Jenny Wanger Product Operations Consultant, Avenir Design www.jennywanger.com/
You have to figure out how to slow the execution down to make time for strategy.
Execution never slows. Backlogs grow, stakeholders multiply, and urgent requests crowd out the work that matters most. For product managers, strategy is always the first thing sacrificed. The result? You stay busy but feel like you’re only doing part of your job.
The answer isn’t hoping for more hours or chasing productivity hacks. It’s building a system that creates space for strategy.
In this talk, you’ll learn a practical framework: start with a piece of strategy, use it to say no to distractions, and design structures that make it visible in daily work. Each cycle frees up capacity, strengthens your influence with leadership, and compounds into the time and focus needed for bigger, more strategic bets.
Through real examples — a white-labeling feature that surfaced hidden tradeoffs, a team restructured around company goals, and a financial insight that evolved into a developer relations strategy — you’ll see how this system works at every level.
Because execution won’t stop. But with the right system, strategy doesn’t have to either.
The default for product management is the hamster wheel of execution. The talk suggests a way to get out of the hamster wheel so you can spend more time on strategy.
Ran a survey of product people.
“I sometimes or never feel like I get enough time for strategy
Promotion isn’t apparently the answer…
You have to figure out how to slow the execution down to make time for strategy.