You Don’t have a Prioritization Problem, You have a Strategy Problem by Ant Murphy

Are you always struggling with deciding which features to prioritize and which to abandon? According to Ant Murphy, the reason is simple, you don’t have a prioritization problem, you have a strategy problem.

In this article, we establish the basis of this sentiment. We explain how to create a successful product strategy, the role of product strategy in prioritization, and how to align your prioritization efforts with your strategy.

However, to learn more, you’ll have to listen to the man himself as he develops the topic at the 2024 Product Drive Summit.

TL;DR

• Ant Murphy is a product coach and founder of Product Pathways who strongly believes that great product teams build great products.
• Product prioritization is the ranking of features, functionalities, and improvements in a product, given your limited resources.
• Product strategy is a plan that outlines what an organization hopes to achieve with its product – and how.
• To create a successful product strategy, you’ll need to research your market, identify your target audience, and define your unique value proposition.
• Next, create a product roadmap that outlines your product development process and a pricing strategy that keeps you competitive.
• Finally, after implementing the strategy, gather data through surveys and analytics to identify areas for improvement.
• Taking the time to create a good product strategy makes your prioritization process easier. It gives you clarity, prevents feature creep, and helps you avoid the HiPPO effect.
• Once you’ve crafted your strategy, approach prioritization in 3 layers. First, prioritize your goals. Then, prioritize a handful of opportunities within your goal. Finally, prioritize features and ideas.
• Book your place in the summit today to learn more about these prioritization layers and get actionable steps for creating an effective product strategy.

Who is Ant Murphy?

Ant Murphy is a product coach and founder of Product Pathways. He has worked with product managers from small startups to large enterprises and strongly believes that great product teams build great products.

Ant’s strongest desire is to help product people have a greater impact and help more companies adopt the product model. As a result, he regularly speaks at conferences and shares his thoughts in a newsletter.

What is product prioritization?

Product prioritization is a process of determining which product features, functionalities, or improvements should be addressed and released first, given limited resources (time, budget, and personnel).

According to Ant, however, “Prioritization doesn’t happen in a vacuum.” Indeed, he adds, “The first question we should be asking ourselves when it comes to prioritization is whether it aligns with our strategy.”

What is product strategy?

Product strategy is the overarching plan that outlines what a business aims to achieve with its product or service and how it plans to get there.

A good strategy, thus, becomes the blueprint for a product’s journey.

How to create a successful product strategy

Ant notes that your product strategy is where you want to begin before addressing the prioritization process. Without addressing your strategy problem, you’re going to struggle with prioritization.

So, how can you create a successful product strategy? There are four key steps to follow:

1. Perform market research and define your target audience

A successful product strategy is built on a solid foundation of customer understanding. Thus, you must conduct thorough market research to understand who your ideal customer is and what they need.

Define your target audience based on this research and divide that audience into smaller groups. For each group, create a detailed persona highlighting their jobs to be done, pain points and challenges, and how they’ll benefit from your product.

As part of your research, you also need to study the wider market. What are your competition’s strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities? What market gaps have they left? How are market trends evolving?

2. Define your value proposition and messaging

Armed with an understanding of your market, it’s time to position your product for success. Create a compelling long-term product vision and a clear mission highlighting your product’s purpose and goals.

You’ll also need to define a unique value proposition (UVP) that articulates what makes your product different and conveys your product’s value to customers.

For example, the UVP for an AI-powered content optimization tool could be “Accelerate content performance by 50% with AI-driven insights and automated optimization.”

You can then create a compelling product message from this UVP that tells your story and addresses your target audience’s pain point.

If you’re unsure how well your message resonates with your audience, you can use a tool like Wynter to test your message. Wynter’s message-testing tool will tell you what parts of your message resonate with the audience, what confuses them, and what misses the mark.

3. Create a product roadmap

Once you’ve nailed your message, you need to create a product roadmap. This roadmap should define key stages of your product’s development and set clear milestones for you.

A good product roadmap should also set out your initial plans for prioritizing features. You may also adopt a prioritization framework here to help you prioritize.

4. Implement your strategy and improve based on data

With every component of your strategy in place, it’s implementation time.

As you implement the strategy, closely monitor the key product metrics and measure them against internal and external benchmarks.

A good product strategy is flexible. As the data pours in, identify what’s working and what needs change.

What role does product strategy play in prioritization?

In his Prioritization Essentials course, Ant notes, “If your strategy doesn’t help you say no to any items on your backlog, it’s too broad. A strategy that doesn’t sharpen focus by eliminating work is not a strategy.”

Ant further notes that “A strategy is a set of choices… to do something, to be something.” This means that your product strategy defines your product direction. When you decide to do something, you also decide NOT to do something.

As a result, your product strategy gives you clarity. It keeps you from changing your product in unintended directions as you think of more “good ideas”. It also ensures your prioritization efforts aren’t subjective and unfocused.

Having a clear strategy also keeps you from falling prey to the HiPPO effect, where senior leadership and the highest-paid person’s opinion almost exclusively dictate product priorities.

No wonder, then, Ant says, for the most part, you don’t have a prioritization problem, you have a strategy problem. A good strategy makes the prioritization process a lot easier and more effective.

How to align the prioritization process with product strategy

How can you align your prioritization process with product strategy and improve your decision-making? Consider three helpful practices.

Prioritize your product goals first instead of prioritizing ideas

Good prioritization, according to Ant, must be done in layers, and the first of these layers is your product goals. This is a great first step, as your goals must align directly with your overall product strategy.

By prioritizing your goals first, you ensure the product stays within the confines of the direction set out by your strategy. On the other hand, prioritizing features first can lead to a product with many features but no clear focus.

Prioritize a handful of opportunities within your goal

Goals can sometimes be broad. Hence, Ant advises prioritizing opportunities and short-term outcomes within those goals as your

This means identifying the most important business and customer needs within those goals and ranking them accordingly.

This layer of prioritization maximizes your chances of success by ensuring your resources aren’t spread too thin. By focusing on a smaller set of initiatives, you can iterate quickly and learn from your results.

Prioritize features and ideas for driving customer outcomes

Finally, you can focus on prioritizing ideas, solutions, and features. For this prioritization layer, your goal is to ensure your product delivers adequate value to customers.

To ensure your feature prioritization efforts align with customer needs, use customer feedback and analytics to inform prioritization. Always prioritize features that directly impact customer satisfaction.

For example, rather than prioritize a feature because it’s technically feasible, prioritize it based on how it solves a customer pain point or improves the overall product experience.

Want to learn more about product strategy and prioritization?

At the 2024 Product Drive Summit on October 9, Ant Murphy will address this topic in greater detail in a talk titled “You don’t have a prioritization problem, you have a strategy problem.”

In the talk, he’ll explain the role product strategy plays in prioritization and set out a simple process for creating an effective product strategy that you can implement immediately.

Are you ready to improve your prioritization process? Book your place today!