“Design is a way to build an experience around the user.”While it is common to focus on customers’ needs, if you want them to want your product, you have to appeal to their emotions. Products with good emotional design are understandable and easy to use. They answer the customer’s most pressing questions: what, why, where, when, who and how. If you are not appealing to your customers’ emotions, you are left competing strictly on price, forcing you and your competitors to accept narrower and narrower margins.

Innovate by tapping into your customers’ emotions

Objective-based planning uses a cascading structure: As you move down the organizational structure to smaller teams and individuals, the strategies of the level above become the objectives of the level below.

To do this, make sure you identify, develop and work with the serial innovators in your business:<ul><li>Serial innovators engage with problems with curiosity and possess a drive to understand the problem deeply and look beyond the first or most obvious solution</li><li>They work tenaciously on projects and delve deeply into the customer’s point of view and needs</li><li>They keep in mind that they need to bring ideas to market.</li><li>They see the value in other people and enlist their strengths in the pursuit of their goals</li><li>They work non-linearly: Innovators are always ready to backtrack and reconsider earlier steps</li></ul>

The “who” of innovation is as important as the “how.”

<ul><li>Innovation seems too expensive until someone else has a breakthrough.</li><li>Design thinking gives you a reliable, low-cost and low-risk way to start innovating.</li><li>Innovate by tapping into your customers’ emotions.</li><li>Use innovation tools to keep innovation moving from idea to market.</li><li>The “who” of innovation is as important as the “how.”</li><li>Encourage communication and alignment across your organization with strategic planning.</li></ul>

No-Excuses Innovation

<ul><li>The “phase-gate” process divides idea development activities into phases – Each “phase” represents an incrementally larger investment, separated by “gates” where you make a formal decision about whether to continue</li><li>“Lean innovation” reduces wasted resources by testing the “minimum viable product” – Find the simplest, fastest, cheapest version of a product concept that you can test with lead customers and then do so on a small scale</li><li>“Open innovation” lets you outsource certain aspects of innovation</li><li>“Product and technology road maps” help you communicate your innovation options to your customers</li></ul>

Use innovation tools to keep innovation moving from idea to market

Successful small and medium-sized mature enterprises combine four qualities:<ol><li>Optimization of your production processes using tools like lean six sigma.</li><li>Incremental innovations, such as improvements to your existing product line or expansion to new markets.</li><li>Innovations related to product platforms, such as the development of a base product that has qualities that make its market share defendable and that you can use to develop spin-offs that drive conversions.</li><li>Breakthrough innovations that change the paradigm and shift the basis of competition. </li></ol>

Design thinking involves a series of concrete activities:<ul><li>Come up with as many ideas and potential solutions as possible – Aim for volume.</li><li>Use empathy to understand the user’s point of view – To come up with the most relevant ideas, do a deep dive into the user’s experience and emotions.</li><li>Embrace creative risk-taking – In order to get to a breakthrough, you have to be open to making mistakes.</li><li>Iterate through rapid prototyping and testing – The best way to manage risk is to do multiple low-cost tests with real users.</li></ul>

Design thinking gives you a reliable, low-cost and low-risk way to start innovating

“At the extreme, renewal by way of breakthrough innovation redefines the nature of competition.”“Innovation is all about increasing the net present value of your business. If you are serious about financial and operational sustainability, the argument that it reduces profits does not hold.”

Innovation seems too expensive until someone else has a breakthrough

Your strategy connects your vision to your day-to-day activities. There are, broadly, two types of strategies:“Market share” strategies increase economies of scale by growing your share of the market. You can do this by differentiating your product, lowering its cost or entering a new, unoccupied niche.“Synergy” strategies increase economies of scope by expanding into different products or markets with activities that can share resources or expertise.

Encourage communication and alignment across your organization with strategic planning

Objective-based planning is a strategic planning method that lets you model the relationship of every level of your organization to your organization’s objectives:<ul><li>Objectives define the overarching direction of your organization.</li><li>Goals are “steppi​​​ng stones” towards your objective.</li><li>Strategies are what you choose to focus on to achieve your goals.</li><li>Measures are the quantitative benchmarks that allow you to determine the effectiveness of your strategies.</li><li>Tactics are the fine-grained, short-term actions you take as part of your strategies.</li></ul>

