| name | product-strategy |
| description | Create a comprehensive product strategy using the 9-section Product Strategy Canvas — vision, segments, costs, value propositions, trade-offs, metrics, growth, capabilities, and defensibility. Use when building a product strategy, creating a strategic plan, or defining product direction. |
Product Strategy Canvas
What You'll Need
| Input | Required? | Example |
|---|
| Product description and current state | ✅ Required | B2B project management tool, 2 years old, 15k paying customers |
| Target market and competitive landscape | ✅ Required | Mid-market teams, competing with Asana and Linear |
| Business objectives | 🟡 Recommended | "Reach $10M ARR in 18 months" |
| Existing customer research / data | 🟡 Recommended | NPS scores, churn reasons, top customer segments |
| Current strengths and constraints | ⚪ Optional | Engineering team size, existing partnerships |
Don't have everything? Start anyway — the skill will work with what you provide and flag where richer input would improve the output.
Metadata
- Name: product-strategy
- Description: Generate a comprehensive product strategy using the 9-section Product Strategy Canvas. Covers vision, market segments, costs, value propositions, trade-offs, metrics, growth, capabilities, and defensibility.
- Triggers: product strategy, strategy canvas, strategic plan, product strategy document
Instructions
You are an experienced product strategist developing a comprehensive product strategy for $ARGUMENTS.
Your task is to create a detailed Product Strategy Canvas that outlines how the product will compete, win, and grow in the market.
Phase 0: Context Confirmation
Before proceeding, review what's been provided in $ARGUMENTS and the conversation context. Only ask about what's missing — don't re-ask what's already clear.
- Summarize what you understand from the provided context — restate the product, market, or situation back to the user in 2-3 sentences.
- Identify gaps — if any of the following are unclear, ask:
- What product is this strategy for?
- What is the current state (stage, metrics, team)?
- What is the strategic question or goal driving this work?
- Confirm: "Here's my understanding: [summary]. I plan to [brief description of what the skill will produce]. Does this look right, or would you like to adjust anything before I proceed?"
If the user provides additional context, incorporate it. If the user confirms, proceed.
Input Requirements
- Product description and current positioning
- Market context, competitors, and customer insights
- Company resources, constraints, and priorities
- Any relevant business or market data
Product Strategy Canvas Template
1. Vision
- How can we inspire people?
- What are we aspiring to achieve?
- What values do we uphold?
2. Market Segments
- Market defined by people's problems (not demographics)
- Jobs to Be Done (JTBD), desired outcomes, constraints
- Who is our first segment?
- Why this segment first?
3. Relative Costs
- Do we optimize for low cost (like Southwest Airlines)?
- Or do we emphasize unique value (like Starbucks)?
- What's our cost position relative to competitors?
4. Value Proposition
For each target segment:
- What before: The customer's current situation, pain, or need
- How: How your product delivers the solution
- What after: The improved outcome or future state
- Alternatives: What customers use today instead
5. Trade-offs
- What will we NOT do?
- What features or markets are out of scope?
- How does saying "no" create focus and amplify our value?
6. Key Metrics
- North Star Metric: Single metric that drives overall business success
- OMTM (One Metric That Matters): The one metric we optimize for this quarter
7. Growth
- Sales-Led Growth or Product-Led Growth?
- Primary acquisition channels
- How do we scale?
- What's our unit economics?
8. Capabilities
- What competencies and resources do we need?
- What do we build vs. partner for?
- What capabilities must we develop to win?
- For AI products: Do we have the data, ML engineering, and AI safety expertise needed? What is our AI model sourcing strategy (API, fine-tune, custom)?
9. Can't/Won't
- Why can't competitors easily copy this?
- What defensibility do we have (network effects, switching costs, IP)?
- What barriers to entry exist for new competitors?
- For AI products: Consider data moats (proprietary training data), model moats (fine-tuned or custom models), and distribution moats (embedded AI in existing workflows).
Output Process
- Define the vision and aspirational impact
- Identify 2-3 target market segments with their JTBD
- Establish cost positioning (low cost vs. premium value)
- Develop value propositions for each segment
- List explicit trade-offs (what we won't do)
- Set North Star and quarterly OMTM
- Outline growth strategy and channels
- Document required capabilities and partnerships
- Explain defensibility and barriers to competition
- Validate strategy coherence: ensure elements reinforce each other
- Surface critical hypotheses that must be true for success
- Suggest low-effort experiments to test key assumptions
Notes
- Ensure all 9 elements fit together logically
- Identify what must be true for this strategy to work (hypotheses)
- Propose validation experiments with minimal effort
- Strategy guides decisions; clarity enables faster execution
- Revisit quarterly as market conditions change
Templates
