name: product-strategist
description: Expert product strategist for vision, strategy, and market positioning. Use when defining product vision, assessing product-market fit, sizing market opportunities (TAM/SAM/SOM), competitive positioning, or choosing between build/buy/partner. Covers business model design, monetization strategy, platform decisions, and strategic roadmap planning.

Product Strategist

Strategic product leadership for companies navigating vision, market fit, and competitive positioning — from early ideation to scale.

Philosophy

Great product strategy isn't about having all the answers. It's about asking the right questions and making reversible decisions quickly while being thoughtful about irreversible ones.

The best product strategies:
1. Start with the customer problem — Not with your solution
2. Create optionality — Platform thinking enables multiple futures
3. Make trade-offs explicit — Strategy is choosing what NOT to do
4. Compound over time — Each decision builds on the last

How This Skill Works

When invoked, apply the guidelines in rules/ organized by:

• vision-* — Product vision, mission, and north star metrics
• market-* — Product-market fit, market sizing, opportunity assessment
• competitive-* — Competitive positioning, moats, differentiation
• strategy-* — Strategic frameworks, decision making, prioritization
• business-* — Business models, monetization, pricing strategy
• build-* — Build vs buy vs partner, platform decisions

Core Frameworks

Product Strategy Stack

                ┌─────────────────────────┐
                │       VISION            │  ← Where are we going? (3-10 years)
                │   "The why behind why"  │
                ├─────────────────────────┤
                │      STRATEGY           │  ← How will we win? (1-3 years)
                │   "The path to vision"  │
                ├─────────────────────────┤
                │      ROADMAP            │  ← What are we building? (Quarters)
                │   "Strategy in motion"  │
                ├─────────────────────────┤
                │      EXECUTION          │  ← How are we building? (Sprints)
                │   "Roadmap in action"   │
                └─────────────────────────┘

Strategic Decision Types

Product-Market Fit Spectrum

Level 0: Problem Fit     → You've found a real problem worth solving
Level 1: Solution Fit    → Your solution addresses the problem
Level 2: Product-Market Fit → Customers pull the product from you
Level 3: Scale Fit       → Repeatable growth engine working
Level 4: Moat Fit        → Defensible competitive advantage established

Market Opportunity Framework

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                        TAM                                  │
│                Total Addressable Market                     │
│       "Everyone who could theoretically buy"                │
│    ┌───────────────────────────────────────────┐           │
│    │                  SAM                      │           │
│    │        Serviceable Addressable Market     │           │
│    │     "Those you could reach and serve"     │           │
│    │    ┌─────────────────────────────┐       │           │
│    │    │           SOM               │       │           │
│    │    │   Serviceable Obtainable    │       │           │
│    │    │   "Realistic near-term"     │       │           │
│    │    └─────────────────────────────┘       │           │
│    └───────────────────────────────────────────┘           │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Competitive Moat Types

Business Model Canvas (Simplified)

┌──────────────────┬──────────────────┬──────────────────┐
│   VALUE PROP     │    CHANNELS      │   CUSTOMER       │
│   What unique    │    How you       │   SEGMENTS       │
│   value?         │    reach them    │   Who pays?      │
├──────────────────┼──────────────────┼──────────────────┤
│   KEY RESOURCES  │    KEY           │   REVENUE        │
│   What you need  │    ACTIVITIES    │   STREAMS        │
│   to deliver     │    What you do   │   How you make   │
│                  │                  │   money          │
├──────────────────┴──────────────────┴──────────────────┤
│                    COST STRUCTURE                      │
│             What it costs to operate                   │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Platform Overview

Anti-Patterns

• Vision without strategy — Inspiring destination, no map to get there
• Strategy without trade-offs — If everything is a priority, nothing is
• Copying competitors — Being a fast follower without differentiation
• TAM theater — Using unrealistic market sizes to impress investors
• Feature parity obsession — Chasing competitors instead of customers
• Premature scaling — Scaling before product-market fit
• Analysis paralysis — Researching forever, deciding never
• Sunk cost fallacy — Continuing failed bets because of past investment