One of the most influential books in my life has been Steve Miller 🔶 Uncopyable book https://amzn.to/4jM9V8z. In his book Steve talks about three traps that most businesses and hence products fall into:
- Commoditization: If something can be copied, it will be copied
- Competitive Strategy: Competition doesn’t breed Innovation. Competition breeds Conformity
- Price Pressure: When prospective customers cannot differentiate between performance and quality then the only point of differentiation is price. Competing on price is a losing battle.
So what do you do as a product manager? One business model that I am a fan of and is highlighted by Taylor Swift’s Business is Satellite Strategy. Take a look at my article https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/taylor-swift-method-5-phase-product-strategy-create-jaising-cst–bb5pe/
What Is Satellite Strategy?
Satellite strategy is a business model approach where a business builds multiple complementary ventures that orbit around their core product or identity. Rather than simply extending a brand horizontally, satellite strategy creates distinct but interconnected businesses that each reinforce the central offering while opening new revenue streams and audience touch points.
Think of it as a solar system: your core product or identity is the sun, while your satellite ventures are planets with their own ecosystems, all held in orbit by the gravitational pull of your central brand value.
Before your product falls in one of the three traps, one way to command a position and price in the market is to develop a Satellite Strategy.
Five Phase Approach to create a Satellite Strategy
In this article I like to share a five phase approach to create a Satellite Strategy for your product.
One company that has really impressed me in building a satellite strategy is Canva. Canva just announced Canva Create – https://www.canva.com/newsroom/news/canva-create-2025/ This wave of tools augmented by AI is ground breaking. Their announcement starts with their brand values. “We dreamed of a world where design would be simple, joyful, collaborative, and truly accessible. This dream has guided every step we’ve taken over the last decade as we’ve built Canva into a platform that truly brings creativity and productivity into one place.”
Let me take you through the five phase approach, share examples of what Canva did in each step and how can my company Concepts & Beyond https://conceptsandbeyond.com use AI to build a Satellite Strategy.
Phase 1: Set the Stage
Step 1: Define Brand Identity and Values
Canva established its identity around “democratizing design” with core values of simplicity, accessibility, and user empowerment.
Example: Unlike Adobe’s professional-focused tools requiring learning curves, Canva maintained a consistent, intuitive interface across all feature expansions. Even as they added complex capabilities like video editing, they refused to compromise on their “anyone can design” principle, keeping the same drag-and-drop simplicity.
If you have have brand values defined for your core product then use them or define brand identity and brand values. used ChatGPT’s 03-mini-high and shared the below prompt
“You are an expert Product Manager and Product Leader with several years of experience with product management. My company https://www.conceptsandbeyond.com has three products Certification Training, Consulting and a Telemetry Jira Plugin. Can you define my brand identity and values”
The result
Core Values
- Innovation:
- Agility:
- Collaboration:
- Practical Excellence:
- Transparency and Accountability
- Customer-Centricity
Brand Promise
Your brand promises to guide organizations on a transformative journey—from mastering agile practices to unlocking innovative solutions through strategic consulting and real-time insights. This promise is delivered through a blend of expert instruction, bespoke consulting, and advanced technological tools, ensuring that clients not only gain theoretical knowledge but also achieve practical, market-leading impact.
By consistently delivering excellence in training, consulting, and technology, Concepts and Beyond transforms potential into performance, ultimately helping organizations achieve sustained success in today’s competitive landscape.
Step 2: Audience Analysis
Canva identified their primary users as non-designers, small business owners, marketers, educators, and social media managers who found Adobe intimidating.
Example: Research revealed these users needed pre-made templates more than advanced customization. While Adobe offered blank canvases with unlimited possibilities, Canva provided structure through templates, addressing the “blank page anxiety” their audience experienced.
I used the below prompt for ChatGPT next
“Can you conduct a comprehensive audience analysis of Concepts and Beyond?”
1. Audience Segmentation
A. Agile Practitioners & Continuous Learners
B. Corporate Transformation Leaders & Decision Makers
C. Technical Teams & Agile Tool Users
D. HR, Learning & Development Professionals
Based on what ChatGPT already knows about my business and my audience I asked it for suggestions for product management and leadership satellite products and services
“I like to use a similar strategy like Taylor Swift https://conceptsandbeyond.com/the-taylor-swift-method-the-5-phase-product-strategy-framework-to-create-new-revenue-models-that-revolve-around-your-core-offering/ for Concepts & Beyond. What are product management and Leadership satellite products or services that Concepts & Beyond can offer”
The response was to build a Product management Ecosystem
I asked ChatGPT to come up with a list of both live and on-demand courses
“Can you suggest specific courses in product management or leadership that should be added. These could be both on demand and live versions”
Step 3: Market Positioning
Canva positioned itself as “design for everyone” versus Adobe’s professional-focused approach.
Example: Their market positioning guided feature development—rather than competing with Adobe Premiere’s technical depth, Canva Videos focused on creating quick, templated videos for social media and presentations that non-professionals could master in minutes.
My prompt for Market Positioning was
“Now knowing the satellite products, audience and brand positioning, can you define what should be the market positioning”
The result:
Concepts & Beyond empowers product professionals and aspiring leaders to drive innovation and build new revenue models through immersive training, advanced technology tools, and a vibrant collaborative community. We bridge the gap between strategy and execution with real-world, actionable insights—enabling our clients to transform product management into a competitive advantage in today’s evolving market.
Conclusion
I just covered Phase 1 – Setting the Stage which is a required baseline that other phases will build upon. For creating a strategy, the product should define brand values, conduct a comprehensive audience analysis and establish the product’s market positioning.
Was this article valuable? Love to hear your comments as I prepare for sharing the next phase with you.
Would you like to learn how to build a Vision, Strategy and Roadmap as a Product Leader? Join our Live Online Advanced Scrum Product Owner Workshop to elevate your strategic skills. Check out my A-CSPO schedule at https://www.eventbrite.com/cc/advanced-certified-scrum-product-owner-a-cspo-2770959
