https://roadmap.one/tags/product-strategy/ Recent content in Product Strategy on RoadmapOne Hugo en-GB Tue, 21 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://roadmap.one/blog/posts/blog46-strategy-for-product-leaders/ Mon, 20 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://roadmap.one/blog/posts/blog46-strategy-for-product-leaders/ The eight strategy frameworks every product leader should know in 2026—Playing to Win, 7 Powers, Good Strategy Bad Strategy, Wardley Maps, Blue Ocean, Porter’s Five Forces, Porter’s Generic Strategies, and SWOT. Each is a thinking scaffold that forces a specific conversation. Together they are the toolkit for strategy that survives AI-era disruption and actually connects to the roadmap. https://roadmap.one/blog/posts/blog47-product-portfolio-roadmaps/ Tue, 21 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://roadmap.one/blog/posts/blog47-product-portfolio-roadmaps/ Very few companies have one product. Most are portfolios — multiple products at different lifecycle stages, each needing a different operating model, a different team shape, and a different share of the roadmap. The roadmap IS the portfolio allocation decision. Here’s how to see your portfolio clearly, diagnose the common failure modes (including the ‘CEO-interest-led’ anti-pattern), and allocate capacity per product using the frameworks that actually work. https://roadmap.one/blog/posts/blog46-2-seven-powers/ Mon, 20 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://roadmap.one/blog/posts/blog46-2-seven-powers/ Hamilton Helmer’s 7 Powers is the rigorous definition of what actually makes a moat durable. In 2026, AI rewrites which Powers strengthen and which erode — and product leaders need a sharper view of which Power each squad is building. https://roadmap.one/blog/posts/blog46-5-blue-ocean-strategy/ Mon, 20 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://roadmap.one/blog/posts/blog46-5-blue-ocean-strategy/ Blue Ocean Strategy’s value innovation canvas taught a generation of strategists to find uncontested market space through feature differentiation. In 2026, features are cloned in weeks and red oceans get redder faster. The surviving blue oceans are about channel, segment, and workflow — not features. https://roadmap.one/blog/posts/blog46-3-good-strategy-bad-strategy/ Mon, 20 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://roadmap.one/blog/posts/blog46-3-good-strategy-bad-strategy/ Richard Rumelt’s Good Strategy Bad Strategy offers a three-part kernel—diagnosis, guiding policy, coherent action—and a practical test for separating strategy from fluff. Apply it to your product roadmap before writing the business case. https://roadmap.one/blog/posts/blog46-1-playing-to-win/ Mon, 20 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://roadmap.one/blog/posts/blog46-1-playing-to-win/ Roger Martin’s Playing to Win is a thinking scaffold, not a template. Use the five-question strategy cascade to force honest strategic answers—and to structure the business case no product should go on the roadmap without. https://roadmap.one/blog/posts/blog46-6-porters-five-forces/ Mon, 20 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://roadmap.one/blog/posts/blog46-6-porters-five-forces/ Porter’s Five Forces remains the right scaffold for diagnosing industry structure, but three of the five forces have structurally changed in the AI era. Threat of new entrants is effectively infinite, substitutes appear faster, and rivalry intensifies on one side. Two forces still work fine. https://roadmap.one/blog/posts/blog46-7-porters-generic-strategies/ Mon, 20 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://roadmap.one/blog/posts/blog46-7-porters-generic-strategies/ Porter gave us three generic strategies: cost leadership, differentiation, focus. In 2026, AI has killed cost leadership as a durable moat in software, feature-based differentiation is cloned in weeks, and focus (segment specialisation combined with channel and brand) is the only surviving strategy. This changes everything about capacity allocation. https://roadmap.one/blog/posts/blog46-8-swot-analysis/ Mon, 20 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://roadmap.one/blog/posts/blog46-8-swot-analysis/ SWOT analysis has been the default situational-assessment tool for forty years, and in 1997 academics called for its recall. Twenty-nine years on, most organisations still produce the 40-factor, un-prioritised, never-actioned SWOTs the critics warned about. A SWOT isn’t a strategy. Here’s how to use it anyway. https://roadmap.one/blog/posts/blog46-4-wardley-maps/ Mon, 20 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://roadmap.one/blog/posts/blog46-4-wardley-maps/ Wardley Maps are the map strategy has been missing. Plot your value chain against the evolution axis—genesis, custom, product, commodity—and you see which components your squads should pioneer, settle, or industrialise. In 2026, AI accelerates every component’s march toward commodity, and the map has to be redrawn more often. https://roadmap.one/blog/posts/blog45-business-case-pid/ Wed, 15 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://roadmap.one/blog/posts/blog45-business-case-pid/ A business case for a new product is not a forecast — it’s the alignment artefact that forces every ExCo member to commit, in writing, to their functional contribution to the product’s success. This article covers the tight 3-page Project Initiation Document (PID) template that took Trayport to 62% CAGR, why PE-owned companies are better at this than anyone else, and why nothing should be allowed onto the roadmap until the PID is signed. https://roadmap.one/blog/posts/blog43-2-crossing-the-chasm/ Tue, 14 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://roadmap.one/blog/posts/blog43-2-crossing-the-chasm/ AI has collapsed the cost of building your product to near zero. The chasm between early adopters and the early majority is exactly where it always was — and it’s wider than ever. Here’s what that means for your roadmap, your team allocation, and the grown-up conversation your board needs to have. https://roadmap.one/blog/posts/blog44-5-assumption-mapping/ Tue, 14 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://roadmap.one/blog/posts/blog44-5-assumption-mapping/ Assumption mapping is the workshop discipline that tells a product team which assumption to test first. David Bland and Alex Osterwalder’s 2×2 — importance × evidence — surfaces the ’leap of faith’ assumptions that belong at the top of the discovery queue. In 2026, when building is nearly free, assumption mapping is the single highest-leverage hour a product team spends each quarter. https://roadmap.one/blog/posts/blog43-4-diffusion-of-innovations/ Tue, 14 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://roadmap.one/blog/posts/blog43-4-diffusion-of-innovations/ Everett Rogers’ Diffusion of Innovations — the technology adoption lifecycle — describes the five adopter categories (innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, laggards) through which every new product passes. Here’s what Rogers’ framework actually means for your roadmap, your GTM motion, and why AI has made some adopter categories much harder to reach — and others much easier. https://roadmap.one/blog/posts/blog44-early-stage-validation/ Tue, 14 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://roadmap.one/blog/posts/blog44-early-stage-validation/ Seven thinking tools for the stage before product-market fit — the stage where the honest answer to ‘should this idea ship at all?’ is usually no, or not yet, or not in this form. Problem-solution fit, riskiest assumption tests, assumption mapping, the Mom Test, MVP vs MLP vs MVA, Proof of Usefulness, and PMF measurement itself. Each framework answers a different question; sometimes the answer is ‘stop validating and ship’, sometimes it’s ‘stop building and listen’. This directory is for product leaders deciding which lens to pick up. https://roadmap.one/blog/posts/blog43-5-gartner-hype-cycle/ Tue, 14 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://roadmap.one/blog/posts/blog43-5-gartner-hype-cycle/ The Gartner Hype Cycle plots emerging technologies through five phases — Innovation Trigger, Peak of Inflated Expectations, Trough of Disillusionment, Slope of Enlightenment, Plateau of Productivity. Here’s how to use it as a roadmap tool rather than as conference wallpaper — when to bet on an emerging technology, when to wait, and why PE portfolio companies consistently get the timing wrong. https://roadmap.one/blog/posts/blog44-7-mvp-mlp-mva/ Tue, 14 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://roadmap.one/blog/posts/blog44-7-mvp-mlp-mva/ MVP, MLP, or MVA? Frank Robinson’s Minimum Viable Product was designed to learn, not ship. Brian de Haaff’s Minimum Lovable Product added an emotional bar. Minimum Viable Awesome (or Minimum Awesome Product) argues that in 2026 ‘minimum’ is the wrong target entirely. When building is nearly free, the only defensible goal is magnificent in at least one dimension — your crown jewel. https://roadmap.one/blog/posts/blog43-7-platform-business-models/ Tue, 14 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://roadmap.one/blog/posts/blog43-7-platform-business-models/ Platform business models — marketplaces, multi-sided platforms, ecosystems — don’t sell products. They orchestrate exchanges between participants and capture a share of the value. In the AI era, where build cost has collapsed, network effects are the one remaining moat that AI cannot erode. Here’s what that means for your roadmap, your PE valuation, and why platform plays dominate the next decade. https://roadmap.one/blog/posts/blog44-2-problem-solution-fit/ Tue, 14 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://roadmap.one/blog/posts/blog44-2-problem-solution-fit/ Problem-solution fit is the stage before product-market fit — the one where you prove the problem is worth solving before you spend a penny on building a solution. In the AI era, when building is nearly free, problem-solution fit is the only discipline that stops teams from shipping ten wrong products in the time it used to take to ship one. https://roadmap.one/blog/posts/blog43-1-product-lifecycle/ Tue, 14 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://roadmap.one/blog/posts/blog43-1-product-lifecycle/ The product life cycle has four stages — introduction, growth, maturity, decline — and every marketing textbook will tell you what they are. Almost none tell you what you actually need to know: how your roadmap, team shape, and resource allocation must change at each stage. Here’s the operating-model view of the product life cycle. https://roadmap.one/blog/posts/blog43-product-lifecycle-models/ Tue, 14 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://roadmap.one/blog/posts/blog43-product-lifecycle-models/ Product lifecycle models are thinking tools. Each one helps you reason about where a specific product currently lives and what it genuinely needs next — which may not be more engineering investment at all, but a different go-to-market motion. This directory covers nine lifecycle frameworks, each designed to prompt a different diagnostic question. https://roadmap.one/blog/posts/blog44-1-product-market-fit/ Tue, 14 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://roadmap.one/blog/posts/blog44-1-product-market-fit/ Product-market fit is the only milestone that matters for an early-stage product. AI has collapsed the cost of building, so measuring PMF — using Sean Ellis’s 40% test, the Rahul Vohra Superhuman engine, and retention cohorts — now matters more, not less. Here’s how to measure it honestly, diagnose fake PMF from a board seat, and allocate a minimum viable team to hunt it down. https://roadmap.one/blog/posts/blog44-3-proof-of-usefulness/ Tue, 14 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://roadmap.one/blog/posts/blog44-3-proof-of-usefulness/ Proof of Usefulness is a weighted scorecard from HackerNoon (April 2026) that rates early-stage products on real-world utility, traction, reach, technical stability, timing, and completeness. It’s not a canonical framework yet — but the weight distribution is a genuinely useful lens for boards and founders asking whether an early-stage bet is real or theatre. Here’s how to borrow what works without swallowing it whole. https://roadmap.one/blog/posts/blog44-4-riskiest-assumption-test/ Tue, 14 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://roadmap.one/blog/posts/blog44-4-riskiest-assumption-test/ A Riskiest Assumption Test (RAT) is the smallest possible experiment that can prove or kill the assumption most likely to sink your early-stage product. Rik Higham coined the term in 2016 as a corrective to the abuse of MVP. In 2026, when building is nearly free, the RAT is arguably the only unit of early-stage work worth funding. https://roadmap.one/blog/posts/blog43-6-s-curves/ Tue, 14 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://roadmap.one/blog/posts/blog43-6-s-curves/ The S-curve describes how most product and technology performance improves — slow at first, then rapid acceleration, then flattening as limits are approached. Here’s how to recognise when your current S-curve is flattening, how to time the jump to the next curve, and why most companies miss the moment entirely. https://roadmap.one/blog/posts/blog43-3-innovators-dilemma/ Tue, 14 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://roadmap.one/blog/posts/blog43-3-innovators-dilemma/ Clayton Christensen’s Innovator’s Dilemma explains why successful companies lose to disruptors they should have beaten. AI has made the problem worse, not better — disruptors now have near-zero build cost and only need to solve distribution. Here’s what that means for your roadmap and how to protect your own disruptive bets from your own best customers. https://roadmap.one/blog/posts/blog44-6-mom-test/ Tue, 14 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://roadmap.one/blog/posts/blog44-6-mom-test/ Rob Fitzpatrick’s The Mom Test (2013) is the canonical playbook for customer interviews that produce signal rather than polite lies. Talk about their life, not your idea. Ask about specific past behaviour, not hypothetical future intent. Extract commitment, not compliments. In 2026, when building is nearly free, Mom Test discipline is the single biggest separator of teams that find real products from teams that don’t. https://roadmap.one/blog/posts/blog41-okr-examples/ Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://roadmap.one/blog/posts/blog41-okr-examples/ 30+ OKR examples for product teams—framed as business problems, not features. Includes bad-to-good rewrites, real-world examples from Google and Intel, examples tagged by Run/Grow/Transform, and how each Objective connects to squad allocation on your roadmap. https://roadmap.one/blog/posts/blog40-okr-vs-kpi/ Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://roadmap.one/blog/posts/blog40-okr-vs-kpi/ KPIs are what you watch. OKRs are what you chase. KPIs tell finance what happened last quarter. OKRs tell product teams what to change next quarter. Here’s the complete guide to the difference—with real examples, common mistakes, and how the two work together on your roadmap. https://roadmap.one/blog/posts/blog39-product-operating-model/ Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://roadmap.one/blog/posts/blog39-product-operating-model/ The product operating model is how the best tech-powered companies work. I know because I was there — as CTO at Trainline, featured in Marty Cagan’s Transformed. Here’s what the product model actually looks like in practice, how we aligned 650 people around outcomes, and why I built RoadmapOne to make it repeatable. https://roadmap.one/blog/posts/blog36-culture-of-adequacy/ Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://roadmap.one/blog/posts/blog36-culture-of-adequacy/ Many teams have been conditioned into adequacy: shipping the bare minimum of everything and the full potential of nothing. Here’s the spectrum from Minimum Product to Maximally Awesome Product, and why your crown jewels deserve obsessive, beautiful, category-killing investment. https://roadmap.one/blog/posts/blog35-crown-jewels/ Wed, 04 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://roadmap.one/blog/posts/blog35-crown-jewels/ Every product has two or three capabilities that disproportionately matter to customers. Over time, product teams lose sight of these crown jewels—until a competitor does them slightly better and the loss ratio spikes. Here’s how to identify, protect, and relentlessly improve the features that define your product. https://roadmap.one/blog/posts/blog34-ship-it-and-move-on/ Wed, 04 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://roadmap.one/blog/posts/blog34-ship-it-and-move-on/ Your roadmap shows Feature X shipping in March, then the team immediately moves on. That’s the recipe for a mediocre product—an agglomeration of half-baked MVPs where nothing makes customers go ‘wow’. Here’s why great products need a second act.