Make Things That Matter

Nacho Bassino: How to build your first product strategy

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Episode notes

Nacho Bassino is a veteran product leader and the author of Product Direction, one of my go-to books on how to actually generate a product strategy. There are many excellent books out there on strategy as a whole, but surprisingly few that specifically cover product strategy.

Topics discussed:

(00:02:12) Nacho's background

(00:09:23) How leaders can adapt to others' communication and cross-cultural preferences

(00:10:50) Strategy: defining problems and prioritizing solutions

(00:19:44) Painful, but typical; a fake strategy

(00:24:20) Time and team needed for first big strategy creation

(00:30:17) Three key aspects of quarterly reviews: OKRs, roadmaps, and Opportunity Solution Trees

(00:35:33) Connection between impact, outcomes, and initiatives with revenue generation

(00:40:11) Empowerment: teams' accountability and autonomy

(00:51:36) Nacho's hard product leadership call

(00:58:15) Strategy for startups vs larger companies

(00:59:02) How the opportunity space expands with company growth

Links & resources mentioned

Find the full transcript at: https://podcast.makethingsthatmatter.com/nacho-bassino-build-your-first-product-strategy/#transcript

* Send episode feedback on Twitter @askotzko , or via email

* Nacho Bassino

* Website, LinkedIn

* Book: Product Direction

* Podcast: 100 Product Strategies

Related episodes:

* #68 Adam Thomas: Operationalizing product strategy

Books:

* Product Direction

* The Culture Map

* Playing to Win

* Product Roadmaps Relaunched

Other resources and articles:

* A product strategy acid test

* What is "strategy"?

* Burnout as a strategy problem

* Should leaders be prescriptive about strategy?

* Product strategy: focus vs prioritization

* Execs care about revenue, how get to care about outcomes?