"Platform teams are where PMs discover they have no real strategy — a platform strategy is not a roadmap plus a vision, and most platform teams fail at this"
Evidence from the Archive
Asana
Jackie Bavaro confidently handed her new head of product a platform strategy; he told her it wasn't one. That moment produced her three-part strategy framework
Her argument: platform teams are where PMs discover they have no real strategy — a roadmap plus a vision is a strategy-shaped hole
Bavaro's contribution to the platform debate comes from a formative moment in her own career. After years as a PM leader at Asana, her new head of product Alex Hood asked her to write a strategy for the platform team. She confidently handed over what she thought was a strategy. He told her it wasn't one.
That episode drove her to articulate the three-part definition of strategy she's now known for (vision, strategic framework, strategic acts). It's not a coincidence that the crucible was a platform team. Her structural point: platform teams are uniquely bad at producing strategy because the surface area is enormous, customers are internal, and the obvious artifacts — vision decks, roadmaps, dashboards — look strategic without being strategic. A 'team brain' vision plus a list of capabilities is not a strategy; it's a strategy-shaped hole.
In Jackie's own words: "A few years later we hire Alex Hood, our new head of product. And he's like, 'Can you create a strategy for the platform team?' And I was like, 'Great, here it is. We have it.' And he's like, 'That's not a strategy.' And I was like, 'What?'" (Her origin story for the three-part strategy framework — triggered by realizing her platform team strategy wasn't one.)