Free tools · Elle Anderson · andersonco.uk

The Product Strategy One-Pager

If your product strategy can't survive one page, it isn't a strategy yet; it's a wish list with formatting. Fill this in, then run the five tests below. Print it, or fight over it on screen.

1. Where we play

The customer, the problem space, the boundaries. Must name who we are NOT for.

2. The insight we're betting on

What we believe that competitors either don't see or won't act on. If this line could appear in their strategy unchanged, it isn't an insight.

3. How we win

Two or three capabilities that make us the right ones. Things we do that others measurably don't. Not adjectives.

4. The bets

Three to five hypotheses: we believe [change] for [who] will produce [outcome], measured by [number] by [date]. Every roadmap line must trace to one.

5. What we are saying no to

Real options someone senior wanted, declined in writing. No refusals means untested.

6. What would change our mind

The evidence that would kill or reshape each bet. Decided now, while nobody defends sunk cost.

The five tests

  1. The reversal test. Negate it. If the opposite is absurd, the original was a platitude.
  2. The Monday test. Can a team lead decide something differently on Monday because of this page?
  3. The stranger test. Could an outsider match last quarter's shipped work to this page?
  4. The funeral test. Which bet, if it died, would actually hurt? If none, you haven't bet anything.
  5. The tense test. Count the sentences about what you WILL BE. Strategy lives in what you will DO.
How I run the writing: one author, never a committee; committees produce ceasefires. Draft in an hour, spend the real time on boxes 4 to 6 with the leadership team, because the bets, the refusals and the kill criteria are where alignment is forged.
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