Netflix Product Strategy
This thread is my learnings from @gibsonbiddle (one of my biggest role models for Product Strategy) about how Netflix manages product strategy.
Dive in
1/ What is a strategy?
‘a route to continuing power in a significant market’ ~ Hamilton Mehler

2/Framework:
All strategy must fall in the framework you follow. Let us study DHM model which Netflix follows. (They follow more models)

- Delight
- Hard to Copy
- Margin Enhancing.

All the product strategies should fit in this framework. Else it’s a No.

3/ Hypothesis:
A hypothesis should fits in 2-3 legs of DHM.

Let’s take 2 hypothesis -

1. Personalisation : Offer customised results to individual users.

2. Easy - Navigational experience to be easy for first time and repeat users.

Check this to understand better

4/
If this hypothesis fits in the DHM framework, this becomes a part of Product Strategy.

Also means, team undertakes these 2 product developments.

5/
Define Metrics and Tactics:

- Metrics to track the success of the strategy.

- Tactics to show how to achieve those metrics. This is how

6/
Proxy Metrics: crucial.

Your respective product metric must lead to success of company’s overall metric - the North Star.

For every product metric, there should be an additional metric which is a proxy for North Star.

North Star for Netflix was “Customer Retention”.

7/
Product Roadmap

It expresses your product strategy.

Defines the estimates on timelines of the products (quarterly/monthly/yearly).

Netflix does it on a quarterly basis

8/
Long term roadmap:

We are here for a long game. The short term road map should lead to long term vision.

How do you define long term vision?

Netflix follows GLE here -
G - Get Big
L - Lead
E - Expand worldwide

9/
Maintain the momentum:
So product strategy is working well.

How do you keep this aligned when you are growing at a rate of 30% Y-o-Y.

Netflix follows an interesting model for this.

I shall add this strategy to this thread in coming week.

Point out the mistakes.