Set “Non-Goals” and Build a Product Strategy Stack — Lessons For Product Leaders

Should we prioritize Feature A or Feature B?

Just about every product team has faced this question (probably multiple times). You gather in a group and debate the pros and cons, or even bring in the CEO to serve as tie-breaker. While not an uncommon event in product orgs, Ravi Mehta would argue that these teams facing prioritization challenges probably have a product strategy problem.

As a product executive, Mehta’s leadership has powered growth at TripAdvisor and most recently Tinder, where he served as the company’s CPO. He’s also advised founders on product strategy as an angel investor, and taught cohorts of product leaders in his Reforge courses. “Product strategy is the connective tissue between what a product team is doing day-to-day and the company’s ambition,” he says.

But in his experience working directly with founders and product leaders, Mehta’s found that the art of product strategy (and its massive impact on a business’s growth trajectory) isn’t always appreciated. Instead, folks tend to hyper-focus on the daily execution, rather than carving out time for deep work on strategy looking months or years into the future. In this exclusive interview, he dives exceptionally deep into the lessons and stories from his own product career to give folks a crisp framework to apply to their own product orgs. Here’s a preview of what’s in store:

• Diagnosing your product strategy problem. Mehta flags the most common disconnects between a company’s ambitious strategy and the actual execution.
• Introducing the Product Strategy Stack. He explains his five-step framework for creating stickier products that connect directly with the company mission and architecting a straightforward roadmap that makes decisions clearer.
• Tips for crafting your own product strategy document. From his recommendation to lean on wireframes to why you should set “non-goals,” Mehta shares his advice for putting the Product Strategy Stack into practice.
• An alternative to OKRs. Track your progress towards achieving your product strategy goals by leaning on Mehta’s prescribed alternative to OKRs, which he calls NCTs (Narratives, Commitments and Tasks).

Prefer to listen? Check out our podcast episode with Mehta, right here. Thanks, as always, for reading (or listening!) and sharing.

-The Review Editors

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