Mastering Product Strategy with the Playing to Win framework
An interview with Stuart Congdon, veteran strategist and Playing to win expert
👋 Hi! Quick update on the launch of the Continuous Upskilling program. This weekend we are closing the registration for the May edition (disponible en Español aquí). We have now incorporated a 2-week free trial, so if you are still in doubt, you can start and decide later.
Playing to Win is a strong framework, but it can create some confusion during its implementation, for example making your winning aspiration a generic business goal (“be the #1 of X”).
I spoke with Stuart Congdon, a strategy veteran, who has used Playing to Win many times and walked us through a complete example with my typical annoying questions to get to the root of their strategic decisions!
Listen now on Apple, Spotify, Google, and YouTube, and read on for my takeaways and highlights of the episode.
My takeaways from this episode
Takeaways:
Stuart uses the Playing to win framework, and he warns about companies using the “winning aspiration” as something too generic and business-centric (for example, be the biggest at X). He suggests thinking about your niche or user, and how the world will be different for them if you are successful.
One way to uncover what capabilities you need to put in place to differentiate is to map the customer journey and service. You can identify where we can make a difference and what it would take to do it.
Part of the strategy definition (“where to play”) involved selecting a particular customer segment. In a marketplace that can potentially serve many users, this was an example of having clarity and focus.
Both for the customer journey and for the segment selection, they interviewed different customers to really understand the underserved needs and pain points. This not only helped with the selection but also brought much more clarity to the communication and alignment.
Stu used the typical activation, adoption, and retention set of KPIs to understand if the strategy was successful in driving value.
In terms of communication, we discussed the management systems to make sure that everything was connected. Especially relevant in a product where there is a heavy “operational” component.
In the digital agency model, strategy is also key: it allows externals engaging with the company to make smarter and faster decisions by rapidly understanding the context and why they are engaging (not surprisingly, this sounds exactly like how strategy helps empowered teams).
Don’t miss any episodes! Subscribe to be notified when new episodes and articles are published.