Is Taylor Swift the best product strategist of our generation?

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TLDR

This episode features Mike Hyzy, VP of Strategy and Innovation at CGI, breaking down how Taylor Swift’s approach to music and branding mirrors world-class product strategy. From testing new markets to managing an interconnected product portfolio, Swift’s business acumen offers valuable lessons for product managers seeking to build innovative, loyal brands. Mike shares the Swift Product Playbook and tips for product managers to apply these tactics in their own work.

Introduction

Think Taylor Swift is just a pop star? Think again. Our guest is Mike Hyzy, Vice President of Strategy and Innovation at CGI, and he’s about to show us how Swift has mastered product strategy better than most Fortune 500 companies. From her initial country music launch to her record-breaking Eras Tour, Swift has executed portfolio management, strategic pivots, and customer loyalty programs that rival the best product organizations in the world. Mike will show us the product playbook she used and that you can also use to make your next product or brand a fan favorite.  

Mike brings 15+ years of product leadership, AI strategy, and innovation consulting to this conversation. He’s worked with enterprises across healthcare, finance, manufacturing, and technology. He’s the author of Gamification for Product Excellence and a certified Foresight Practitioner. Mike is here to decode the Swift Product Playbook and us product managers and leaders with an actionable framework. 

Summary of Concepts Discussed for Product Managers

The Taylor Swift Product Playbook:
Mike Hyzy presents his four-act framework, showing how Taylor Swift’s career is a masterclass in product development, portfolio management, market innovation, and user engagement. Each act is a lesson in understanding and serving your audience, strategic pivots, and creating strong customer loyalty.

Act 1: Strategic Product Development:
Swift’s rise began with deep audience insight—identifying an unmet need with honest, relatable songs for young women in country music. She used small, intimate shows to test new material and singles to probe markets before bigger releases. Her shift from country to pop famously followed this method, using singles as MVPs and analyzing fan response to guide bigger bets.

Act 2: Portfolio Management and Expansion:
Swift’s product portfolio extends well beyond music. After losing the rights to her early albums, she re-recorded and re-released them as “Taylor’s Version,” engaging fans and regaining control. She bypassed traditional channels, working directly with AMC for her concert film release.

Act 3: Market Innovation:
Swift consistently redefines industry norms, such as dropping a surprise folk album during COVID to match fans’ moods, and forging new distribution deals that cut out intermediaries. She turns market constraints into creative advantages, keeping close to her fan base’s changing needs.

Act 4: Building Fanatic Loyalty:
Swift invests heavily in user engagement, treating fans as collaborators rather than customers. She’s hands-on with social media, hosts private events, gamifies experiences (Easter eggs, online puzzles), and backs up every promise to her audience. Her brand fosters a sense of belonging and community, exemplifying the power of co-creation and customer delight.

Putting It into Practice:
Mike encourages product managers to find “Swift-inspired” opportunities in their own work: identify unmet customer needs, look for bold pivots, break industry conventions, reward loyal users, and turn users into co-creators for sustained brand impact.

Steps Product Managers Can Take This Week:
Mike challenges product managers to “build your era.” First, look at your product category and identify one job your user wants to do that no one is fully solving. Identify your biggest obstacle related to solving that problem. Reimagine your product and think about what a bold pivot would look like. Have a trusted friend or advisor hold you accountable to trying a bold experiment.

Useful Links

• Connect with Mike on LinkedIn
• Read Mike’s Medium article, “The Swift Product Playbook”
• View Mike’s slides:

Innovation Quote

“If you always do what you always did, you will always get what you always got.” – Albert Einstein

Application Questions

1. How can you apply Taylor Swift’s approach of testing new ideas with “mini-experiments” before going big with your own product launches?
2. In what ways could interconnecting different parts of your product portfolio amplify customer engagement and revenues?
3. How do you currently monitor and learn from customer sentiment? What would it look like to treat users as collaborators?
4. What market “rules” in your industry could you break or bypass for innovation and value creation?
5. What are some creative ways you could reward, involve, and gamify engagement for your most loyal users?

Bio

Mike Hyzy leads AI product innovation and strategic foresight at CGI, where he launched the product management practice and designed the AI Adoption Framework (A3F). As part of CGI’s national AI strategy team, he develops new solutions with internal teams and advises client executives on how to turn emerging AI capabilities into business advantage. Mike applies strategic foresight to separate signal from noise, giving leaders a clear view of emerging trajectories and the choices that matter for long-term strategy. 

Thanks!

Thank you for taking the journey to product mastery and learning with me from the successes and failures of product innovators, managers, and developers. If you enjoyed the discussion, help out a fellow product manager by sharing it using the social media buttons you see below.

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