The Product Strategy Playbook that Powered Growth at Tinder & TripAdvisor — Ravi Mehta

Today’s episode is with Ravi Mehta, who is formerly the Chief Product Officer at Tinder, and taught product strategy as an Executive in Residence at Reforge. In today’s conversation, we dive exceptionally deep into product strategy, starting with what Ravi sees as the most common disconnect between product strategy and what product teams actually work on day-to-day. In the bulk of our discussion, we walk through the core tenants of what he calls the product strategy stack, which includes the company mission, company strategy, product strategy, product roadmap, and product goals. Next, he unpacks his alternative approach to OKRs, called NCTs. He makes the case that outlining narratives, commitments, and tasks sidesteps some of the most common headaches when it comes to OKRs, and gives suggestions for implementing NCTs within your own product teams. Strategy is often misunderstood and has come to mean all sorts of different things. What struck me about Ravi is how clearly he’s able to articulate these amorphous ideas like “mission” or “vision.” He’s also got plenty of examples from his own career at TripAdvisor and Tinder, plus his work as an advisor for other fast-growing startups. You can follow Ravi on Twitter at @ravi_mehta. You can email us questions directly at review@firstround.com or follow us on Twitter @ twitter.com/firstround and twitter.com/brettberson