Do you want to create an actionable, effective product strategy framework for your SaaS business?
If so, we have you covered!
Like most businesses, software leaders and marketers are tasked with creating products that meet and even exceed their customers’ expectations. There are many ways to figure out what’s working, what isn’t, and how you’ll improve over time. Get this right, and you can expect to see a surge in engagement, traffic, and sales.
But if you don’t have a concrete product strategy framework in place, things can end up much more confusing than they need to be. In most cases, this translates to fewer sales and higher churn because you haven’t built the right product or are not marketing properly to your audience.
Before we get into more details, let’s define the phrase product strategy framework.
What is a product strategy framework?
A product strategy framework is a company-wide plan designed to define goals around a product. You can use this framework to decide virtually every aspect of your product, including pricing, marketing, and what features to build next.
A well-made product strategy roadmap is crucial for improving your product over time, making sure everyone is on the same page, and taking actionable steps to reach your goals.
Understanding product strategy frameworks
All successful product strategy frameworks have a few things in common. You’ll need to think carefully about these factors in the context of your SaaS business.
Everyone is different, so reflecting on these elements from your point of view as a SaaS business owner or marketer is one of the most important things you can do to put all of the advice discussed here into action.
Here’s what we encourage you to think about as you’re reading the rest of this article:
- Product vision. This is your product’s long-term mission. This is where you outline who your product is for, how it will help, what impact you hope to have on the industry, and what it looks like when all of these elements work in harmony.
- Tangible goals. Next, your tangible goals represent what you hope to achieve in the context of your vision. For example, an email marketing software company might aim to ” make it easy for everyone to create an effective email campaign that generates at least 40% open rate.” You’ll use this step to condense your broad vision into concrete goals that you can work toward.
- Actionable steps. So you understand your vision and have goals, great. Now it’s time to think about how you’ll get there. For your framework to be complete, you need a path for you and your team to follow in order to reach your goals. If we go back to the example above, the marketing SaaS could decide that investing in a robust onboarding program is an excellent way to “make it easy for everyone to create attractive email campaigns.”
Each of these pieces plays a critical role in shaping your strategy and keeping your team focused on positive outcomes for your business and your customers.
Benefits for SaaS owners and marketers
Now that you know the key parts of a product framework, let’s take a look at some of the benefits you can expect from putting your plan into action:
- Improve alignment and focus: With a clear strategy in place, everyone in your organization, from the development team to the marketing department, understands the product’s direction. This will ensure everyone is working toward common goals.
- Better resource allocation: A strong framework helps you prioritize your marketing strategy and the evolution of your product, which means resources are allocated where they’re needed most. This is important for SaaS companies, where both time and budget constraints often come into play.
- Become more competitive: Staying ahead of the competition is how you’ll grow and thrive in your industry. By regularly revisiting and updating your product strategy, you can make meaningful changes that build brand loyalty and boost customer satisfaction, which means people don’t have a reason to consider your competitors.
- Clear communication and expectations: A structured framework allows for better communication with stakeholders, team members, and, most importantly, customers. Everyone knows what to expect, which, in our experience, makes it so much easier to manage timelines, product updates, and customer inquiries. Below is an example of a well-articulated product strategy for customers.
7 Steps to create your product strategy framework
It’s time to dive in and discuss creating a product strategy framework that works for your business. The tips below are essentially a template that anyone can use to create their own product framework.
1. Define your vision
The very first thing you need to make this work is a vision. If you don’t know the overarching purpose of your products or how they fit into your broader mission, the rest of the process will be nearly impossible.
Think of it this way: imagine if someone asked you to build a website for them but wouldn’t even tell you their niche. You could do your best work, but it wouldn’t matter because your client never shared their vision.
A clear, inspiring vision motivates your team and gives them a much-needed sense of direction.
So, start thinking about how your product or service will ultimately help people. This vision will guide all subsequent decisions, from feature development to marketing campaigns.
