Product Managers: Creating Space for Strategic Thinking

Help! I Feel Pressure to be Strategic 

As a Product Manager, you may feel pressure to be strategic. After all, strategic thinking is essential to your role in driving the product vision, defining product roadmaps, and making decisions that impact the success of your product and company.

However, if you are feeling that stress, there are probably a few things going on:

⛔️ You don’t have the time. Thinking strategically requires making space for it. And you’re probably so caught up in the day-to-day execution activities that strategy falls on the back burner.

⛔️ You don’t consider yourself to be strategic. If you got into Product Management, it’s because you’re passionate about building things for people that make their lives and jobs easier. The core of that passion IS strategy. Don’t second guess this about yourself.

⛔️ You don’t know how to be strategic. You may think strategy is the ability to have lightbulb moments resulting in multi-million dollar ideas for your product. Nope. It’s knowing your customer so well that you are able to leverage qualitative and quantitative data to prove or disprove hypotheses.

Phew - So How Can I Make Space for Strategic Thinking?

Here are 5 tips to help you create space for strategic thinking and be strategic in your role as a Product Manager:

1. Set Aside Time for Strategic Thinking

One of the biggest reasons why Product Managers struggle with strategic thinking is a lack of time. If you’re constantly putting out fires and dealing with day-to-day tasks, it’s hard to find time to think about the big picture.

To create space for strategic thinking, set aside dedicated time on your calendar. This could be an hour or two a week, or a half-day once a month. During this time, turn off your notifications and focus solely on strategic thinking. Use this time to analyze customer feedback, review metrics, and identify new opportunities.

2. Use Data to Inform Your Strategy

Strategic thinking isn’t just about coming up with big ideas. It’s about using data to inform your decisions and validate your hypotheses.

As a Product Manager, you have access to a wealth of data, including customer feedback, usage metrics, and market research. Use this data to inform your product strategy and identify new opportunities. Analyze customer feedback to identify pain points and areas for improvement. Use usage metrics to understand how customers are using your product and where they are getting stuck.

By using data to inform your strategy, you’ll be able to make informed decisions and drive meaningful results for your product and company.

3. Develop a Deep Understanding of Your Customers

One of the key elements of strategic thinking is developing a deep understanding of your customers. The more you know about your customers, the better you’ll be able to meet their needs and drive the success of your product.

To develop a deep understanding of your customers, talk to them regularly. Conduct customer interviews, surveys, and focus groups to gather feedback and insights. Use this feedback to identify pain points, challenges, and opportunities. This will help you develop a customer-centric product strategy that meets the needs of your target audience.

4. Collaborate with Your Team

Strategic thinking is a team effort. To be truly strategic, you need to collaborate with your team to identify new opportunities and solve problems.

Work closely with your development team, UX designers, and other stakeholders to identify new features and functionality. Use this collaboration to align on goals and priorities and to ensure that everyone is working towards the same vision.

5. Believe in Yourself

Finally, remember that you are capable of strategic thinking. As a Product Manager, you have a unique set of skills and knowledge that make you well-positioned to be strategic.

Believe in your ability to analyze data, understand your customers, and identify new opportunities to build a successful product that makes an impact on the lives of your users.