Avoid the Strategy Templates Myth. Do this Instead.
One of the most typical requests of people looking to learn about or deploy a product strategy is, “where is the template I can use to fill it with all my …ideas…”. Or “where can I find a good strategy document from another company I can inspire on?”
In theory, this sounds like a great question to ask! You would know what sections to pay attention to, confirm how it should look, avoid missing any significant part, and have a solid argument to share with peers and stakeholders when they ask why you describe your strategy in this particular format.
Unfortunately, I have never seen a good strategy emerge from following a template or completing blank sections.
“Why? Why such a good idea that works in other cases wouldn’t work for strategy?” you may ask… let’s try to get to the root of the problem.
1. Strategy focuses are fundamentally different
It would not be a surprise that the strategies we develop are radically different depending on the product, industry, maturity, company size, and a myriad of other topics.
While “difference” may be an important reason, it wouldn’t completely solve the question, though… we have good templates for other topics that vary widely (think a P&L spreadsheet template, for instance).
But the strategy document has a very concrete communication goal: it must signal to every reader the most important topic you are trying to focus on with this “new” strategy. When communicating it, you must focus on what is essential for you.
Many canvases have different attributes, like your customer segments, offering, distribution, and so on. While all of it is important, when communicating and deploying a “new” strategy, you have limited space and attention to highlight the most important things. If customer segments are the same as always, you need to make sure people know about them (like including it in onboarding for new employees), but they don’t need to be part of your crucial strategy summary.
Furthermore, you want to create focus. You don’t focus on the important stuff by filling a predefined template including all possible sections.
2. Avoid mindless “fill in the blanks”
Product strategy requires very active and particular thinking to detect through insights the most fundamental problems or opportunities you must act upon.
Templates can give you confidence about paying attention to all aspects of strategy. But they also provide a “To Do” list, shifting your mindset to task mode and risking mutating into a checklist zombie, where you just complete bullets to get it done.
While you may think this would not happen to you, I regret to say this usually happens to everyone with any template. On the one hand, you will eventually see a deadline approaching and rush through any missing item to complete your strategy. And on the other hand, it is simply human nature and our dopamine reward system when completing tasks 🤷♂️
3. “It was not part of the template”
I could say that the first two items were about avoiding completing items just because they were on a template. But given the strategy templates out there, we also risk the opposite: not including something worth sharing.
Let me make it more concrete with an example: most strategy canvases (one of many types of templates) include the topics like your target group, their needs, your offering, the business model, and so on. All this refers to what you selected or defined as the new strategy.
But many times, when making a compelling argument for having selected this strategy, you also need to include why you made this selection. A combination of the current situation, competitors, or other factors led you to focus on this particular path. It would hurt the ability to understand and execute the strategy if you don’t include these items simply because you have no place to put them on your canvas.
While this is simply an example, you will likely need to highlight something in your communication that is either missing or not prominent enough in any template you can choose from.
What to do about it?
Writing a “don’t do” article would be easy for me. But that probably won’t be very helpful 😬
The solution, not surprisingly probably, is that you need to:
- Avoid committing to any single template: you can choose the best tool for each situation if you know many options. Depending on your strategy, some templates may work better than others, and you can combine what fits your needs.
- Adapt: don’t start your strategy process by looking at the template you need to fill. First, identify your strategy, then use a template to synthesize it, and adapt everything to the focus areas and the message you must highlight.
This is the approach I deepen in my book, Product Direction. I propose several tools for each step in the strategy creation process (including the synthesis and communication, even with a Strategy Template!). Not to say that you should use all of them, but to give you an array of options to select and adapt depending on your context.
Furthermore, this approach helps you cover two other needs:
- Feel reassured: knowing many tools and templates helps you identify what you need to put in your strategy.
- Stakeholders: if you need to build trust, show them that you are standing on the shoulder of people who have done this before. Note that this may require some background, like showing the original templates and explaining why you adapted them.
In summary, using templates is excellent, as long as you start by defining the strategy and then use a combination and adaptation of several of them to build your message.
This content is related to my book Product Direction. In it, I describe in length, with tools and examples, all the steps to create a successful product strategy and how to connect it with OKRs.
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