketers to step up, use marketing as a strategic lever, and move beyond the traditional four P’s. ...