Organizational Alignment

Strategies for Small and Medium-Sized Mature Enterprises

The case for innovation and a clear, targeted strategy for planning and implementation that will help small- and medium-sized mature enterprises (SMMEs) thrive through reinvention and renewal. In contrast to large companies, SMMEs are on their own to win or lose in the marketplace. They may lack the relative economies of scale and scope, available to large companies, to understand and invest in innovation. Often they are in a position of sustained disadvantage with no perceived path of renewal. As SMMEs approach maturity, it is common for them to choose to only maintain what they believe to be the safety of maturity attained rather than to opt for a strategy that also includes constant reinvention and renewal. But as Bruce A. Vojak and Walter B. Herbst argue, this path of seemingly least risk and least resistance can be the most detrimental to the company in the long run. The real risk is to not innovate. No-Excuses Innovation makes the case to owners, advisors, executives, and leaders—as well as those in the trenches—of the value of innovation: why it's worthy of investment and what it can do for the health and longevity of a company. This book also details how innovation, and thus reinvention and renewal, can be most effectively and efficiently implemented. With case studies and narrative examples drawn from their time in industry and the academy, the authors present a valuable strategy guide specific to SMMEs and to one of the biggest existential dilemmas they encounter.

strategy

Strategy

communication

Communication

Bruce Vojak

Walter Herbst

In China, many of the major social media companies do cross-partnerships with non-competitive companies to increase their customer base. It’s an online exchange that benefits both parties, and would be the equivalent of Twitter Blue offering its members a free Spotify membership as a perk.The closest equivalents (in the Western world) are offline museum reciprocity programs, where membership in one museum grants you free access to a select list of other museums around the country.

Partnerships with other companies

Current membership models in the U.S (X or Snapchat) use the basic formula: <a href="https://emojipedia.org/handshake">🤝</a> pay dollars, get features in returnChinese models expand this with gamification. Paid memberships get you an initial baseline membership, but additional benefits are only unlocked with increased usage. This created engagement for paid users, which also increases. Ex: For $3.50/mo, Weibo VIP members can edit their posts, have fun stickers, access VIP emojis, etc (see chart below). Continued usage of Weibo unlocks more features such as pinning more than one post.

Paid membership as engagement drivers

China skipped the desktop Internet, credit cards etc ... and went straight to mobile apps. Which they monetise through subscription way more than ads like in the West. Chinese social media giants have perfected the art of monetisation, which a16z codified in a framework with 4 key elements: <ul><li>Mixture of paid and earned perks</li><li>An intricate point-based levelling system</li><li>Functional features & showing-off perks</li><li>Partnerships with other companies</li></ul>

The Chinese Alternative to Ads

The Chinese networks offer functional/utilitarian benefits along-side social flexing (i.e., social expressions that are visible to the rest of the community). Ways the Chinese apps encourage flexing:<ul><li>app skins and custom icons</li><li>add icons next to their username</li><li>have their comments show up in various colors</li></ul>

A balance of flexing with functionality

Chinese companies use a levelling or points system to give users a sense of progress. This nuanced type of membership system creates a win-win between user and platform: users have fun while they earn and accumulate points to unlock more features, and platforms have a way to encourage new user behaviour. Levelling perks can also help push monthly subscribers to annual ones. For example: Weibo lets users jump to Level 3 by simply choosing an annual plan instead of a monthly one.

Levelling Up

Very interesting how the Chinese mobile landscape is so different than the Western ones. They have more advanced monetisation & and fancier engagement options

moneyandinvestments

Money & Investments

business

Business

startup

Startups

product

Product & Design

How the Chinese Build Winning Paid Membership Apps

That comes last. The big mistake in Nevada and at Fremont (Tesla factories) was that I began by trying to automate every step.We should have waited until all the requirements had been questioned, parts and processes deleted, and the bugs were shaken out.

Step 5: Automate

Elon has a distillation of lessons learned while building capacity at Tesla's factories. His algorithm challenges the status quo and proposes operating from first principles.It has 5 laws and a few corollaries.

Elon Musk's Algorithm

Each requirement should come with the name of the person who made it. You should never accept that a requirement came from a department, such as from "the legal department" or "the safety department." You need to know the name of the real person who made that requirement.Then you should question it, no matter how smart that person is. Requirements from smart people are the most dangerous, because people are less likely to question them. Always do so, even if the requirement came from me. Then make the requirements less dumb.

