3 Strategic Thinking Mistakes That Are Holding Back Your Product Career

Have you ever been told you're not strategic enough?

Or maybe you just know that growing in your product career requires strategy skills, but you're kind of stuck on what being strategic actually looks like in practice.

Building a reputation as a strategic leader will allow you to gain the trust of your leadership and your stakeholders. It's going to allow you to increase your scope of ownership on the product. And it's going to give you the opportunity to work on longer term, higher risk, higher impact initiatives.

All good things for a strong product career.

Here are the three most common mistakes I see PMs make that hold them back from being seen as strategic leaders - and what you can do about them.

Mistake #1: Not Staying Updated on Your Industry 📊

Many PMs will inadvertently get into their backlog, into their products, and into their world of coworkers and the business. They forget about the broader world in which their product sits.

Strategic leaders are able to speak the language of their industry. They know what's trending. They know who the market leaders are. They know what their competitors are up to, how their products stand out, what their products weak spots are.

If you find yourself in meetings with leaders of your company and they're talking about the who's, the what's, the why's, and the how's of your industry, maybe even acronyms, and you're sitting there with your head spinning, not able to follow along, that's your sign that you've got some homework to do.

Think about it: how are you ever going to be able to put forth compelling proposals and opportunistic suggestions and compelling pitches for your product if you don't understand the world that it exists in?

👉 How to fix it:

Make sure that you're finding ways to stay informed regularly. Think of this as a daily or at least weekly activity. You want to make it so that you're swimming in the waters of this information.

• Set up Google News Alerts or sign up for newsletters related to your industry.

• Ask your founders, leaders, or sales team where they get their info. Don't try to reinvent it, figure out who already is well informed and start consuming the information they are consuming.

• Tap into knowledge that's already in your organization. Sometimes the marketing team has created personas or competitive intel. Maybe the sales team has competitive battlecards. Maybe there's a data team or business insights team that has market trends.

Mistake #2: Not Thinking Long-Term and Big Picture 🧭

Strategic leaders think about the future. They connect their thinking to the vision of where we are heading. They consider the big picture. They think about problem spaces broadly.

These people are proactive. They are looking for opportunities. They're not just reacting to the problems that come up. They're thinking ahead, anticipating consequences, thinking about the implications of their decisions.

If you find that you are stuck in reactive mode, focused on problem solving what's right in front of you, then it's probably time to challenge yourself by thinking outside your comfort zone.

👉 How to fix it:

The advice I most often give for people who want to start thinking more strategically is to identify someone that you know, someone you work with that does this well, and ask to shadow them. Partner with them on a project. Sit in on meetings that they're running.

Sometimes it's most helpful to see it in action rather than trying to learn the concept and then apply it yourself.

Another approach: rather than trying to start by creating your own strategic thinking, start by looking at the work that your company is already doing. See if you can get access to, or ask for more context on, the WHY behind what your team is working on.

Sometimes early career PMs are so accustomed to focusing on execution that we don't pull our head up out of the sand to look around us. I bet you’ll find it really helpful to see strategy in action on a product you're already familiar with.

Mistake #3: Not Communicating Strategically

Strategic leaders don't just think strategically in a vacuum. They exude strategy and executive presence. They seem to start every conversation with the why. They're connecting ideas or opportunities or today's conversation back to the long-term goals, back to the long-term vision.

Often they are communicating in such a clear and concise way, even when it's really complex information or complex concepts, they're making it really accessible to their audience. There's a cool calmness about their presence. They're focused and intentional.

These are not the people who are frantic, who are scattered. They make you feel like you can trust them right away. They feel immediately credible.

If you find that you tend to start with the WHAT in product—starting with the feature itself—you're definitely not starting with the WHY. Or, if you find yourself having to literally (or metaphorically) yell to be heard, or if you're known for being really resistant to input, it's time to work on this.

👉 How to fix it:

Identify someone that you know, maybe someone you work with, who does this well. I want you to just listen and watch carefully. Make an attempt to join meetings that they're in or attend presentations that they do.

What you really need to see isn't the easy, straightforward meetings that go well. You want to watch how strong leaders handle curveballs or challenging questions. How do they remain calm, manage their own emotions, respond thoughtfully, as opposed to reacting and becoming emotional?

Bonus tip: reflect on someone that you admire, maybe someone you've worked with in the past who does this really well. In these moments where you know you need to communicate something strategically, ask yourself: how would [that person] handle this situation? What would [they] say if someone challenges them?

You might even think of little phrases that they use. (One of my go-to phrases is: “So what I’m hearing is… am I getting that right?”) Try to channel this person so often that you just start to embody some of their characteristics automatically.

Your Next Step

Talk is nothing without action. If this resonated, I want you to identify one tactic that you want to put into action this week to help build your strategy skills.

Maybe you'll pick a tactic related to staying informed. Is there some newsletter that you could subscribe to this week that would build your knowledge about your industry?

Or maybe you're going to identify a tactic related to your strategic thinking skills. You're going to look at your company's current roadmap to try to understand what led to this strategic bet this quarter or this year.

Or maybe you're going to identify a tactic related to communicating strategically. Maybe you're going to ask your manager for feedback on how you could improve. Maybe you're going to attend one meeting with someone who does this particularly well and try to identify three things that they did that you want to emulate.

Whatever it is, I challenge you to find one thing that you can try this week that will start to build your strategy skills.

If you'd like to see how our coaching programs could help you avoid these sorts of mistakes and build a reputation as a strategic product leader, we'd love to support you. Whether you're trying to land your first PM role through SPRINT, navigating your first days and months in a new role with SCALE, or looking to level up as an experienced PM with SHINE, we have programs designed to help you grow.

Ready to accelerate your product career? Learn more about our coaching programs and book time so we can chat.