The best tech companies drive strategy through product. This is why founders and CEOs tend to be product leaders, and product / design / engineering is more important than ops / marketing / finance. Here’s what this looked like for me as a business leader at Amzn and Facebook:
Jeff and Mark were very different, but both of them spent most of their time in product meetings, and they both scrutinized product ideas down to the pixel. They didn’t waste cycles debating strategy in the abstract, they drove it via the roadmap. They never hired consultants.
Everyone in the company understood the strategy because it showed up in the product’s evolution. There was no need for long slide decks explaining where the company was going. Company all-hands meetings simply focused on the product roadmap. Our product leaders were the stars.
I was not a product leader, but I was one of our business leaders who understood my role. Our business functions were important and I formed a tight partnership with product, but ultimately an unequal one. There can only be one CEO, and I was happy Jeff & Mark were product-first.
At one of our all-hands meetings, Jeff presented his “flywheel strategy.” He had literally written it on the back of a napkin, and he just showed a picture of it to us. Instead of hiring a consulting firm, Jeff kept it simple. Amazon is still executing against this strategy.
In 2008, many people on FB’s executive team thought we should sell the company. In one of our m-team meetings, Mark drew a 2x2 matrix on the whiteboard: growth x monetization. He argued we were under-optimized on both dimensions & therefore the company was massively undervalued.
Great product leaders have a gift for simplifying, and then executing relentlessly. Small details matter, but you can only hone the edges when you know what you’re trying to build. Everyone in the company can get on board when there’s clarity and confidence in the roadmap.
Product drives strategy. This isn't an absolute rule, but it tends to be true at most great technology companies (especially in consumer). The product roadmap IS the roadmap. Let the product team be the star (and don't hire consultants). Keep things simple and focus on execution.
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