Step 1: Question every requirement

<ul><li>Whenever there are problems to solve, don't just meet with your managers. Do a skip level, where you meet with the level right below your managers.</li><li>When hiring, look for people with the right attitude. Skills can be taught. Attitude changes require a brain transplant</li><li>A maniacal sense of urgency is our operating principle.</li><li>The only rules are the ones dictated by the laws of physics. Everything else is a recommendation.</li></ul>

Corollaries to Elon's Algorithm: Part 2

Every process can be speeded up. But only do this after you have followed the first three steps. "In the Tesla factory, I mistakenly spent a lot of time accelerating processes that I Iater realised should have been deleted."In simple terms, the two major ways to increase productivity are :<ul><li>to speed up the rate of production (think increasing the miles per hour)  </li><li>to speed up the time it takes to switch from producing one widget to another.) </li></ul>

Step 4: Accelerate cycle time

This should come after step two. A common mistake is to simplify and optimize a part or a process that should not exist.Make sure you don't automate or optimize a process that doesn't need to exist in the first place. Sure, you can make percentage gains by making something better... but why not save 100 percent of the time, effort, or cost involved by eliminating something that creates no value?

Step 3: Simplify and optimize

<ul><li>All technical managers must have hands-on experience. For ex, software managers must spend at least 20% of their time coding. You don't need general who don't know how to use a sword. </li><li>Camradery is dangerous. It makes it hard for people to challenge each other's work.</li><li>It's OK to be wrong. Just don't be confident & wrong.</li><li>Never ask your troops to do something you're not willing to do</li></ul>

Corollaries to Elon's Algorithm: Part 1

You may have to add them back later. In fact, if you do not end up adding back at least 10% of them, then you didn't delete enough.Often we do things simply because we've always done them. Or because we think we need to. Or because it's our job, and therefore it must be important.

Step 2: Delete any part or process you can

Elon's framework for problem solving explains a lot of his success. 

From the author of Steve Jobs and other bestselling biographies, this is the astonishingly intimate story of the most fascinating and controversial innovator of our era—a rule-breaking visionary who helped to lead the world into the era of electric vehicles, private space exploration, and artificial intelligence. Oh, and took over Twitter. When Elon Musk was a kid in South Africa, he was regularly beaten by bullies. One day a group pushed him down some concrete steps and kicked him until his face was a swollen ball of flesh. He was in the hospital for a week. But the physical scars were minor compared to the emotional ones inflicted by his father, an engineer, rogue, and charismatic fantasist. His father’s impact on his psyche would linger. He developed into a tough yet vulnerable man-child, prone to abrupt Jekyll-and-Hyde mood swings, with an exceedingly high tolerance for risk, a craving for drama, an epic sense of mission, and a maniacal intensity that was callous and at times destructive. At the beginning of 2022—after a year marked by SpaceX launching thirty-one rockets into orbit, Tesla selling a million cars, and him becoming the richest man on earth—Musk spoke ruefully about his compulsion to stir up dramas. “I need to shift my mindset away from being in crisis mode, which it has been for about fourteen years now, or arguably most of my life,” he said. It was a wistful comment, not a New Year’s resolution. Even as he said it, he was secretly buying up shares of Twitter, the world’s ultimate playground. Over the years, whenever he was in a dark place, his mind went back to being bullied on the playground. Now he had the chance to own the playground. For two years, Isaacson shadowed Musk, attended his meetings, walked his factories with him, and spent hours interviewing him, his family, friends, coworkers, and adversaries. The result is the revealing inside story, filled with amazing tales of triumphs and turmoil, that addresses the question: are the demons that drive Musk also what it takes to drive innovation and progress?

teamwork

Teamwork

books

Books

leadershipandmanagement

Leadership & Management

Walter Isaacson, a professor of history at Tulane, has been CEO of the Aspen Institute, chair of CNN, and editor of Time. He is the author of 'Leonardo da Vinci; The Innovators; Steve Jobs; Einstein: His Life and Universe; Benjamin Franklin: An American Life; and Kissinger: A Biography, and the coauthor of The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made. Visit him at Isaacson.Tulane.edu and on Twitter at @WalterIsaacson

Walter Isaacson

Elon Musk

In 2004 an academic paper, broke down game design into 3 sections:<ol><li>Mechanics: the workings of the game, the rules, the systems, progression, music, artwork etc..</li><li>Dynamics: how the player acts in response of those mechanics</li><li>Aesthetics: how the player feels by doing the actions</li></ol>ex: Doom mechanic of ammo drops on killing enemies made the player push forward, which made them feel like Rambo.

