About Adriana:

Adriana Ellice Flint is an accomplished product leader with a wealth of experience in senior roles. Adriana's career in financial services began as a product advisor, and she has since risen to become a Vice President of Product. Currently the VP of Product at receeve, Adriana's expertise in connecting the vision and mission of a company to short-term goals and objectives is essential in achieving success. Her ability to navigate the bigger picture while keeping an eye on the details makes her an invaluable asset to any team. 

Synopsis:

In this episode of The Technology Leadership Podcast, Adriana discusses the importance of product strategy and the pillars of strategy. Product strategy helps connect a company's vision and mission to its short-term goals and objectives, allowing for both the consideration of the bigger picture and the navigation of details in the short term. She breaks down the four pillars of strategy: participants, subjects, processes, and dimensions and emphasizes the importance of partnerships, which can be commercial or non-commercial. Furthermore, she suggests that businesses should look at their long-term strategy at least once a year, during the annual planning process, and that product strategy should always be a subset of the overall business strategy. Adriana suggests that by bringing together product strategy and business strategy, product leaders can ensure that their companies hit their goals for the next three to five years.

Key Takeaways:

• Product strategy is a concept that connects a company's vision and mission to short-term goals and objectives to achieve success.
• Product strategy ties together product management and the rest of the company. It allows for the consideration of the bigger picture while navigating the details in the short term.
• A product leader can influence or help a company build an adaptable and flexible strategy that can adjust execution, speed, and investment as necessary.
• The four pillars of strategy are participants, subjects, processes, and dimensions.
  • Participants include investors, employees, and customers, while subjects refer to entities that influence the business.
  • Processes are the methods used to bring up ideas and create a tangible plan, and dimensions refer to different aspects of a business.
  • Partnerships, both commercial and non-commercial, should be considered in a product strategy.
• Long-term strategy should be looked at least once a year during the annual planning process, and inputs like competitive research and market analysis should be continuous.
• Having a framework and processes set up correctly allows for more confidence in planning resources, investments, and deliverables.
• Product strategy should be a subset of overall business strategy, and a product leader should always start by asking about the business strategy.
• Product strategy and business strategy should be brought together to hit goals for the next three to five years.

Episode Outline:

[00:15 ] Meet Adriana Ellice Flint
[00:09 ] Why is product strategy important?
[02:43 ] Goals: From operational and executional levels
[05:19 ] How product leaders step in to plan and execute product strategies
[08:38 ] How to plan out the next steps of a product strategy without losing continuity.
[13:49 ] Macroeconomics and strategy: The biggest shifts and changes in the macroeconomic climate over the past few years
[15:50 ] Breaking down the four pillars of a product strategy
[23:59 ] How often should businesses be thinking about their product strategy?[24:39 ] How often should business leaders stay back thinking about risks, changing market conditions, and competitions?
[28:04 ] How to come up with a product strategy