Product Strategy for High Technology Companies (Marketing/Sales/Advertising & Promotion)

Eleven years after its first release and on my third reading of this book, I keep rediscovering its applicability to my professional life as a product strategy consultant. This is the most comprehensive book I’ve read on Product Strategy; The books have abundant references and anecdotes that are part of product management history. Some readers may question certain examples in the current context – however, we must remember the author’s constant nudge about strategy balancing; For anyone who invests in understanding the 5 key concepts (CSV Model,Product Platform and Line Strategy, MPP Framework ,Product Strategy process and PACE model), a chair at the product strategy table is guaranteed , no matter what type/scale/age your organisation is.If you know nothing about product strategy, this is the only book you need to read and if you already know something, this book gives you a structured approach and keeps you grounded in the fundamentals.The models and frameworks may seem simplistic to anyone who has a basic understanding of strategy development and product development process; However, most readers will be surprised at how often organisations overlook a detailed assessment of the fundamentals or are unable to articulate a coherent vision that can be used to develop pragmatic product strategy and build a product portfolio capable of sustaining and growing revenue over prolonged periods of time.

Cons
1. Part 3 of the book can easily be edited out or embedded into Parts 1 and 2 – It makes the reader meander through repetition of assertions made in earlier sections.
2. If you are looking for content on ‘Product-Service’ strategy or insights on how to wrap services into your product strategy, there isn’t a lot here.
3. This is not a textbook – As with most books written by consultants, the methods and details are reserved for a consultation 🙂

I don’t recommend buying the Kindle edition. The publisher limits it to be used on four devices simultaneously, which means you have to go back to your Kindle settings and de-register some devices if you hoped to read it, for instance on Kindle and iPad.
Also, the preparation of the Kindle edition is sloppy. There are no chapter markers, you have to jump back to the table of contents if you want to browse, and the publisher enforces the use of its font, which looks like a simple scan of the print version. As a result, the book is hard to read, looks bad on e-paper and has mid-line hyphenation marks.
If you think of paying extra for the Kindle edition, to enjoy a superior reading experience, think again and get a smelly, used hardcover, which will grant you more enjoyment.

I read this book five years and now found myself skimming it again. This book has a lot of substance and appealing frameworks. Most of the content is timeless and is still valid today. Here are a couple of basic takeaways that I still remember five years later:

* Focus on one single aspect of the product that you make unique and so entrenched in your whole system and business model that it cannot easily be copied by the competition. Then you copy everything else, just make it good enough. Now, the author describes this in more eloquent terms like “vector of differentiation”.

* Make a very clear distinction between product platform strategy and product strategy. The unique differentiator (what the author calls “defining technology”) should be a part of the platform.

However, for people in start-ups and smaller companies with rapidly changing markets and a high density of entrepreneurial personalities, some of the models are overly complex and the examples are mostly taken from large organizations. It’s hard to rally small organizations around a 3-year product plan and product lines when you can barely predict one quarter ahead.