Chandra Janakiraman

AI can accelerate strategy work by performing massive competitive research and providing comprehensive 'mock' starting points.

"There are two ways to get AI to assist you in the strategy formulation process. The first is to support the preparation phase in terms of research... The second one is in this idea called generating m..."

The next frontier of product optimization is using LLMs to generate infinite UI/UX variations for automated testing agents.

"Imagine if those variations could actually be generated through generative AI and could be plugged into the advanced experimentation frameworks... you might be surprised by what you find is the winnin..."

Engaging leaders early prevents the 'fruit story' trap where reviewers reject a finished product because they weren't consulted on the ingredients.

"Leadership interviews are a very important part of a strategy formulation process... It could be made so much better if you just engage with your leaders before you actually build a strategy."

A successful rollout relies on securing individual buy-in from key decision-makers before presenting to the wider organization.

"I would start with what I call gatekeepers. And these are people who are absolutely... You have to get their one-on-one alignment and blessing on this before it moves forward."

Strategy is more likely to be accepted and effective if it is co-created by a cross-functional core team rather than a solo PM.

"The way to start this... is to actually form a strategy working group. This is an important concept. So the strategy working group is sort of a small team. It typically consists of engineering, produc..."

Strategy acts as the connective tissue between high-level purpose and tactical execution by mandating specific choices.

"Product strategy sits between the mission and vision and the plan... It forces choice to deploy scarce resources to generate maximum impact."

Big-S strategy requires a 'future-backward' approach that focuses on aspirational impact rather than just solving current problems.

"What does the product look like in five to 10 years? Why is the world better in 10 years? And what is the most exciting version of that view?"

Visualizing success through a simplified public narrative helps teams align on the ultimate benefit of their strategy.

"I want you to imagine the progress on all these strategic pillars and what the headline of that newspaper article looks like. It's called a newspaper headline approach."

Strategic prioritization requires evaluating opportunities based on impact, certainty, and the team's unique ability to solve them.

"What you then do is you... down select from those 10 to 15 opportunity areas into ideally three... ranking them on, I would say four or five key dimensions or criteria."

Competitive analysis should focus on inferring competitor strategies based on their explicit feature releases.

"The idea is you try to understand who are the comparables or the competitors in the space, and you sort of build a little bit of a head-to-head and sort a stack chart of where's everybody going..."

Effective strategy begins with a raw, uninhibited collection of the obstacles preventing growth or user satisfaction.

"The first step is really generating a whole bunch of problems... You start the day with, 'Hey, let's collect everybody's thoughts on what the problems are that are holding us back.'"

Strategy should be informed by a high-level synthesis of existing behavioral data and research rather than starting from scratch.

"The ask is really to create a meta analysis of all of the analysis... scan the historical archives at the company and sort of synthesize and condense that into a very sort of digestible macro themes."