Hey! Do You All Wanna See My Product Strategy and Innovation Crash Course?

This is part 1 of 2.

What is “Product?” With a capital “P.”

I’m not asking what is “a” product, with a lower case “p.” We all know what that is. Kind of.

I’m talking about the science of ideating, building, delivering, and selling your company’s lower-case-p product.

Product has changed dramatically over the last 2-3 years as AI has redefined it, and the CPO role has begun to align with the “CAIO” role. I believe, philosophically, this is a good thing.

Mostly because this is taking place after another dramatic change over the prior 5-7 years (let’s say 2017 - 2024), that saw the Product team flooded with project managers and other types whose only relationship to the product was getting new versions of it shipped more faster. This was a terrible thing.

All along, probably from the late 1990s, the science of Product has seen many more minor upheavals in its techniques, methods, and overall function. But I’ve been there for the whole ride, and I can tell you that the root of Product science breaks down into three categories.

Strategy and Innovation. Build and Delivery. Go-To-Market and Growth.

I’ve done books. I’ve done white papers. I’ve done informal guides, including one here that I’m not going to link to because I think this post should replace it. Because capital-P-Product is a moving target, but the foundation, if you can distill it properly, should always be the same.

Here’s my latest stab at distillation of Product Strategy and Innovation, an overview of the “crash course” I’m using with real companies in the real world. This post will cover Foundation, Function, and Moat Development.