2. Analyze your market and competition
The next step is analyzing and understanding your position in the market.
If you don’t know where you stand in the market and who you’re competing with, your product strategy is missing a massive chunk of data.
Imagine launching a new product, only to find a company from 5 years ago already has a similar tagline and almost identical features. The odds are, your business wouldn’t really take off.
With this in mind, here are a few questions you should ask yourself when analyzing the market:
- Who are my main competitors, and what are some of their strengths and weaknesses?
- Who are my target audience, and what are their goals, needs, and pain points?
- What trends are shaping your industry? What are people talking about?
- What gaps exist that your product can fill?
The answers to all of these questions will make it easier to market your product. For example, if a vast majority of your audience spends time on two or three social media platforms, you’ll know exactly where to start connecting with customers.
Similarly, if you look at your competitors, you may notice a glaring flaw that they all share. Your analysis will help you identify and correct this issue in your framework.
3. Identify your target audience
We mentioned that defining your target audience is a good question to ask during market analysis, but there’s still more to say on this topic, like explaining why this step is so crucial to your product strategy.
Here’s something to think about: only 3% of people who land on your site are ready to buy. I believe this statistic highlights the importance of targeting your audience effectively.
Imagine attracting many people to your site who don’t need your product. Suddenly, that 3% figure has become even lower. Moreover, only 40% of people are considering buying something. So, reduce the number of ready-and-willing shoppers because you didn’t identify your audience first.
Your best bet here is to use social listening, feedback forms, and on-site analytics to learn who your customers are, what problems they face, and how your product can help them and add value to their lives. Combine all of this information to make engaging buyer personas that you can use in future campaigns.
Below you’ll find a helpful list of starter questions you should keep in mind when developing customer profiles for your product strategy.
4. Set clear product goals and objectives
Once you understand what value you hope to bring and who you want to reach, it’s time to set specific, measurable goals. You could have the best vision, but it won’t mean much if you don’t plan to turn it into a reality.
With this in mind, think about the timeframe and outcomes you want to achieve with your product. For instance, you could say something like, “I want to launch my product in (X) months, and by that time, it will be able to do (Y) and (Z).”
With your goals in front of you, you can start developing an actionable, measurable plan to achieve them. One strategy that works well here is mind mapping. Mind mapping is a unique type of planning that allows you to create branching paths that follow similar ideas of thought processes.
Here’s an example so you can see for yourself:
5. Develop your unique value proposition
Your unique value proposition (UVP) explains why your product is the best choice for your target audience. You need a clear, enticing UVP if you want to ultimately turn visitors into customers.
The key here is to focus on benefits first and features second. Many marketers mistakenly push the features but don’t tie them back to a tangible benefit. In other words, people can see what a product does but don’t understand how it will add value to their lives.
For instance, saying your landing page builder is drag-and-drop really isn’t enough to convey the value. Instead, you should say something like this, “Our product features a drag-and-drop interface that will help you create a custom, eye-catching landing page in under an hour.”
This pitch highlights the benefits your value proposition will bring to customers. If you’re reaching the right audience, this will resonate with their needs and encourage them to take action.
Once your product launches, consider adding social proof, like customer reviews, to strengthen your UVP. For context, Studies show that 60% of buyers say the number of reviews a product has influenced their decision to buy, so you shouldn’t skip this part of your product strategy.
6. Plan your product roadmap
Next, let’s talk about your product roadmap. Your roadmap is the strategic blueprint that outlines how you’ll bring your vision to life. Regardless of your niche or product, you need a solid roadmap that everyone on your team can work toward.
Generally, well-made roadmaps include a timeline of key milestones, such as feature releases, beta testing, and marketing campaigns. These all have specific release dates or at least time frames, for instance, “Add feature (X) by Q4.”
You’ll need to have all of this information on hand so you can plan your marketing and guide the growth of your product based on user feedback and your internal data.
