Learning Stream Playlist

Product Strategy, Definition and Vision Explained

Ken Burke 13 min
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What is your offering? How will customers find it and benefit from it? Your product strategy answers these questions and is the culmination of how you define your product or service. This overview explores how to define your product vision, the importance of a product roadmap, and tips for execution so that you can launch your minimal viable (MVP) product as quickly as possible, yet not too soon.
Define the What, Where, When and How of Your Product

Ken Burke 15 min
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With Dropbox as a case example, this Microcast explains how to describe the 'what' of your product at a high-level, the 'where' in the development timeline your product or service sits, 'when' it will be released, and 'how' you'll execute, step-by-step, to release your product or service to market.
Define Your Product or Service

Ken Burke 10 min
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On its own, your product or service is only part of your offering. Your complete offering goes beyond your product or service and includes add-ons, upgrades, packaging, support, education and training, a warranty or customer support, and other value-added services. By embracing four key questions, you will arrive at a powerful product definition that entices investors, staff and customers alike: Who is the end customer for my product? What does the customer gain from my (whole) product? Where can customers find my product? When is my product, upgrades/additional items going to roll out?
Define Your Product MVP

Ken Burke 20 min
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One of the most important concepts of your product strategy is identifying your minimal viable product or service (MVP or MVS). This walk-through takes you through a process for identifying what key qualities of your product or service comprise your MVP. Once you identify the minimum offering that addresses your customers' needs, you can position your business for launch.
Define Your Product Roadmap

Ken Burke 12 min
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Customers as well as investors want to know that you're going to be offering new and different products, services, and enhancements going forward. That's what your product roadmap communicates. This walk-through details the 1-to-2 year plan that documents short term and long term product goals, taking you from product launch to the future incarnation of your product or service. Learn why your product roadmap is both a business planning tool and your rollout blueprint and why it's so important to focus on benefits to the customer (not features!)
Defend Your Product Strategy

Ken Burke 15 min
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Defending your product strategy is incredibly important yet an often overlooked aspect of the entrepreneur's strategy. You must be able to address investors' favorite question: What prevents competitors from duplicating what you're doing? Here, Ken walks through how to fortify the defensibility of your product or service—because the stronger your defense it, the greater confidence you'll have and readiness for handling competitive adversity in business.
Your Product or Service Strategy Workshop

Ken Burke 4 min
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Time to put pen to paper—or fingers to keyboard. Take a look inside the Prep Worksheet that prepares you to write the product strategy section of your business plan. The key to success is taking the time necessary to deeply understand your business and be prepared to run it—use this workshop and Prep Worksheet to do just that.

It may seem counterintuitive, but perfection is your enemy when it comes to shaping your product or service strategy. You may want everything to be perfect before you launch, but if you ever hope to start ringing up sales, you need to ruthlessly focus instead on just those elements of your offering that address the core customer need, and build a vision and a plan for development that tests your concept in the marketplace sooner rather than later. This learning stream offers guidance on how to shape a product or service vision, strategies for developing a minimum viable product, ways to create a roadmap you’ll stick to, and responses to questions about market defensibility. With examples of real companies cited throughout and workshop sessions for tailoring your own product or service strategy, this learning stream equips you with everything you need to build a product or service strategy that puts launch within reach.

You will learn: