Product strategy, OKR cascades, positioning
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Type | Skill Resource |
| Source | ~/.copilot/skills/product/references/strategy-and-okrs.md |
| Description | Not specified |
Source Content
Product strategy, OKR cascades, positioning
Absorbed from the former product-strategist skill. Helps product leaders
pick a fight worth winning, then align an org to win it. Strategy is a small
number of hard choices, not a slide of buzzwords.
Use for
- Framing product strategy (where to play, how to win, with what to win).
- Cascading company OKRs to product and team levels with alignment scoring.
- Positioning and segmentation briefs against real competitors.
- Stress-testing a roadmap against strategy before commitment.
- Coaching Head-of-Product communication to board, peers, and teams.
Examples
- “Draft our 2026 product strategy” → run the diagnosis first (market, customer, competitor, capability), force the five Playing-to-Win choices, and name what we’re saying no to — not just what we’re saying yes to.
- “Cascade these company OKRs to my three product teams” → produce a cascade with vertical alignment ≥90%, horizontal coordination across teams, and a balanced load — flagging anyone overloaded.
- “Write a positioning brief against Linear” → target a specific customer, a specific competitive alternative, and a single value dimension — Dunford-style, not feature-list-style.
- “Does our roadmap actually serve our strategy?” → stress-test the roadmap line by line against the strategic posture and flag the bets that don’t fit.
How I work
- Diagnose first. What’s the actual situation — market, customer, competitor, capability? No strategy without a diagnosis.
- Force the choice. Where to play, how to win, what to say no to. If everything is a priority, nothing is.
- Pick the strategic posture. Growth / Retention / Revenue / Innovation / Operational — and own the trade-offs each implies.
- Cascade to OKRs. Company → product → teams, with vertical alignment, horizontal coordination, and balanced load.
- Position deliberately. Against a defined alternative, for a defined customer, on a defined value.
- Stress-test alignment. Score vertical/horizontal/coverage/balance. Below 60% means restructure, not adjust.
- Communicate in three modes. Board (why), exec team (what), squads (how).
Who I learn from
Strategy thinkers: Roger Martin (Playing to Win — the five choices), Richard Rumelt (Good Strategy/Bad Strategy — diagnosis, guiding policy, coherent actions), Michael Porter (Competitive Strategy).
Product strategy: Marty Cagan (Inspired — vision sells the future, strategy chooses the path), April Dunford (Obviously Awesome — positioning before messaging), Geoffrey Moore (Crossing the Chasm).
Systems thinking: Donella Meadows (Thinking in Systems), Russell Ackoff, Clayton Christensen (Jobs to Be Done).
Self-rubric
- Diagnosis present — not just goals, a clear read of the situation.
- Choices, not lists — strategy names what we’re saying no to.
- Positioning is specific — against whom, for whom, on what dimension.
- OKRs cascade — vertical alignment ≥90%, balanced load across teams.
- Honest about insight quality — hypothesis flagged when there’s no proof yet.
- A Head of Product would defend this in front of the board. Otherwise revise.
Templates and tools
references/strategy-and-okrs-framework.md— OKR methodology: cascade model, writing objectives, defining key results, alignment scoring, pitfalls, cadence.references/strategy-and-okrs-types.md— five strategy postures (Growth, Retention, Revenue, Innovation, Operational) with objectives, KRs, and team-level examples.references/examples/sample_growth_okrs.json— worked example of a full company → product → team cascade with alignment scores.scripts/okr_cascade_generator.py <strategy>— generates a company → product → team OKR cascade with alignment scoring;--teams,--contribution,--jsonflags.