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What Strategic Thinking Actually Looks Like
Strategic thinking means turning from the strategic process to the actual core questions:
**Instead of:** "What features should we build?"
**Ask:** "Which customer problems, if solved, would most directly contribute to our company's current priorities?"
**Instead of:** "Leadership hasn't told us who to focus on."
**Ask:** "Based on what we know about business goals, which segments would we focus on if we had to choose today?"
**Instead of:** "Which of [Helmer's 7 Powers](https://click.convertkit-mail2.com/8kuokvewzehoh29wkx5akhk6g2g99s3hxqgw2/owhkhwuwgz7do5tq/aHR0cHM6Ly83cG93ZXJzLmNvbS8=) is the right one to focus on?"
**Ask:** "How can we convince audiences to choose us over alternatives?"
Notice the pattern? Strategic thinking means making explicit choices within your context, even when that context is imperfect.
Why Strategic THINKING Matters More Than THE Strategy
Tim Herbig
A good metric is comparative. Being able to compare a metric to other time periods, groups of users, or competitors helps you understand which way things are moving. “Increased conversion from last week” is more meaningful than “2% conversion.”
Lean Analytics
Alistair Croll, Benjamin Yoskovitz
*FEASIBILITY*
Throughout solution discovery, the prototype iterations will be tested by the engineers (typically [daily](https://d572Tw04.na1.hubspotlinksstarter.com/Ctc/UD+113/d572Tw04/VWn4Zq2K8jmJW5_4Ym51zCSCbW6hm-BV5ty0cPN7Rflyj3m2ndW7lCdLW6lZ3kVW19jN_11_-8BfW8jQ2l780c69HW7C0cxS5xfF6dW51LSsW8s7GSfW3x7vY98nHcqyW4xTbS_2Qpr1NW3HdwRW52J_FzW2PT8wC1gSSZ0W7rlSFQ6MsCGHW1tscCB63tbwGW2943bf2K9lxyN62C5Ndf-H0WN5w8VFB8Xp74W62H_b71yx53WW3d3VVy4MtmHhW81nvky2cZfZJW1tCRQz6ZrvxVW7Qx7rb6T8WtQW41GyCK78mZ2KW3LVhKb7G9dLcW21HXc-7VFsW1W84kNvr1q5ZgnW8G-gtM3KVZVVW7QbtKv3y0Cfzf3XWhzC04)) in order to both assess feasibility, and to see if the engineers might know of a way to leverage enabling technology to better solve the problem.
It’s important to understand that the product manager is shaping the solutions with their product sense (knowledge of the customers, data, market, business and product), just as the product designer is shaping the solutions with their design sense (knowledge of the various design disciplines), and the tech lead is shaping the solution with their knowledge of the enabling technology.
This is the critical and essential collaboration of product discovery. It is *not* about documenting requirements, designing an experience that reflects those requirements, and then building out those requirements.
SVPG Newsletter: Product, Design and AI
SVPG
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