👷 An Operator’s Guide to Product Strategy with Chandra Janakiraman

Product strategy is often seen as a mysterious art—something only a select few are naturally good at. But according to Chandra Janakiraman, Chief Product Officer at VRChat and former product leader at Meta, Headspace, and Zynga, strategy isn’t about innate talent. It’s a skill anyone can master with the right framework.

In a recent conversation with Lenny, Chandra shared his Operator’s Guide to Product Strategy, a practical, repeatable five-step process for developing a winning strategy. Drawing from his experience and influences like Good Strategy, Bad Strategy and Playing to Win, Chandra’s approach is practical and usable so worth digging into for product leaders at any level.

 🎥Watch the full episode here

📆 Published: January 26th, 2025

🕒 Estimated Reading Time: 3 mins. Time saved: 94 mins🔥

🎯 What Is Product Strategy?

Chandra defines product strategy as the bridge between your mission/vision and your roadmap. It’s the process of making deliberate choices to deploy scarce resources for maximum impact.

A great strategy includes three key components:

1. Strategic pillars: A handful of areas to focus on.

2. Non-focus areas: Explicitly stating what you won’t focus on.

3. The “why”: Clear reasoning behind your choices.

Chandra uses the concept of resonance from physics to explain strategy: just as an object vibrates most when hit with the right frequency, a product achieves maximum impact when aligned with the right market opportunities.

Key Takeaways for Founders and PMs:

• Think of strategy as the “frequency” that aligns your product with the market.

• Focus on a few key areas (ideally three) to maximize clarity and impact.

• Clearly define what you won’t do and why—it’s just as important as what you will do.

🛠️ The Five-Step Process for Small-S Strategy

Chandra’s five-step process for “small-S” strategy focuses on solving immediate problems and operates on a 2-year horizon. It’s designed to be completed in 8–12 weeks and includes the following phases:

1. Preparation: Gather inputs like user insights, behavioural data, competitive analysis, and leadership interviews.

2. Strategy Sprint: Identify problems, cluster them into opportunities, and prioritise 3 strategic pillars.

3. Design Sprint: Create illustrative concepts to bring the strategy to life.

4. Document Writing: Weave the insights into a cohesive strategy document.

5. Rollout: Align stakeholders and communicate the strategy across the organisation.

Chandra emphasises the importance of spending time on preparation. “The quality of your output is determined by the quality of your input,” he says.

Key Takeaways for Founders and PMs:

• Dedicate 8–12 weeks to strategy development—it’s worth the investment.

• Involve a cross-functional working group (e.g., product, design, engineering, data) to ensure alignment.

• Use a structured process to move from problems to opportunities to strategic pillars.

🤔 Why Strategy Fails Without Alignment

One of the biggest reasons strategies fail is a lack of alignment. Chandra’s process builds alignment into every step by involving cross-functional teams and leadership early on.

For example, during the preparation phase, Chandra recommends conducting leadership interviews to understand what success looks like and uncover “pet ideas” that leaders might not otherwise share. This ensures the strategy reflects both team insights and leadership priorities.

Chandra also stresses the importance of defensibility. By documenting the criteria and reasoning behind your strategic choices, you can address challenges and maintain focus.

Key Takeaways for Founders and PMs:

• Engage leadership early to avoid surprises and build buy-in.

• Document your decision-making process to defend your strategy.

• Remember: alignment isn’t just about agreement—it’s about shared understanding.

🚀 Big-S Strategy: Thinking Beyond Problem-Solving

While small-S strategy focuses on solving immediate problems, big-S strategy is about imagining an aspirational future. It’s a more open-ended process that looks 5–10 years ahead and asks questions like:

• What does the world look like in 10 years if we succeed?

• Why is the world better because of our product?

• What’s the most exciting version of our vision?

Chandra’s big-S strategy process includes:

1. Preparation: Analyse long-term trends and conduct leadership interviews.

2. Futures: Develop 3 distinct visions of the future.

3. Prototypes: Create “concept cars” to explore these futures.

4. Testing: Validate ideas with users and refine them.

5. Integration: Combine insights into a roadmap that balances short-term and long-term goals.

At VRChat, Chandra runs small-S and big-S strategy processes in parallel, with product managers leading the former and designers leading the latter.

Key Takeaways for Founders and PMs:

• Use big-S strategy to inspire your team and think beyond incremental improvements.

• Balance short-term problem-solving with long-term vision.

• Involve creative thinkers in big-S strategy to explore bold, aspirational ideas.

🤖 How AI Can Supercharge Strategy

AI tools are already transforming how we approach strategy. Chandra highlights two key ways AI can assist:

1. Preparation: Use AI for competitive analysis, trend analysis, and synthesising user feedback. For example, AI can analyse competitor reviews or generate a heatmap of investment areas.

2. Mock Strategies: Ask AI tools like ChatGPT to generate draft strategies as a starting point. While these strategies can give interesting start position, it’s up to the team to refine and focus them.

Looking ahead, Chandra envisions a future where multi-agent AI systems handle complex strategy workflows, from generating ideas to testing them in real time.

Key Takeaways for Founders and PMs:

• Leverage AI for research and competitive analysis to save time.

• Use AI-generated mock strategies as inspiration, but apply human judgment to refine them.

• Stay curious about emerging AI tools—they’re only going to get better.

📝 Final Thoughts: Strategy Is a Team Sport

Chandra’s Operator’s Guide to Product Strategy is a super practical framework for building alignment, making tough choices, and driving impact. But as he reminds us, strategy is only as good as its execution. (Remember execution eats strategy for breakfast)

Whether you’re tackling small-S or big-S strategy, the key is to involve your team, test your assumptions, and stay adaptable. As Chandra puts it, “Ultimately, any strategy is only as good as the results it can produce.”

Key Takeaways for Founders and PMs:

• Strategy isn’t about perfection—it’s about progress.

• Involve your team and leadership to build alignment and buy-in.

• Test, iterate, and refine your strategy through execution.

 🎥Watch the full episode here

📅Timestamps:

• (00:00) Chandra’s background

• (04:47) The importance of strategy

• (12:40) Defining product strategy

• (15:42) Developing a winning strategy: an overview

• 18:51) The preparation phase

• (30:46) The strategy sprint process

• (45:51) The design sprint

• (51:19) Document writing

• (57:39) Rolling out your strategy

  (01:01:28) Resourcing and roadmapping

• (01:04:42) Strategy lessons from Zynga

• (01:11:34) Strategy lessons from Meta

• (01:15:55) Big S strategy

• (01:26:58) AI in strategy formulation

• (01:38:12) Final thoughts and lightning round