Designing Product Strategy around a Fragmenting World | Alan McCafferty

Designing Product Strategy around a Fragmenting World is a timely session for product leaders and growth-focused organizations navigating global uncertainty. This event examines what happens when long-held market assumptions shift and how product strategy must adapt in response.

We will explore how product leaders rethink positioning, scaling models, and geographic focus when external forces disrupt established growth engines. Drawing on a real-world expansion journey in the cybersecurity and AI risk intelligence space, the discussion will surface practical lessons on building credibility in crowded markets, managing strategic pivots, and designing resilience into the product architecture itself.

Key themes include competing from a late position, reducing geographic concentration risk, aligning identity with growth strategy, and making disciplined strategic bets under pressure.

The session will be led by Alan McCafferty, Director of Cybersecurity at the Professional Development Institute (PDI), University of Ottawa, and a leader involved in scaling advanced cybersecurity and AI risk…