Product and technology strategy
Working sessions and short engagements to decide what to build, in what order and on which foundations.
For founders, product leads and companies deciding what to build next, with or without a technical lead of their own.
When you need this
- You have a validated idea or an early product and need to decide what the next version is and how to build it.
- There is a rough plan, and countless details are still open. Those small decisions will shape the product more than the plan.
- A decision that is hard to undo is coming up, such as a platform, a stack, a vendor, a rewrite or a first hire.
- The launch is near and the operational side of the product, from payments to support to hosting, is still improvised.
What we settle
- What the next version has to do, for whom, and in which order it gets built
- The flows that matter, decided with the people who will use them in mind
- Architecture and stack, chosen for the team you have and the growth you expect
- Build or buy, for every piece that is not your core product
- The operational setup around the product, from payments and e-mail to support, analytics, hosting and backups
A session day
Remote or in person. Two days when there is a lot to decide, one when the product already exists.
Morning
Scope and the people using it
What the product has to do for whom, and how the people using it will work with it.
Midday
Architecture and stack
The foundations for the team you have and the growth you expect.
Afternoon
Build, buy, and the setup around the product
Payments, e-mail, support, analytics, hosting. What you build yourself and what you should not.
How it works
One or two working days of sessions.
A first call
Where the product stands, what the next decision is, what you already know. Half an hour, no preparation.
Preparation
Before we meet I read the deck, the prototype, the code if there is code, and the feedback you have collected. The session itself is for deciding.
Working sessions
One or two days with the people who make the product decisions, remote or in person. We go through scope, experience, architecture and the operational setup in that order, and we do not leave a topic without a decision or a named open question.
What it costs
A fixed price per engagement, quoted after the first call based on how much exists already and how many decisions are on the table. Follow-up sessions, for example before a launch or a funding round, are priced the same way. Numbers on request.
Questions people ask first
- What does product strategy consulting cover?
- Product strategy consulting settles what a product has to do, for whom, and in which order it gets built. In my case the technology is part of the strategy. Scope, experience, architecture and stack are decided together, because each one limits the others.
- How is this different from hiring a product manager?
- A product manager runs the product every day. A strategy engagement settles the decisions a product manager would otherwise inherit or have to fight for, in a few days, with someone who has made those decisions as a co-founder. Many teams do not need a product manager yet, they need the decisions.
- Do we need a working product first?
- No. The sessions work with an idea and a deck, with a prototype, or with a product that is live and needs a new direction. What changes is how much I read beforehand and how much of the session is about the existing code.
- Can you help us use AI in our product?
- Yes. Where AI fits in a product, which model or service to build on and how to run it are product and architecture decisions, and the sessions settle them like any other.
- Do you also design the interface?
- I decide flows and interaction with you, and I have done so for products used daily by people who do not read manuals. For the visual design, a designer works from the decisions of the session.
- What happens after the session?
- The team builds. If the team wants me to review progress, we agree on a follow-up. For owning the technical side for a while, there is the fractional CTO role. If a critical piece needs building and nobody is free, I build it.