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M

Melissa Perri

CEO of Produx Labs & Founder of Product Institute

Produx Labs / Harvard Business School

🎯 Product Strategy (2)⚡ Execution (1)

Key Takeaways

  • 1.Most organizational issues stem from poor strategy deployment, not lack of training.
  • 2.The 'Missing Middle' is the gap between high-level company vision and tactical team execution.
  • 3.A CPO is needed when you move to a multi-product portfolio or complex expansion (approx. $20M+ ARR).
  • 4.Good product vision defines what you will NOT do, not just what you will do.
  • 5.Product Ops is essential for scaling data access, user research enablement, and process standardization.
  • 6.Don't standardize team rituals (like standups); standardize interfaces (roadmaps, reporting).

Methodologies(3)

🎯 Product Strategy

A hierarchical approach to connecting high-level business goals to daily work. It moves from Vision to Strategic Intents (business challenges), down to Product Initiatives (problems to solve), and finally to Options (solutions/features).

Core Principles

  • 1.Vision: A concrete future state (5-10 years) describing value and differentiation.
  • 2.Strategic Intents: High-level business challenges prioritized for the next 2-3 years (e.g., enter new market).
  • 3.Product Initiatives: Problem-oriented goals for VPs/Directors to solve to hit intents.
  • +1 more...

"If your executives don't know what you're doing, that's a big problem."

#deployment#missing#middle)
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⚡ Execution

Product Ops is not about managing product managers, but enabling them. It focuses on providing data inputs, scaling research capabilities, and standardizing the 'connective tissue' processes between product and other departments.

Core Principles

  • 1.Internal Data & Insights: Surfacing financial and usage data so PMs can track strategy progress.
  • 2.Customer & Market Research: Enabling scale (e.g., searchable interview databases) rather than centralizing execution.
  • 3.Process & Governance: Standardizing interfaces (roadmaps, quarterly reviews) with sales/execs, NOT team-level agile rituals.
  • +1 more...

"I don't care how a team does their stand-ups... But I do care what format your roadmap comes in."

#three#pillars#product
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🎯 Product Strategy

A method for creating a vision that acts as a true north star. It combines written narrative with visual storytelling to define differentiation and boundaries.

Core Principles

  • 1.Differentiation: Explicitly state how you are different from competitors and what value you bring.
  • 2.Exclusion: Clearly define what you will NOT do or become.
  • 3.Concreteness: Must be specific enough for teams to visualize the end state.
  • +1 more...

"A good vision is lofty, far enough away where you can't just be like, 'Oh, we build that one thing, we hit it.'"

#concrete#product#visioning
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