MDA: A Formal Approach to Game Design

Refers to the feelings you want the players of the game to get playing it. This is something that should be decided from the start:<ul><li>"I want my players to feel calm, relaxation and peace"</li><li>"We want our players to feel like a badass"</li><li>"We want you to feel like a God emperor"</li></ul>Whatever the choice, be aware some people will feel the opposite:<ul><li>a survival game may give thrills to some people, or make others feel anxiety</li><li>some may enjoy a calm relaxing game, others will find it boring</li></ul>

Deciding on a Aesthetic Vision

Product people steal mechanics all the time. But the good ones:<ul><li>understand the dynamics & aesthetics the mechanics create</li><li>have a well defined artistic direction: "I want my players to feel scared"</li><li>adapt "stollen" mechanics to the desired aesthetic</li></ul>ex: Alien Isolation, a survival horror game, implemented saving with automatic check-points. But they noticed that players were rushing to a checkpoint, and reloading if caught. They wanted players to feel fear so they changed it to an unpredictable & slow event (using phones). This raised the stakes and made players act with causion.

Stealing game mechanics the right way

A methodology to explain game design. Found it really useful for all product work. 

GMTK is powered by Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/GameMakersToolkit When it comes to mechanics, a great source of inspiration is other video games. But how do you make sure those features will gel will the game you're actually making? === Before you watch === Content warning: Combat, Blood, Fear === Sources and Resources === - Sources [1] Game Design Deep Dive: The save system of Alien: Isolation | Game Developer https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/game-design-deep-dive-the-save-system-of-i-alien-isolation-i- [2] MDA: A Formal Approach To Game Design And Game Research | Research Gate https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228884866_MDA_A_Formal_Approach_to_Game_Design_and_Game_Research [3] Dreams And Journeys: An Interview With Jenova Chen | CGMagazine https://www.cgmagonline.com/interviews/journeys-interview-with-jenova-chen/ [4] The Design of Subnautica | GDC on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7R-x9NSBS2Y [5] Making of Resident Evil Village - The Internal Struggle | Resident Evil on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIS-TW1XeNg [6] FTL Questions Answered | FTL Fandom https://ftl.fandom.com/wiki/User_blog:JAlbor/FTL_Questions_Answered [7] Dead Space 2: Jason Graves interview | The Telegraph https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/video-games/8264378/Dead-Space-2-Jason-Graves-interview.html [8] Blank Canvas Designing A New Era of Emotional Storytelling Through Games | Games for Change on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=n_RKKuKvAvA [9] Embracing Push Forward Combat in DOOM | GDC https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KQNpQD8Ayo [10] Game Design Deep Dive: Rocket jumping in Rocket League | Game Developer https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/game-design-deep-dive-rocket-jumping-in-i-rocket-league-i- [11] Checkpoint Design | Yacht Club Blog https://www.yachtclubgames.com/blog/check-point-design === Chapters === 00:00 - Intro 01:33 - What is MDA? 03:37 - Analysing with MDA 05:04 - Fitting Your Vision 08:28 - Other Considerations 10:58 - Conclusion 12:26 - Patreon Credits === Games Shown === Alien Isolation (2014) Far Cry Primal (2016) Call Of Duty: Infinite Warfare (2016) Bioshock Infinite (2013) Dark Souls (2011) Blasphemous (2019) Hollow Knight (2017) Nioh (2017) Super Mario Maker 2 (2019) DOOM (2016) Shadow Warrior 2 (2016) Far Cry 4 (2014) Titanfall 2 (2016) Psychonauts 2 (2021) Watch Dogs 2 (2016) Signalis (2022) Metro Exodus (2019) Resident Evil 2 (2019) The Last Of Us Part II (2020) Silent Hill 2 (2001) Cyberpunk 2077 (2020) The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild (2017) Far Cry 3 (2012) God Of War (2018) Opus Magnum (2017) Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory (2005) Until Dawn (2015) Elden Ring (2022) The Witness (2016) Among Us (2018) Overcooked! 2 (2018) Persona 5 (2016) Flower (2009) Assassin's Creed: Origins (2017) SOMA (2015) The Medium (2021) Little Nightmares II (2021) Subnautica (2018) Resident Evil Village (2021) Batman: Arkham Knight (2015) Hitman 3 (2021) Civilization V (2010) FTL: Faster Than Light (2012) Florence (2018) Trombone Champ (2022) Cuphead (2017) Splatoon 2 (2017) Alba: A Wildlife Adventure (2020) Dead Space (2008) Journey (2012) Dreams (2020) Fortnite (2017) Platformer Toolkit (2022) Inside (2016) Super Meat Boy (2010) The Callisto Protocol (2022) The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2011) Rocket League (2015) Tomb Raider (2013) Okami (2006) Neon White (2022) Pizza Tower (2023) XCOM 2 (2016) Spelunky (2012) Hi-Fi Rush (2023) DOOM Eternal (2020) Shovel Knight (2014) === Credits === Music provided by Epidemic Sound - https://www.epidemicsound.com/referral/vtdu5y (Referral Link) Music by Lee Rosevere - https://leerosevere.bandcamp.com Music from DOOM OST, by Mick Gordon How To MASTER Air Roll Control In Rocket League | Thanovic https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_x2UQqQ2mY Rambo: First Blood Part II © Tri-Star Pictures === Subtitles === Contribute translated subtitles - https://amara.org/videos/q564TTJbh8w1/

