Guest: Chandra Janakiraman - Chief Product Officer and Executive Vice President at VRChat. Chandra has been a product leader at Meta, Headspace, Zynga, and Amazon, and has developed a comprehensive operator's guide to product strategy. Key Takeaways: Five-Stage Process for Small-S Strategy: This involves preparation, a strategy sprint, a design sprint, document writing, and rollout, typically taking 8-12 weeks. The focus is on solving current problems with a two-year horizon. Importance of Preparation: Spend significant time gathering insights from behavioral data, user research, leadership interviews, competitive analysis, and user observations to inform strategy. Strategy Sprint Core: Identify and cluster problems, flip them into opportunities, and prioritize using criteria like impact potential, confidence, clarity of levers, and differentiation. Big-S Strategy for Aspirational Goals: Focuses on long-term vision (3-10 years), generating distinct futures, and testing prototypes to inspire and guide strategic direction. AI's Role in Strategy: AI can assist in research and generating mock strategies, but human judgment is crucial for focusing and prioritizing strategic choices. Topics Covered: Product strategy definition, Small-S vs. Big-S strategy, Five-stage strategy process, Leadership alignment, AI in strategy formulation, Zynga and Meta strategy examples, Importance of execution and iteration.
