product-strategist

Product Strategist

Strategic product leadership for companies navigating vision, market fit, and competitive positioning — from early ideation to scale.

Philosophy

Great product strategy isn't about having all the answers. It's about asking the right questions and making reversible decisions quickly while being thoughtful about irreversible ones.

The best product strategies:

1. Start with the customer problem — Not with your solution
2. Create optionality — Platform thinking enables multiple futures
3. Make trade-offs explicit — Strategy is choosing what NOT to do
4. Compound over time — Each decision builds on the last

How This Skill Works

When invoked, apply the guidelines in rules/ organized by:

• vision-* — Product vision, mission, and north star metrics
• market-* — Product-market fit, market sizing, opportunity assessment
• competitive-* — Competitive positioning, moats, differentiation
• strategy-* — Strategic frameworks, decision making, prioritization
• business-* — Business models, monetization, pricing strategy
• build-* — Build vs buy vs partner, platform decisions

Core Frameworks

Product Strategy Stack

                ┌─────────────────────────┐
                │       VISION            │  ← Where are we going? (3-10 years)
                │   "The why behind why"  │
                ├─────────────────────────┤
                │      STRATEGY           │  ← How will we win? (1-3 years)
                │   "The path to vision"  │
                ├─────────────────────────┤
                │      ROADMAP            │  ← What are we building? (Quarters)
                │   "Strategy in motion"  │
                ├─────────────────────────┤
                │      EXECUTION          │  ← How are we building? (Sprints)
                │   "Roadmap in action"   │
                └─────────────────────────┘

Strategic Decision Types

Decision Type	Reversibility	Time to Decide	Example
Type 1	Irreversible	Take your time	Business model, platform choice
Type 2	Reversible	Decide quickly	Feature prioritization, pricing tiers

Product-Market Fit Spectrum

Level 0: Problem Fit     → You've found a real problem worth solving
Level 1: Solution Fit    → Your solution addresses the problem
Level 2: Product-Market Fit → Customers pull the product from you
Level 3: Scale Fit       → Repeatable growth engine working
Level 4: Moat Fit        → Defensible competitive advantage established

Market Opportunity Framework

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                        TAM                                  │
│                Total Addressable Market                     │
│       "Everyone who could theoretically buy"                │
│    ┌───────────────────────────────────────────┐           │
│    │                  SAM                      │           │
│    │        Serviceable Addressable Market     │           │
│    │     "Those you could reach and serve"     │           │
│    │    ┌─────────────────────────────┐       │           │
│    │    │           SOM               │       │           │
│    │    │   Serviceable Obtainable    │       │           │
│    │    │   "Realistic near-term"     │       │           │
│    │    └─────────────────────────────┘       │           │
│    └───────────────────────────────────────────┘           │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Competitive Moat Types

Moat Type	Description	Examples
Network Effects	Product improves as more users join	Slack, LinkedIn
Switching Costs	Painful to leave	Salesforce, Workday
Data Advantages	Proprietary data improves product	Google, Waze
Scale Economies	Cost advantages at scale	AWS, Stripe
Brand	Trust and recognition	Apple, Notion
Regulatory	Compliance barriers	Healthcare, Finance

Business Model Canvas (Simplified)

┌──────────────────┬──────────────────┬──────────────────┐
│   VALUE PROP     │    CHANNELS      │   CUSTOMER       │
│   What unique    │    How you       │   SEGMENTS       │
│   value?         │    reach them    │   Who pays?      │
├──────────────────┼──────────────────┼──────────────────┤
│   KEY RESOURCES  │    KEY           │   REVENUE        │
│   What you need  │    ACTIVITIES    │   STREAMS        │
│   to deliver     │    What you do   │   How you make   │
│                  │                  │   money          │
├──────────────────┴──────────────────┴──────────────────┤
│                    COST STRUCTURE                      │
│             What it costs to operate                   │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Platform Overview

Strategic Question	Framework to Use	When to Apply
Where to play?	Market sizing, opportunity assessment	Early stage, pivots
How to win?	Competitive positioning, moat analysis	All stages
What to build?	Build/buy/partner, platform decisions	Growth stage
How to price?	Value-based pricing, monetization	Pre-launch, repricing
When to expand?	Adjacent market analysis	Scale stage

Anti-Patterns

• Vision without strategy — Inspiring destination, no map to get there
• Strategy without trade-offs — If everything is a priority, nothing is
• Copying competitors — Being a fast follower without differentiation
• TAM theater — Using unrealistic market sizes to impress investors
• Feature parity obsession — Chasing competitors instead of customers
• Premature scaling — Scaling before product-market fit
• Analysis paralysis — Researching forever, deciding never
• Sunk cost fallacy — Continuing failed bets because of past investment