The strategy mistake almost every product team makes
A roadmap tells you where you’re going.
A strategy tells you why it matters — and how you’ll win.
Every week, I talk to teams who say they’ve built a “strategy.”
They proudly share 20-slide decks, color-coded Notion pages, and neat-looking roadmaps.
But when I dig deeper — there’s no strategy there. Just prioritized features, launch plans, and frameworks with no context.
This isn’t because teams are careless.
It’s because strategy is hard to define, and even harder to build.
We often skip it because we don’t have a reliable process.
That’s why I keep returning to Ed Biden’s 7-step strategy framework — a simple, powerful sequence that helps teams connect vision to execution without losing focus.
Let’s walk through it.
Objective → What problem are we solving?
If you can’t define your problem, you don’t have a strategy.
You have a to-do list.
A real strategy doesn’t start with a launch plan. It starts with clarity.
- strWhat challenge are we responding to?
- Why does this matter now?
- What happens if we ignore it?
This isn’t just about goal-setting — it’s about focus. The objective anchors your strategic thinking in reality, not wishful planning.
Users → Who are we serving?
Not all users are created equal.
And when you build for everyone, you help no one.
A solid strategy is ruthlessly specific about its user. It answers:
- Who exactly are we solving for?
- What do they care about most?
- What are they already hacking around on their own?
Without this clarity, you end up building features no one uses — or worse, building for people who won’t stick around.
Superpowers → What makes us different?
If you compete where others are strongest, you lose.
Strategy is choosing to play where you win.
Competitive advantage isn’t just about having a better product — it’s about knowing your edge and committing to it.
Ask:
- What can we do 10x better than anyone else?
- What can’t be copied easily?
- What should we not do?
Strategy is as much about saying “no” as it is about defining what you do best.
Vision → Where are we going?
A roadmap tells you the next steps.
A vision tells you why those steps matter.
Here’s the trap: many product managers confuse strategy with vision.
But vision is a long-term aspiration. Strategy is how you make trade-offs to get there.
Without a compelling vision, your work feels transactional.
Without strategy, your vision remains a wish.
Pillars → What are our focus areas?
If everything is a priority, nothing is.
Great strategy creates focus through trade-offs.
Strategic pillars act as your guardrails. They define the key areas that matter most — and just as importantly, what doesn’t.
- What bets are we placing?
- What areas drive us closer to the vision?
- What are we intentionally leaving out?
Clarity here means your team can move fast without constantly asking for direction.
Impact → How do we measure success?
Vanity metrics create false confidence.
Real strategy tracks real outcomes.
It’s not enough to build — you need to know what success looks like.
- What business outcomes actually matter?
- What signals show we’re moving in the right direction?
- How will we learn, adapt, and recalibrate?
This is where many strategy docs fall short. They list tasks, not results. Impact — not output — is the north star.
Roadmap → How do we execute?
A roadmap should be a story of choices, not a backlog dump.
Roadmaps often become wishlists. They’re filled with ideas, features, and deadlines — but no strategic filter.
A strong roadmap emerges after you’ve defined the rest:
- It reflects user needs, not just stakeholder wants.
- It prioritizes problems to solve, not just features to ship.
- It evolves based on impact, not inertia.
This is the final step — not the first.
A Hard Truth Most Teams Miss
You might have a strategy doc.
But do you actually have a strategy?
If your strategy doesn’t:
- Connect vision to execution
- Define a competitive edge
- Prioritize trade-offs over timelines
Then what you have isn’t strategy.
It’s a roadmap.
It’s a list of hopes.
It’s noise.
Real strategy is a decision-making engine. It helps you move with purpose.
It tells your team what matters — and what to ignore.
Want to See How This Looks in Action?
Here’s a real breakdown of how I apply this framework:
Check out the full post here
