When product teams get stuck in backlog chaos, stakeholder noise, and reactive shipping, it’s not a process problem. It’s a product strategy problem.
That’s where the Productside Blueprint comes in.
In this serialized story, you’ll meet Heather Leaf, VP of Product at WellNest Health, and her lead PM, Tommy Trunk. They’re facing mounting pressure, internal friction, and a big challenge: turning a well-known brand with a faltering product into a focused, outcome-driven organization.
In Chapter 1, you’ll see how they start the transformation by acknowledging the chaos, and choosing a different path with a renewed focus on product strategy.
Start reading below and don’t miss your chance to get the full Blueprint eBook before it launches next week.
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Introduction to WellNest Health
Heather Leaf, VP of Product Management at WellNest Health, calls over her top product manager, Tommy Trunk, for their weekly meeting. She’s just come out of a leadership briefing—and it’s not good news. Once again, the company has posted a weak quarter, with lackluster results from its flagship product, BuildNest.
BuildNest is a comprehensive wellness platform that offers physical, mental, and financial wellbeing tools to employees, while giving employers and healthcare providers a HIPAA-compliant, 360-degree view of health trends across large populations. WellNest has a strong foundation—backed by a trusted 20-year-old brand and longstanding relationships with employers, employees, and practitioners. But its product management journey has been far from smooth.
As the wellness market grows more competitive, WellNest’s product managers are under increasing pressure to deliver features requested by sales, executives, and enterprise clients—often with little time to step back and assess strategic impact. The team is shipping constantly but struggling to prove they’re moving the needle on the outcomes that matter most.Their current approach lacks a cohesive product strategy.
Despite some success with this reactive, feature-driven approach, WellNest is starting to fall behind. New players are entering the market with agile teams, wearable integrations, and insurer distribution deals. Internally, executive leadership is frustrated—and pointing fingers at Product Management. They’ve been asked to come back with a strategy that delivers more value to customers and drives measurable business growth.
Heather knows something has to change. Her team is operating at full capacity, but their efforts aren’t clearly tied to outcomes—or to each other. Feature requests are flying in from every direction, but there’s no cohesive thread connecting the work to long-term value.
While searching for a better way forward, Heather discovered the Productside Blueprint—an outcome-driven approach to product work that emphasizes strategic discovery, lo-fi experimentation, and data-informed decision-making. She’s ready to put it into action and guide her team toward a more intentional, aligned, and impactful way of working—a real product strategy they can stick to.
This ebook follows Heather and Tommy as they apply the Productside Blueprint across every phase of product development at WellNest—from creating strategic clarity to building, launching, and evolving a product that truly delivers. Through their journey, you’ll gain practical, real-world insights to help your own team move from reactive execution to strategic leadership.
Recognizing the Potential of Product Management and Product Strategy
Heather and Tommy have been given a clear mandate from leadership: align product management with user needs and business goals. But getting there won’t be easy.
At WellNest Health, strong opinions run deep. CEO Lucas Nest often pushes the team toward his latest big idea—regardless of whether it reflects real customer problems. Meanwhile, Joe Branch, the VP of Sales, champions the immediate demands of high-profile clients, prioritizing deals over long-term product vision. Between the executive wishlist and sales-driven urgency, Heather and Tommy know they’ll need a new way to center product decisions around strategic outcomes—not gut reactions.
For them, that starts with shifting the mindset across the organization. They need to align key stakeholders around a new model—one that puts discovery, clarity, and measurable impact at the heart of product work.
Their tool of choice? The Productside Blueprint.
The Productside Blueprint: A Strategic Framework
To guide WellNest Health’s transformation, Heather introduces the Productside Blueprint—a structured, outcome-driven approach to product management. It’s not just about doing more discovery. It’s about making every product decision intentional, aligned, and grounded in strategy.
The Blueprint is built around five phases: Context, Investigate, Define, Create, and Deliver. Each phase is designed to help teams move beyond reactive execution and toward customer-centered, business-aligned product leadership.
Figure 1: The Productside Blueprint
Here’s how each phase will guide Heather and Tommy at WellNest
Context
First, Heather and Tommy need to establish a shared understanding of the business strategy, market landscape, and competitive environment. This means aligning with leadership on WellNest’s top priorities—and using that alignment to define a clear product vision. Without this foundation, it’s impossible to make product decisions that truly support the company’s long-term goals.
Investigate
With strategic context in place, it’s time to dig into discovery. In this phase, Heather and Tommy work to uncover real customer needs through empathy interviews, persona development, and Jobs to Be Done analysis. Rather than jumping to solutions, they focus on deeply understanding the problems worth solving—grounding product decisions in real-world insight, not assumptions.
Define
Once they’ve identified meaningful customer needs, Heather and Tommy lead the team through low-fidelity experimentation. They explore a range of potential solutions, test hypotheses, and gather feedback—all before committing to full-scale development. This phase helps the team reduce risk and build confidence in their direction before investing significant time and resources.
Create
Now comes the shift from insight to action. In the Create phase, Heather and Tommy turn validated ideas into a focused strategy and prioritized roadmap. They define product goals, success metrics, and use prioritization frameworks to stay focused on what matters most. The result? A roadmap that’s not just a list of features—but a strategic plan for delivering customer and business outcomes.
Deliver
Finally, it’s time to bring the product to market—and keep learning post-launch. In the Deliver phase, Heather and Tommy align cross-functional teams on key messages, success metrics, and rollout plans. But their work doesn’t stop after launch. Using Tiny Acts of Discovery, they continuously gather insights, iterate, and adapt the product over time. This ensures their solutions evolve to meet real needs—and signals when it’s time to scale, refine, or retire a product.
What’s Next for Heather and Tommy? Explore the Full Product Strategy and Management Journey
In the rest of the eBook, we’ll explore how Heather and Tommy use the Context phase of the Productside Blueprint to create stronger alignment between their product work and the goals of the company. This shift will help them align their product goals with market opportunities and business objectives, paving the way for meaningful product decisions.
Get the Full PM Story and Strengthen Your Product Strategy
Heather and Tommy’s story is just getting started. In the full eBook, you’ll follow their journey through the five phases of the Productside Blueprint: Context, Investigate, Define, Create, and Deliver.
Each chapter is packed with relatable moments, ready-to-use templates, and a practical look at how to run a more strategic product organization.
Get the full eBook delivered to your inbox the moment it launches.
Ready to move from reactive feature delivery to a proactive, outcome-driven product strategy? Here are some next steps to deepen your understanding and apply these concepts:
Join our upcoming webinar where we break down the WellNest Health story from this eBook—and show how the Productside Blueprint can help your team move from reactive chaos to strategic clarity.
Want to run a more strategic, outcome-driven product organization? The Productside Blueprint is your practical guide to aligning product work with customer needs and business goals.
Explore the Optimal Product Management Course. This hands-on program covers essential topics like outcome-driven roadmapping, story mapping, and strategic alignment, equipping you to lead confidently and effectively.
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