How do you adapt your product strategy in uncertain environments?

This is our current situation - we are at war. Buckle down, focus on your existing customers. Listen very carefully and deliver the best product you can as fast as you can. By best product I mean make sure they can't function without your product - move as far as you can from nice to have to essential. That has to be the goal when resources are limited, travel is limited and circumstances are unstable. The stronger your recommendations from your existing customers, the higher your likelihood of leveraging your current customers into new customers. Narrow in on your target: by geography, sector or network but really focus in to make sure you are leveraging your efforts in a way that will pay off. You will come out of the situation stronger.

It's important to understand whether they're temporary or permanent changes. If it's the former then you can ride out the storm by de-risking your short-term strategy. Permanent changes may require a pivot, perhaps even changing your product vision. For example, the recent pandemic accelerated a trend towards flexible and remote working, and arguably we will never return to the previous model of workers commuting into cities daily. Therefore you might adapt your proposition to more closely match this model, or even create new propositions (or retire them) in the face of such an impactful change. Many companies fail to plan on the basis of long-term trends - you can find an advantage if you "watch where the puck is going, not where it is."

In times of uncertainty, it is crucial to adapt product strategies to ensure resilience. Embracing agility will help make swift adjustments while monitoring market trends and diversifying product offerings will provide stability. It is important to stay connected to customers to receive feedback, assess risks, and foster innovation and partnerships. Additionally, wise cost management and open communication are crucial. Continuous testing and adaptation are key for a flexible and responsive approach, which in turn ensures a strong and current product strategy.

All environments are uncertain. Certainty is an illusion. Assumptions are a relic of old command and control planning models, they will break in modern uncertain environments. When you have assumptions, it will always be someone else's fault and you'll lack leadership as a result. You won't be addressing the actual situation of uncertainty, you'll be stunting your ability to learn. To address this, "Assessing the situation" must end with with documenting your beliefs (not assumptions) about the items listed. What do you believe to be true; Where Assumptions lack ownership; Beliefs say we took a stand and came up with a hypothesis...maybe we are wrong , we'll confidently learn and adapt if so.

Watch how your customers use your products and adapt your product package accordingly to overcome issues they have using your product. 1. You know the product better than anyone create an installation package suppling everything to protect your product based on known vulnerabilities. 2. Example: I had a customer that used hundreds of our blowers on their dry bulk trailers just because of it’s pressure rating. The issues were speed control and pressure relief. Each location secured their own installation accessories. 3. My solution was to offer them the complete installation package with everything required included. The first order was for 500 kits and the problem was solved. That is how I became know as a ‘Big Picture Consultant’.

Even before that, there is one more important thing you need to realize about strategy: it only makes sense until it makes sense. If there is a major shift in the market, one of the first things to ask is whether the current strategy still makes sense. While it might not be the most politically sound solution, you should prioritize the user and business value. If the strategy can't provide that, you need to change the strategy asap.

In today's unpredictable market, reshaping product strategy demands a 'Deep Dive Approach.' Activate 'Sensory Nodes' to detect market sentiment changes using AI tools and human feedback. Use 'Scenario Simulations' for dynamic, multidimensional projections instead of linear ones. Embrace 'Fluid Roadmapping,' letting your plan adapt like water to its environment. And foster 'Collaborative Echo Chambers' for team innovation and collective decision-making. In this ever-changing landscape, view every shift as a chance to adapt and grow.

Unfortunately for our planet and human beings in March 2020 a global pandemic killed millions and locked down the whole economy for more than 2 years with regions still in limbo. During those times I was leading the commercial unit of a security company with all business clients being closed and everyone at home thus not needed our services. It took me few minutes to realize that this is an once in a lifetime situation for everyone to upgrade or install systems at their places of work and while being home to fix their systems and make sure they worked fine. The result was a 5X in sales!

Uncertainty almost always means being adaptable to changing conditions whether those conditions are internal or external factors. To avoid making the team feel a sense of whiplash should execution need to change with the conditions, talk with the team about thresholds for tolerable risk. Something to the affect of, “We’re going to do A because of 1 & 2. If 3 or 4 happen, we will consider options B or C depending on these following factors…” This kind of conversation gets the team involved as a part of solutioning and makes them feel trusted and bought into the plan understanding ahead of time how their roadmap might shift and why it might shift before it does.

I’m surprised brand isn’t mentioned here. Never allow your product strategy to compromise your brand. You can always tweak your products by adopting agile methods, but don’t allow those changes to corrupt your brand strategy.

Based on my assessment, as I explained, I enhanced our strategy during the pandemic until everything came back online. It was a strategy within a strategy that made complete sense with incredible results. Don't lose focus on your long term strategy but be agile in order to adjust accordingly.

Need to focus on long term product stategy for no compromise. However, things can be agiled for shorter focus and priority in order to make our product success in the uncertain Market situation.

Drawing from my experience in Africa, dealing with different countries, personas, and regulations has taught me the hard way about the importance of staying flexible and ready to pivot in uncertain environments. Navigating these diverse and often unpredictable landscapes has underscored the need for continuous learning, quick adaptation, and a culture where feedback is rapidly integrated. This challenging journey has been invaluable in shaping a more resilient and innovative approach to product strategy.

Focus on your short term revised strategy and try to obtain as much results as possible in order to validate your assumption. I enabled my sales team to cold call hundreds of existing clients in order to review the idea and come back with the final results. It was a 24.7 job for 5 days and thousands of calls that made perfect sense!

Embrace agile methodologies as these frameworks enable adaptability, allowing teams to respond swiftly to changing requirements and deliver incremental value.

Continuous learning and adoption is always best practice to follow for the successful deliverables, and ensuring the best team effort to colleabrate on adoptable changes. Always learning and documentation are much important to spread the knowledge across the team. Which includes internal and external stakeholder of the oraganization.

This is the most important step of any Product Strategy. A Product Strategy that is not bought into by stakeholders, is just a pie in the sky. If stakeholders do not believe in the product strategy, they are unlikely to support it, and it is unlikely to succeed.

Another key aspect of communication for product strategy in uncertain environments is that many of the needed team members and key stakeholders will have expertise areas different from your own. Developing a common language that all team members and key stakeholders understand will be essential to building trust and the working relationships necessary to align on and achieve the collaborative vision.

Main criteria for successful product deliverables is to have open & transparent communication. Keep everyone in the team on the same page with equal knowledge of information that has been set and valued everyones input on that. Even their inputs are less important or not considered. Make sure the strategy roadmap on long term, short term has been communicated and aligned with stakeholder to seek their comments to adust or to improve the product strategy. Revisting or validating product roadmap is also equally important time-to-time.

Remember, strategy is only a framework to help you reach your goals. It's not a holy tablet to follow! It needs to make sense and inspire. The moment it no longer meets those parameters, you need to act!

Uncertainty is opportunity. If your business is facing challenges, your competitors are as well. Evaluate your position (4P) Examine your competitors strengths & weaknesses Figure out how to defend your core Identify how to attack and grow when others are shrinking Act now. Your competitors are looking to do the same to you...

Develop a resilient product strategy from the start. Make sure to spend resources sufficient to carefully map product risks and viable responses to those. Include metrics that are sensitive to changes in the business environment and frequently monitor those in order to pivot proactively.