7. Establish key performance indicators
Finally, you need to have a clear set of key performance indicators (KPIs) if you want the best product strategy. These are the metrics that will help you track progress toward your goals.
Common sales KPIs for SaaS businesses include customer acquisition cost, churn, user engagement, lifetime value, and monthly recurring revenue.
But as a general rule, your KPIs need to be easily measurable, align with your goals, and bring you closer to your vision. You need all of this information so you can monitor how your product is doing in the market. You can use what you learn to improve your product, develop new features, and much more.
Implementing your product strategy framework
Once you’ve built your product strategy framework, the next step is to integrate it into your day-to-day workflows. Your product strategy you’ve spent so long building is only effective if your team understands and uses it consistently.
With this in mind, here are a few quick tips:
Align your team
Your product strategy framework is something everybody on your team should know and understand. If you want to create a truly good product, you need to make sure everyone is on the same page. When teams work independently from each other and a single goal, quality and alignment issues will come up.
We suggest taking the opportunity to communicate the strategy clearly across multiple touchpoints in all departments. Whether it’s development, sales, marketing, or customer support, each team should understand its role in achieving the product goals.
One way to align teams is to make it a focal point of your big monthly town hall meeting. You can also plan a company-wide call where you explain the overarching product strategy and how each team can help the company reach its long-term goals.
Integrate it into day-to-day operations
Telling everyone about your product strategy isn’t enough to turn into a reality. If you want to see real results, incorporate the framework into your project management processes in ways that make sense and align with your overall goals.
Most project management software tools come with the option to create custom workflows, leave notes, and share documents, as you can see below. All of these different features will make it easier for your team to link tasks back to your framework.
For example, if one of your product goals is to increase customer retention, ensure your development team is focused on improving user experience while your marketing team is working on engaging campaigns connecting with the right audience.
Adapting the framework as your business grows
By now, you know the SaaS industry is moving quickly. You need to be agile and willing to realign your goals as technology and the needs of your customers change.
You probably won’t have to make sweeping changes to pillar goals, but there’s a good chance everything around it will change over time. If you’re unwilling to be flexible with your framework, you could run into several roadblocks as you scale up. This is especially true if you’re using automated campaigns because they will continue running as they were made unless you make adjustments along the way.
There’s a good chance you may need to expand your framework to accommodate new products, markets, or team members. When planning for the future, try to predict some of these changes based on historical data and the overall sentiment of your audience.
We recommend encouraging a culture of adaptability within your organization so that your product strategy and everyone on your team are willing to pivot. Being adaptable will help you stay competitive and deliver a top-notch customer experience.
Common product strategy frameworks for SaaS
When it comes to product strategy frameworks, there are actually quite a few different baselines to choose from in the software industry. Here’s a comparison of four common types so you can figure out which approach will work best for your situation:
| Framework | Focus | Strengths | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lean Canvas | Problem-solving and solutions | Simple, fast to implement, focuses on key problems | Early-stage startups or new product ideas |
| Jobs-To-Be-Done (JTBD) | Customer needs and the “jobs” they need to accomplish | Customer-centric, deep understanding of needs | SaaS products focused on user experience |
| Blue Ocean Strategy | Creating new market space, reducing competition | Encourages innovation, seeks uncontested markets | Companies looking to break away from competition |
| OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) | Linking goals to measurable results | Clear alignment of objectives and metrics | SaaS businesses aiming for measurable growth |
Each framework offers unique advantages, so it’s essential to choose the one that aligns best with your product’s goals and your company’s current stage of development.
For instance, Lean Canvas works well for startups needing a quick and effective way to strategize, while Blue Ocean Strategy is ideal for businesses aiming to innovate and tap into new markets.
Overcoming product strategy challenges
Even with a solid product strategy framework in place, you will face challenges along the way. If you know what to look for, you can take steps to avoid some of these product strategy missteps.
