An operator’s guide to product strategy | Chandra Janakiraman (CPO at VRChat, ex-Meta, Headspace, Zynga)

Listen to this episode from Lenny's Podcast: Product | Growth | Career on Spotify. 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 — Brought to you by: • ⁠Eppo⁠—Run reliable, impactful experiments • ⁠Airtable ProductCentral⁠—Launch to new heights with a unified system for product development • ⁠OneSchema⁠—Import CSV data 10x faster — Find the transcript at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/an-operators-guide-to-product-strategy-chandra-janakiraman — Where to find Chandra Janakiraman: • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chandramohanj/ — Where to find Lenny: • Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com • X: https://twitter.com/lennysan • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/ — 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 — 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): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-linkedin-became-interesting-tomer-cohen • Making time for what matters | Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky (authors of Sprint and Make Time, co-founders of Character Capital): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/making-time-for-what-matters-jake • Identify your bullseye customer in one day | Michael Margolis (UX Research Partner at Google Ventures): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/finding-your-bullseye-customer-michael-margolis • Chandra’s flow chart: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SLmQ0oRFadzJnNM3MJetnLUvB18U4W4GXU4KtJ2ujEQ/edit?tab=t.0 • Chandra’s strategy template: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1iNeYUaMnpicvkpVZO-gj9cCxLeHfWN0xtGm_QoxgemE/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.5d3jz6v86yrs • Zynga: https://www.zynga.com/ • David Foster Wallace’s quote about water: https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/97082-there-are-these-two-young-fish-swimming-along-and-they • Oculus: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oculus • Elon Musk’s quote: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/wf8TadbGYok • Concept car: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concept_car ...References continued at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/an-operators-guide-to-product-strategy-chandra-janakiraman — Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email [email protected]. — Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.