What a good product strategy looks like (and who owns it)

A "Product-led" company is an aim for many founders. Few can explain what that really means. Fewer still have a product strategy that guides decisions, aligns teams, and scales with the company.

Product strategy is one of those concepts that gets thrown around a lot, often without real definition. But when it’s missing, you feel it. Teams lose focus.

Roadmaps can become grab bags (whoever shouts loudest gets their feature grabbed first), and features ship, but things aren’t moving the needle.

We want to help you be clear on what product strategy really is - how to spot a good one, who should own it, and why it’s one of the most important things your startup will ever do.

Product strategy ≠ a roadmap

First things first: a roadmap is a list of things you plan to build. A product strategy is the logic behind why you’re building them.

A good product strategy links your company’s vision to user outcomes and translates that into actionable priorities. It gives your team a shared lens for making trade-offs. Without it, even smart, capable people will start pulling in different directions, because they don’t have a common framework for deciding what matters.

If you’ve ever found yourself saying, “This feature feels important, but I’m not sure why,” you probably don’t have a product strategy, yet...

As Jono Hey, one of our Product mentors, warns:

It's easy for product strategy to disappear into people's heads as a company grows, and soon you'll find that you all have different ideas. Getting it down so everyone can see it is a valuable step to make sure everyone's rowing in the same direction.

What a good strategy looks like

A strong product strategy is both focused and bold. It makes clear bets and says “no” more than it says yes. It tells your team not just what to build, but what kind of company you’re trying to become.

At its best, a product strategy includes:

• A clear articulation of your product’s purpose - what problem it solves, for whom, and why now.

• A sharp definition of your target customer (not “everyone”).

• A focused view of your competitive advantage - what makes you different or better.

• A small number of strategic priorities that guide feature decisions, investment, and resource allocation.

It should be short enough to remember, sharp enough to argue with, and useful enough to steer decisions when your paths is a little uncertain.

If it doesn’t help your PM, designer, or engineer say “this fits” or “this doesn’t,” it’s not strategy. It’s fluff.

Jono adds:

Add colour, richness, believability and tangibility to your product strategy by including a story or quotes from your target customers about the problem you're solving for them and why it matters. Customer stories bring strategy to life.

Who owns product strategy?

This is not a straightforward question. Product strategy sits at the intersection of founder vision, customer need, and team execution.

In early-stage startups, the founder usually owns the product strategy, explicitly or not. This makes sense because they are closest to the vision. They probably started the company to solve a specific problem. But as the company grows, the strategy needs to evolve and become more collaborative.

In our view: the founder owns the “why” and the “where” (market and distribution), the product team owns the “how.”

Founders define the ambition and the stakes for which the team and company is playing. But it’s the product team that translates that vision into a working, evolving plan for the product. As you hire PMs and product leaders, part of their job is to pressure-test the strategy, bring in user and market insight, and ensure that what you're building today lines up with where you want to be in a year.

The best strategies are co-created. They reflect founder intent, but they also integrate what the team is learning on the ground.

Jono reflects:

Work on articulating and evolving your product strategy together - road-test it and reinforce it in product, investor, and board meetings. It should add clarity to your decision-making and be something everyone can get behind and understand.

Why so many startups get this wrong

It’s tempting to skip product strategy when you’re moving fast. You start with a strong vision, you get some traction, and the roadmap grows organically from customer requests, investor nudges, or whatever feels most urgent.

The result of this process is a product that’s reactive, not intentional. You end up serving five different customer types, with half-built solutions for all of them. You burn engineering cycles and erode focus. Without product strategy, your product becomes just a bundle of features. It stops feeling like a coherent solution for your customers and by extension, if you’re seeking to raise from VCs,

Putting it into practice

The good news is that to us, a single page that lays out your product’s core beliefs, customer focus, and key bets can be enough. You should talk about it constantly, use it in roadmap planning, hiring and investor updates. Please don’t write it and then forget about it – it’s easily done because you’re spinning many plates. Strategy isn’t about certainty, it’s about committing to a direction, knowing you’ll need to adjust. It’s how you scale with clarity.

If you’re growing a product function, product strategy is your cornerstone, meaning that if you can get it right, everything else gets easier.

As Jono sums up:

Product strategy is a compass. If it's not helping you say 'no', it's not doing its job.