Episode Details

Chandra Janakiraman is the chief product officer, executive vice president, and a board member at VRChat. Previously, he was a product leader at Meta, where he led Facebook’s social experience interfaces and Reality Labs’ growth; served as CPO at Headspace, where he helped relaunch the platform, driving a 4x subscriber boost; and was a GM at Zynga, delivering massive hit games that reached hundreds of millions. In our conversation, Chandra shares:

• His playbook for developing a product strategy

• The difference between “small s” and “big S” strategy

• How to run strategy sprints

• Who should be involved in strategy work

• Common pitfalls in strategy development

• The role of AI in future strategy development

• More

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Find the transcript at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/an-operators-guide-to-product-strategy-chandra-janakiraman

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Where to find Chandra Janakiraman:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chandramohanj/

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Where to find Lenny:

• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com

• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/

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In this episode, we cover:

(00:00) Chandra’s background

(04:47) The importance of strategy

(12:40) Defining product strategy

(15:42) Developing a winning strategy: an overview

(18:51) The preparation phase

(30:46) The strategy sprint process

(45:51) The design sprint

(51:19) Document writing

(57:39) Rolling out your strategy

(01:01:28) Resourcing and roadmapping

(01:04:42) Strategy lessons from Zynga

(01:11:34) Strategy lessons from Meta

(01:15:55) Big S strategy

(01:26:58) AI in strategy formulation

(01:38:12) Final thoughts and lightning round

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Referenced:

• Headspace: https://www.headspace.com/

• Good Strategy, Bad Strategy | Richard Rumelt: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/good-strategy-bad-strategy-richard

• 5 essential questions to craft a winning strategy | Roger Martin (author, advisor, speaker): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-ultimate-guide-to-strategy-roger-martin

• VRChat: https://hello.vrchat.com/

• Andrew Chen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pmandrewchen/

• Template: Working Backwards PR FAQ: https://www.workingbackwards.com/resources/working-backwards-pr-faq

• How LinkedIn became interesting: The inside story | Tomer Cohen (CPO at LinkedIn):

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