GMTK is powered by Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/GameMakersToolkit

When it comes to mechanics, a great source of inspiration is other video games. But how do you make sure those features will gel will the game you're actually making?

=== Before you watch === 

Content warning: Combat, Blood, Fear

=== Sources and Resources ===

- Sources

[1] Game Design Deep Dive: The save system of Alien: Isolation | Game Developer
https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/game-design-deep-dive-the-save-system-of-i-alien-isolation-i-

[2] MDA: A Formal Approach To Game Design And Game Research | Research Gate
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228884866_MDA_A_Formal_Approach_to_Game_Design_and_Game_Research

[3] Dreams And Journeys: An Interview With Jenova Chen | CGMagazine
https://www.cgmagonline.com/interviews/journeys-interview-with-jenova-chen/

[4] The Design of Subnautica | GDC on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7R-x9NSBS2Y

[5] Making of Resident Evil Village - The Internal Struggle | Resident Evil on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIS-TW1XeNg

[6] FTL Questions Answered | FTL Fandom
https://ftl.fandom.com/wiki/User_blog:JAlbor/FTL_Questions_Answered

[7] Dead Space 2: Jason Graves interview | The Telegraph
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/video-games/8264378/Dead-Space-2-Jason-Graves-interview.html

[8] Blank Canvas Designing A New Era of Emotional Storytelling Through Games | Games for Change on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=n_RKKuKvAvA

[9] Embracing Push Forward Combat in DOOM | GDC
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KQNpQD8Ayo

[10] Game Design Deep Dive: Rocket jumping in Rocket League | Game Developer
https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/game-design-deep-dive-rocket-jumping-in-i-rocket-league-i-

[11] Checkpoint Design | Yacht Club Blog
https://www.yachtclubgames.com/blog/check-point-design

=== Chapters ===

00:00 - Intro
01:33 - What is MDA?
03:37 - Analysing with MDA
05:04 - Fitting Your Vision
08:28 - Other Considerations
10:58 - Conclusion
12:26 - Patreon Credits

=== Games Shown ===

Alien Isolation (2014)
Far Cry Primal (2016)
Call Of Duty: Infinite Warfare (2016)
Bioshock Infinite (2013)
Dark Souls (2011)
Blasphemous (2019)
Hollow Knight (2017)
Nioh (2017)
Super Mario Maker 2 (2019)
DOOM (2016)
Shadow Warrior 2 (2016)
Far Cry 4 (2014)
Titanfall 2 (2016)
Psychonauts 2 (2021)
Watch Dogs 2 (2016)
Signalis (2022)
Metro Exodus (2019)
Resident Evil 2 (2019)
The Last Of Us Part II (2020)
Silent Hill 2 (2001)
Cyberpunk 2077 (2020)
The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild (2017)
Far Cry 3 (2012)
God Of War (2018)
Opus Magnum (2017)
Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory (2005)
Until Dawn (2015)
Elden Ring (2022)
The Witness (2016)
Among Us (2018)
Overcooked! 2 (2018)
Persona 5 (2016)
Flower (2009)
Assassin's Creed: Origins (2017)
SOMA (2015)
The Medium (2021)
Little Nightmares II (2021)
Subnautica (2018)
Resident Evil Village (2021)
Batman: Arkham Knight (2015)
Hitman 3 (2021)
Civilization V (2010)
FTL: Faster Than Light (2012)
Florence (2018)
Trombone Champ (2022)
Cuphead (2017)
Splatoon 2 (2017)
Alba: A Wildlife Adventure (2020)
Dead Space (2008)
Journey (2012)
Dreams (2020)
Fortnite (2017)
Platformer Toolkit (2022)
Inside (2016)
Super Meat Boy (2010)
The Callisto Protocol (2022)
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2011)
Rocket League (2015)
Tomb Raider (2013)
Okami (2006)
Neon White (2022)
Pizza Tower (2023)
XCOM 2 (2016)
Spelunky (2012)
Hi-Fi Rush (2023)
DOOM Eternal (2020)
Shovel Knight (2014)

