Product Strategy

To win in business, you must be either a low-cost provider or differentiated. If you’re neither, competitors can “bully” you and take market share. Two questions can help you figure out whether you’re winning in these ways. First, could you match competitor price decreases and remain more profitable than them? If not, you’re not a low-cost provider... See more

A wedge seems most essential when you’re going after a market that is (1) entrenched or (2) crowded. When it’s hard to break in head-on.

“Wedge selection should be very intentional. Don’t just build for the first customer persona you think of or the closest city to where you live. Build for the group that has the most acute pain point, or the highest willingness to pay, or the fastest sales cycles. The more carefully you pick your wedge, the easier it will be to succeed and to expan... See more

My number one predictor of whether or not a company will find product-market fit: High shipping cadence.

Broadly, the best way to get better at developing strategy:

1. Spend time understanding your market (including your competition)


2. Spend time understanding your customers and their needs


3. Spend time crafting and executing strategies — and learn from those experiences


4. Study colleagues who are great strategic thinkers


5. Read about strategy

why they consider it a must-have, they type of people they think will benefit most from your product, the key benefit they receive from the product, etc. With this information, you can hone your product targeting, positioning, onboarding, and even the long term product roadmap.

To pick a wedge, find a large market and then:

1. Pick a very narrow (and very painful) problem


2. Pick a very specific segment of people to solve that problem for

• Team Mission : Make it easy and fun to book a home on Airbnb


• Team Vision : If you see it, you can book it


• Team Strategy : Transition the Airbnb marketplace from a “Request to Book” model to an “Instant Book” model, by (1) giving hosts all of the tools they need to be successful with Instant Book, (2) incentivizing hosts to enable Instant Book, and

... See more