GuideIntermediate
Product Strategy For Engineers
Moves an engineer from the tactical question ("what feature do I build?") to the strategic one ("what game are we playing, and how do we win?"). It covers vision and mission (where the product is going and why, and how a clear vision constrains what gets built), target segment and positioning (who this is for, and who it's explicitly not for), differentiation and value proposition (what separates a product from mere parity — the "table stakes" of copyable features), competitive and market analysis (direct competitors, indirect competitors, substitutes, and where the playing field is heading), moats and defensibility (durable advantages — network effects, switching costs, data, scale — versus a feature that gets copied in a weekend), and how strategy flows down to the roadmap as a filter that runs before RICE, cutting high-scoring bets that don't serve the strategy. It builds on the Product Thinking guide — strategy picks the game; product thinking plays it — and uses the same running case, Mercado, to define its full strategy and apply it as a filter over its real backlog. All the evaluation logic runs as executed Node.js code. It closes with a capstone project that defines Mercado's strategy end to end.
- 64
- lessons
- 8
- modules
- English · Spanish
- available in
- Yes
- certificate
- Free
- access
Outcomes
What you'll be able to do
- Distinguish "doing things right" (tactics) from "doing the right things" (strategy), and see the cost of executing the wrong strategy flawlessly
- Define a product vision and mission that constrain what gets built — a good vision says both yes and no
- Choose a target segment and a positioning statement: who this is for (and who it's explicitly not for)
- Evaluate positioning fit against alternatives with `positionFit`, and see why being "better" on the wrong dimension is a bad fit
- Map differentiation against competitors with `differentiationMap`, separating real advantage from mere parity ("table stakes")
- Analyze the competitive landscape and where the market is heading, including indirect competitors and substitutes
- Score the durability of a moat (network effects, switching costs, data, scale, brand) with `moatScore` — and see why a feature is not a moat
- Apply a strategic filter (`strategicFilter`) to a backlog before RICE runs, so high-scoring bets that don't serve the strategy get deprioritized
- Define Mercado's complete strategy one-pager and apply it as a filter over its real backlog in the capstone project
Before you start
What you need to bring
It's for you if...
- Engineers who completed the Product Thinking guide and want to understand what decides the framework they prioritize within
- Devs who've watched a team execute a flawless quarter and still miss — because the destination was wrong, not the execution
- Engineers moving toward staff or tech lead roles, where build-vs-buy and architecture decisions need to be argued strategically
- Anyone who wants a rigorous, not slogan-based, way to evaluate a product's positioning, differentiation, and moats
Requirements and materials
- Product Thinking for Engineers Guide completed (or equivalent: RICE, prioritization, a bet's backlog)
- Comfort running simple Node.js scripts (no dependencies)
- No prior business background or MBA required
Content
The syllabus, module by module
Open any of them to see its lessons.
- Guide overview: from what feature to build to what game we're playing and how we win
- Doing things right versus doing the right things
- What a strategy IS, and what it is NOT
- The cost of flawlessly executing the wrong strategy
- Vision, strategy, tactics, and execution: the four layers
- Why this is your job, not just the founder's or the VP of Product's
- Recognizing bad strategy, even when it's well disguised
- Mini-project: audit Mercado's board deck and measure the cost of the wrong sentence
- Module overview: the summit of strategy is vision
- What a vision is (and isn't)
- Mission vs. vision: why we exist today, where we're headed tomorrow
- The four layers: vision, mission, strategy, and tactics
- A vision that says NO
- Aspirational vision vs. empty vision
- Mercado's vision, in depth
- Mini-project: Mercado's vision and mission one-pager
- Module overview: from the summit to the first concrete choice
- Who is this for -- and who is it NOT for
- The beachhead: narrow before wide
- The job, not the demographics
- What positioning IS
- The positioning statement
- Repositioning: when, why, and the risk of copying the leader
- Mini-project: Mercado's target segment and positioning statement
- Module overview: why they choose you, and not the usual alternative
- Parity vs. differentiation: table stakes are not an advantage
- What a value proposition IS (and isn't)
- Why us, and not them
- Sustainable differentiation: how fast you can be copied
- The Value Proposition Canvas, applied to Mercado
- Differentiation traps: when the team gets it wrong with confidence
- Mini-project: Mercado's differentiation map
- Module overview: the competitive landscape and where the market is going
- Mapping the competition: beyond the obvious rival
- Direct, indirect, and substitutes: three ways to lose the same buyer
- The most underrated competitor: "doing nothing"
- Where the market is going: today's map is no guarantee for tomorrow
- The strategic 2×2 map: how to choose axes that truly discriminate
- Not fighting the last war
- Mini-project: Mercado's complete competitive map
- Module overview: moats — the ditch that's still there when someone tries to cross it
- What a moat is (and what it isn't)
- Network effects: the phone that's worth more the more people have one
- Switching costs: what it costs to leave, not what it costs to stay
- Data and scale moats: when bigger and more-used is, genuinely, better
- Why a feature is not a moat
- The engineer's role in building moats
- Mini-project: Mercado's moat audit
Common questions
What people usually ask
No limit. It's a free guide: come in whenever you like, as often as you like.
No. Modules run from easier to harder, but you can jump to the one you need. Progress is saved per lesson.
Whatever is needed is listed under “What you need to bring”, above. If nothing is listed there, you can start from zero.
In the Club's WhatsApp group, and every two weeks there's a live with an instructor where questions get worked through.
Yes. It's issued automatically once you finish every lesson, with a verifiable code you can share on LinkedIn.
Start whenever you like
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