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: lennysnewsletter.com/p/an-opera… — Where to find Chandra Janakiraman: • LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/chandramohanj — Where to find Lenny: • Newsletter: lennysnewsletter.com • X: twitter.com/lennysan • LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky — In this episode, we cover: — Referenced: • Headspace: headspace.com • Good Strategy, Bad Strategy | Richard Rumelt: • 5 essential questions to craft a winning strategy | Roger Martin (author, advisor, speaker): • VRChat: • Andrew Chen on LinkedIn: • Template: Working Backwards PR FAQ: • How LinkedIn became interesting: The inside story | Tomer Cohen (CPO at LinkedIn): • Making time for what matters | Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky (authors of Sprint and Make Time, co-founders of Character Capital): • Identify your bullseye customer in one day | Michael Margolis (UX Research Partner at Google Ventures): • Chandra’s flow chart: • Chandra’s strategy template: • Zynga: • David Foster Wallace’s quote about water: • Oculus: • Elon Musk’s quote: • Concept car: • Acquired podcast: The Mark Zuckerberg interview: • Armand Ruiz on LinkedIn: • What is a multi-armed bandit? Full explanation: • IF on Prime Video: • Dune: Part 2 on AppleTV+: • Dune Prophecy on Max: • Capybara Go on the App Store: • Bluesky: • Steve Jobs: The Lost Interview on Prime Video: — Recommended books: • The Art of War: • Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors: • Good Strategy Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why It Matters: • Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works: • Make Time: How to Focus on What Matters Every Day: • Sprint: • Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination: • Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration: • The Ten Faces of Innovation: Strategies for Heightening Creativity: — Production and marketing by . For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com. — Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.