Nobody Has A Strategy Problem – Mike Goitein and Dane Frederiksen

I sat down with generative engine optimization video search expert Dane Frederiksen recently to discuss some simple and powerful product strategy concepts.

Here were the biggest takeaways from our conversation:

* Nobody has a strategy problem. Nobody ever wakes up thinking they have to fix their strategy. They only know they have major business problems, like customers leaving for a competitor, or costs are too high. Here’s the mind-blower: Everyone already has a strategy. The real question is whether it’s working for you.

* A strategy isn’t a plan. Plans look inward, focused on how you manage what you control: your budget, people, time. A strategy is nothing more than making a few clear choices about who you serve, in which markets, with what offer. Strategy has one single goal: to change customer behavior in ways that benefit both you and them.

* Before you change anything, write down what you’re already doing now. Don’t go back to your strategy deck from your last meeting. Really take the time to figure out what choices you’re actually making now. Who are you really serving? How often are you engaging them, and through which channels? In the many times I’ve taken teams through this, only one team ever chose to keep their current strategy once they saw it clearly laid out in front of them.

* AI gives you plausible, not necessarily always true. I work in the Michael Porter – Roger L. Martin – Design Thinking-based approach to customer-centric strategy. There’s precious little strategy writing in that tradition for models to learn from, so they drift toward generic consulting playbooks, recommending a SWOT analysis. The seemingly sensible and plausible answers you get are a long way from the kind of strategy insight that’s truly useful and actionable. Telling them apart takes experience.

* Quick Hit: Test any offer with Proven / Better / New. Mark Pincus at Zynga created the Proven, Better, New framework. I applied it in real time to Dane’s offer: video is “proven,” speaking in the customer’s own words is “better,” and the Generative Engine Optimization layer that Dane specializes in for video is his “new.”

Video Chapters

00:00 What strategy is actually for00:37 Strategy means choosing what you won't do01:15 Start with the opportunity, not the goal02:00 Where AI search, video, and customer strategy meet05:09 Nobody has a "strategy problem"06:08 Strategy isn't a plan: reverse-engineer what you're already doing07:10 Why AI gives you cookie-cutter strategy09:19 Well-educated buyers with the wrong ideas10:25 Using contrarian content to attract and connect with the right buyers before they talk to you11:51 Candid video conversations as the trust signal AI can't fake13:33 Parting advice: write down your real strategy, then test your offer with Proven / Better / New

Read More About Dane and His Work Here

https://substack.com/@danefrederiksen