=== Credits ===

Music provided by Epidemic Sound - https://www.epidemicsound.com/referral/vtdu5y (Referral Link)

Music by Lee Rosevere - https://leerosevere.bandcamp.com

Music from DOOM OST, by Mick Gordon

How To MASTER Air Roll Control In Rocket League | Thanovic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_x2UQqQ2mY

Rambo: First Blood Part II © Tri-Star Pictures

=== Subtitles ===

Contribute translated subtitles - https://amara.org/videos/q564TTJbh8w1/

Game Maker's Toolkit is a deep dive into game design, level design, and game production, hosted by Mark Brown.

BEFORE YOU EMAIL:

- I do not do sponsored videos, ad reads, or paid integrations on GMTK.
- Do NOT email me about NFTs, blockchain, or Cryptocurrency
- I am sadly not able to help with individual student projects
- I do school / university talks, studio visits, and design consulting when time allows - let's talk dates and rates!  


Game Maker's Toolkit

How To Think Like A Game Designer

The Power of MDA

Many companies believe that teams should set goals first, then define the roadmap to meet those goals:As a company, we know what we want to accomplish and we'll empower our teams to figure out how to do it. This rarely works in practice. In the absence of any roadmap, teams are lost. This "goals first" approach incentivizes teams to do whatever it takes to achieve short-term goals, often at the expense of a focused features, UX etc.Instead, goals should flow from a product roadmap that has been designed to deliver value to users. Instead of "seeing what sticks" to customer-centric.

Roadmap before Goals

When prioritising becomes hard, it is usually a strategy problem:<ul><li>Should I prioritize building a new feature or optimizing an existing flow?</li><li>Should I prioritize closing more deals or extending existing contracts?</li><li>Should I prioritize building this tool in-house or license a third party service for now?</li></ul>Difficulty prioritizing is often a strategy issue, not an execution issue. It is impossible to make rigorous prioritization decisions when the guidance on how to do so is missing, unclear or disconnected from what you are trying to do.Fixing the issue = fixing the strategy.

How to spot a Product Strategy problem?

"Strategy" should not be an amorphous, all-encompassing concept. Instead, we should think about it in distinct terms:<ol><li>Company Mission - The world your company sees & the change it wants to bring to that world</li><li>Company Strategy - The logical plan you have to bring your company’s mission into being</li><li>Product Strategy - The logical plan for how the product will drive its part of the company strategy</li><li>Product Roadmap - The sequence of features that implement the Product Strategy</li><li>Product Goals - The quarterly & day-to-day outcomes of the Product Roadmap that measure progress against the Product Strategy</li></ol>

Product Strategy Stack

The Product Strategy Stack is a system we can use for both planning and execution:Tops Down: Teams can work from the top of the stack down to 1) define the stack, 2) work at a progressively finer level to plan product execution, and 3) align the company to that execution plan.Bottoms-Up: In addition, teams can work bottoms-up to 1) communicate the status of execution and 2) track how well the product team's work is driving company-level objectives.

Tops Down = Definition, Bottoms Up = Evaluation

2 products that kinda have the same functionality. But very different:Different Missions: Slack is for work and Discord is for play. One about productive communication another about connectionDifferent Company Strategies: Slack's strategy focuses on improving workplace productivity while Discord focuses on building communities, with a focus on gaming.But, once we get into the product, things begin to look more similar. The user experience for both products is surprisingly alike. However even when both apps have a similar functionality, the reasoning is different. And subtle differences matter.

Slack vs. Discord: A Case Study

Some of the ideas about product and roadmapping from an the product lead at Meta, Tinder or Tripadvisor. 

In this new Reforge essay, Zainab Ghadiyali (ex-Airbnb and Facebook) and I describe "The Product Strategy Stack", a tool you can use to define clear strategy and assess your progress.

No-Excuses Innovation

How the Chinese Build Winning Paid Membership Apps

Elon Musk

It's time to
Read like a Pro.

The Power of MDA

CURATED BY

No-Excuses Innovation

How the Chinese Build Winning Paid Membership Apps

Elon Musk

It's time to Read like a Pro.

The Power of MDA

CURATED BY

It's time to
Read like a Pro.