I’ve written 109 editions of PMM Camp, and this one has been the hardest yet. No, I don’t have bad news to share. I just have a ton of very fun distractions:

• We have sunny skies here in Vancouver, which is truly a miracle for January

• The newest book in the Fourth Wing series dropped on Tuesday (IYKYK); and

• My favorite board game released a two-player version, and it’s sitting on my table waiting for me to play.

All that to say, I have a lot going on at the moment. So, let’s just get right into it.

For today’s edition, I want to double click on a topic that is rarely talked about amongst product marketers — strategic time horizons.

How often do you step back and intentionally think beyond the next quarter? Beyond the next launch? How much time do you spend planning for what your team or company will need in the next two, five, or even ten years?

The truth is, most PMMs don’t. I hope that changes after today.

The Three Horizons of Strategy

When I was the Chief Strategy Officer at Unbounce, my job was to focus the organization on executing against the strategy today while planning for tomorrow.

The future isn’t a binary thing. It’s not just “the present” or “the future”. There are phases of the future that need to be considered and planned carefully. That’s where McKinsey’s framework for Three Horizons of Growth comes in (please forgive me for bringing up a management consulting theory).

Horizon 1

This is the work that dominates your day-to-day. It includes executing product launches, running sales enablement sessions, and iterating on messaging for your company’s core product. Horizon 1 is all about sustaining what already exists.

Horizon 2

Horizon 2 focuses on medium-term opportunities that could grow into larger priorities. This might involve experimenting with positioning for a product you’ll launch next year, testing new audience segments, or building a GTM playbook that can scale beyond a single launch.

Horizon 3

This is about future-proofing the business. It’s where blue sky, long-term thinking lives. Conversations here might revolve around imagining the future of your market in 5 years or brainstorming entirely new product lines and revenue streams. Horizon 3 feels uncomfortable for a lot of PMMs because it feels abstract.

Balancing The Horizons

Horizon 1 is where most PMMs naturally spend their time. It’s where the fires are burning, the deadlines are looming, and the wins are quick. But, it’s also short-sighted.

Focusing exclusively on Horizon 1 keeps you in reactive mode. This is the gap where PMMs miss opportunities. And here’s where I often hear pushback:

“But that’s not my job. My company doesn’t have a concrete strategy, and my manager is focused on the next quarter. How can I be expected to build a strategy of my own?”

It’s a fair point — many companies lack a clear vision beyond the immediate future (or lack the ability to clearly articulate that vision). But, your ability to operate strategically, even in the messiest of settings, is what sets great PMMs apart from the rest.

Even without a clear company-wide strategy, you can:

• Define your own horizons. Start small with your role. What are the Horizon 1, 2, and 3 priorities for your team or product portfolio?

• Fill the gap. When the company isn’t looking far ahead, your insights can have a real impact on shaping that future. Instead of waiting for the strategy, help build it.

• Control what you can. While you might not have control over Horizon 3 at the company level, you can carve out space for Horizon 2 initiatives, like exploring new segments or setting the groundwork for long-term wins.

Strategic thinking isn’t about having perfect conditions or executive buy-in from day one (trust me, this never happens). It’s about taking intentional steps to balance short-term execution with future-focused planning.

So, here’s my challenge for you: take five minutes to reflect on where you’re spending your time and identify how you can move past Horizon 1. Here’s a few prompts to get you started:

• Are there tasks I’m doing that could be delegated or streamlined to free up time for strategic work?

• What emerging customer needs or challenges am I seeing that aren’t being addressed yet?

• What’s one Horizon 2 or 3 initiative I can push forward this month?

• If I had to imagine my market five years from now, what’s the biggest change I’d predict?

• What big idea have I been hesitant to propose, and what’s holding me back?

Then, this week, commit to a small but meaningful shift. Future you will be very thankful, I promise.

CAMPER ESSENTIALS

📚 Reading List: I’m dusting off the newsletter archives and sharing edition 58. In it, I break down how I spent my time as a Chief Strategy Officer, including a description of the activities I focused on in each time horizon.

📚 Reading List: If you want a deeper exploration of today’s topic, the software company Cascade has an excellent long-form article on the Three Horizons methodology.

🛠️ Tools: I found this 3 Horizons of Growth template on Miro — use it to facilitate a team brainstorm!

Now, off to unwrap Everdell Duo and convince my boyfriend he loves board games. Wish me luck!