Here are some obstacles you’ll likely face and what you can do to overcome them:
- Lack of clear vision – Your team can lose focus without a clear and well-communicated product vision. The result of leaving this challenge unchecked is confusion, misaligned priorities, and wasted resources. Not good. You’ll want to regularly revisit and refine your product vision to ensure it’s relevant and resonates with your team and customers. Communicate this vision consistently across your organization to keep everyone aligned.
- Poor team alignment – If your teams work in information silos, they are going to miss important details, which can impact quality and how you reach goals. There’s no question that poor team alignment can derail even the best product strategy. We suggest creating an environment with a focus on communication and collaboration. Encourage open dialogue so everyone understands how their efforts contribute to product goals.
- Poor market research – Thorough market research is the backbone of a successful product strategy, yet it’s often overlooked or rushed. If your product strategy is based on incomplete or outdated information, it can result in missed opportunities and a poor fit with customer needs. Invest in continuous market analysis and gather feedback directly from your customers. 35% of marketers say that customer feedback and feature requests are the best ways to grow a product, so making this a priority can help ensure your strategy remains relevant.
- Resistance to change – There’s no doubt that change is difficult, especially in established organizations. Resistance to new strategies or processes can slow down implementation and prevent progress. Encourage a culture of adaptability by emphasizing the importance of continuous improvement. Celebrate small wins when your team successfully adapts to new ways of working and supports those struggling with change.
Tips for monitoring and analyzing progress
Finally, let’s talk about a couple of handy tools you can use to monitor your product strategies. We firmly believe that data-driven decisions are the best way to meet your long-term goals and develop your business in a sustainable way that aligns with your customers.
We highly suggest adding Google Analytics to your website. Google Analytics can help you figure out how people are making it to your site, how long they’re staying, who they are, and what they’re up to. As you can imagine, all of this data can help you make smarter decisions.
You could also benefit from a tool like Encharge. Encharge lets you automate and analyze customer engagement across email. You can use the data from your analytics to make changes in your customer journey workflow and turn more first-time visitors and trial users into customers.
It’s also a good idea to have a social listening tool. Since 43% of people admit they discover new products through social media, you’ll want to listen to what these folks are saying so you can adjust your strategy to connect with them and meet their needs.
By regularly reviewing these metrics and fine-tuning your automated marketing campaigns, you can identify the strengths and weaknesses in your product strategy and improve over time.
Key Metrics to Track
Now that you know how to monitor and analyze your progress, let’s wrap it up by sharing a few key metrics you’ll want to track if you want to optimize your product strategy framework over time.
- Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) – the total cost of acquiring a new customer, including marketing and sales expenses. Monitoring CAC is crucial because it helps you evaluate the efficiency of your marketing strategies and ensure that you’re not overspending to gain new customers.
- Lifetime Value (LTV) – this is the total revenue you can expect from a customer over its entire lifespan. Understanding LTV is important as it helps you determine the long-term profitability of your customers and adapt your business strategies to maximize their value.
- Churn Rate – the percentage of customers who stop using your service within a specific time period. Keeping track of churn rate is vital for understanding customer retention and identifying issues that may be causing customers to leave, so you can take steps to improve loyalty.
- Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) – the predictable income your business generates each month from subscription-based products or services. Tracking MRR is essential for evaluating the stability of your revenue stream and planning financial growth strategies.
- User Engagement – measures how actively customers are interacting with your product or service, using metrics like session duration, frequency of use, and feature adoption. High user engagement typically indicates a valuable product and predicts customer retention and loyalty.
Conclusion
A well-defined product strategy framework is essential for the success of your SaaS business. It provides a clear direction for your team, ensures that resources are allocated effectively, and helps you stay competitive in a fast-paced industry.
By focusing on key components like your product vision, market analysis, and target audience, you can develop a strategy that aligns with your business goals and creates the best experience possible for your customers.
As we’ve discussed, implementing a product strategy framework isn’t without its challenges. However, with the right approach — clear communication, regular updates, and a focus on adaptability — you can overcome these obstacles and create a framework that drives growth and success.
