Lenny's Podcast

How to create a winning product strategy | Melissa Perri

Every company wants to develop a winning strategy—but what are signs your strategy isn’t working, and how do you change course? Melissa Perri has worked trained PMs and product leaders at nearly all the Fortune 100 companies, and in this conversation shares how to reset a struggling strategy, align your team, and build winning strategy. Join us. Find the full transcript here: https://www.podpage.com/lennys-podcast/how-to-create-a-winning-product-strategy-melissa-perri/#transcript — Thank you to our wonderful sponsors for making this episode possible: • Amplitude: https://amplitude.com/ • RevenueCat: https://www.revenuecat.com/ • Makelog: https://www.makelog.com/lenny — Where to find Melissa: • Website: https://melissaperri.com/ • Twitter: https://twitter.com/lissijean • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissajeanperri/ — Where to find Lenny: • Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com • Twitter: https://twitter.com/lennysan • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/ — Referenced: • Melissa’s Book: https://melissaperri.com/book — In this episode, we cover: [00:00] What to expect with guest Melissa Perri [02:57] Melissa’s incredibly vast experience working with product manager’s [04:20] Melissa’s current focus: training and education of PM’s [05:59] The most common problems that product teams face [09:48] When to hire your first CPO [14:27] What to do before hiring a CPO [16:16] When to bring an interim CPO consultant like Melissa [21:26] Signs your team doesn’t have a strategy [22:59] Identifying your vision, strategy and intentions as a company [27:48] Signs you’re doing a bad job as a PM [30:30] The process of defining strategic visions [33:28] How to hone your craft as a PM [43:55] Melissa’s Book — Escaping the Build Trap: How Effective Product Management Creates Real Value [48:43] How to avoid burnout [52:19] Where to find Melissa

Melissa PerriguestLenny Rachitskyhost

Jul 27, 202253mWatch on YouTube ↗

WHAT IT’S REALLY ABOUT

Melissa Perri Reveals How Real Product Strategy Transforms Growing Companies

Melissa Perri shares lessons from working with thousands of PMs and hundreds of companies on how to build effective product organizations and strategies. She argues most problems blamed on “PM skill” are actually failures in setting goals, forming strategy, and deploying it clearly across teams. The conversation covers when to hire a CPO, how to recognize the absence of real strategy, how to craft and communicate vision and product strategy, and the emerging role of product operations. Throughout, she offers pragmatic, lightweight practices—like two-page strategy memos and structured cadences—that help teams align execution with business outcomes.

IDEAS WORTH REMEMBERING

5 ideas

Most product problems are strategic, not tactical or training-related.

Companies often think the issue is weak PMs, but Melissa finds 99% of the time the real problem is unclear goals and poorly deployed strategy—so even well-trained PMs lack context for what matters.

Hire a CPO when complexity and scale outgrow execution-focused leadership.

Signs you need a CPO include: multi-product portfolios, geographic or market expansion, major pivots/mergers, 7–8+ PMs, and executives or boards saying they don’t understand what product/tech is doing.

You can diagnose missing strategy by how teams answer “what and why.”

If teams work extremely hard but key metrics don’t move, executives see product as a black box, and PMs can’t clearly connect their work to company goals, you have a strategy deployment problem—the “missing middle” between vision and team execution.

Write simple, concrete strategy and vision docs everyone can link to.

Melissa advocates short memos (1–2 pages) that explain where the company is going, how it’s positioned, what it will and won’t do, and prioritized strategic intents—cascaded down into product initiatives and team-level solutions, often supported by clear visuals.

Vision must be specific, differentiating, and future-oriented—not a tagline.

Good visions describe how the company will be different in 5–10 years, why it will win, who it serves, and what it explicitly will not do, so people can picture the future and make aligned trade-offs today.

WORDS WORTH SAVING

5 quotes

I met a lot of organizations that think most of their issues are in the training of their people, and 99% of the time, I see that it's actually in the way that they're setting their goals and deploying their strategy.

— Melissa Perri

If your executives and your board are telling you, 'I don't really know what's going on in tech or product,' the person who's communicating those things to them is usually not chief product officer level.

— Melissa Perri

Teams are working like dogs, releasing, releasing, releasing, and none of the metrics are moving. That's a great example of when there is no strategy.

— Melissa Perri

A vision should be concrete enough where people can picture what it will be in their head. It can't be a fluffy, 'Be the backbone of healthcare.'

— Melissa Perri

You can hire a consultant, but if you don't listen to the consultant, nothing's gonna change.

— Melissa Perri

Common failures in product organizations: goals, strategy, and communication gapsWhen and how to hire a Chief Product Officer vs. VP/Head of ProductRecognizing missing or ineffective product strategy and fixing the “missing middle”Crafting and communicating product vision and strategy (memos, visuals, alignment)How PMs can become more strategic through data, cross‑functional collaboration, and practiceThe role and structure of Product Operations in scaling product managementHow to learn as a PM without getting overwhelmed by endless advice

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