Crafting a well-defined Product Vision is crucial for the success of your product. It provides direction and purpose, enabling you to overcome any challenges that may arise.

Product Vision statements are instrumental in clarifying and communicating your product’s purpose. They guide development teams towards a shared objective, ensuring alignment and focus.

However, creating a compelling Product Vision statement can be a daunting task. That’s why I’ve created this guide to help you articulate your Product Vision with clarity. With this guide, I hope you’ll be on your way to creating a better Product Vision.

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Understanding Product Vision: A Concise Explanation

A Product Vision is a concise declaration that defines the intended goal of a product and its reason for being. It communicates the purpose of a product.

Typically, a Product Vision statement seeks to express a fundamental, forward-looking, and emotional state. It describes how the future will feel by contemplating long-term aspirations. This description is essential to guide product development and align the team’s efforts toward a common objective. A Product Vision should remain constant and relevant for an extended period.

Before digging into the details of a Product Vision, it’s essential to explore the company-level vision statements. Typically, a company’s vision and mission statements are interconnected. While a vision statement highlights the purpose or goal of a company, a mission statement outlines the actions that the company will undertake to achieve the vision. In essence, the mission statement describes the “how” that will bring the vision to reality.

Sometimes, a Vision Statement may lack clarity and specificity, a Mission Statement should clearly identify the company by highlighting its distinctive competencies and strengths. By describing what the company excels at, a Mission Statement sets it apart from its competitors.

Here is an example of AirBnB’s vision and mission statement:

Vision: “Belong Anywhere.”

Mission: “to help create a world where you can belong anywhere and where people can live in a place, instead of just traveling to it.”

So now, what does a meaningful Product Vision look like?

The ideal structure of a Product Vision can vary depending on the product’s scale. For startups, the structure outlined above may be highly effective. Since the company and product are often indistinguishable, a comprehensive vision and mission are relevant.

On the other hand, for individual products within a brand portfolio, it may not be necessary to have such grandiose aspirations as “Belong Anywhere.” In this case, a more practical and pragmatic vision statement is appropriate. Often, Product Vision statements can merge the best of both worlds- the why and the how.

Importance of a Product Vision

The primary reason for crafting a Product Vision is to enhance clarity and communicate the product’s purpose.

1. Our world is filled with a lot of user problems to address, it can be challenging to stand out from the noise. Therefore, it’s crucial to identify the specific impact that you want your product to create and the problem it aims to solve. Developing a Product Vision involves taking the time to refine your thoughts, which provides a framework for your actions and a benchmark to evaluate your decisions and steer you through any challenges.

2. We all know that Product development is a team effort, and a crucial responsibility of a Product Manager is to establish the strategic direction and define the desired outcome in a manner that empowers the product team to leverage their skills and make informed decisions. The Product Manager should not dictate what needs to be done; that can lead to chaos. Instead, they should provide a framework within which the team can function to create long-term value. The most effective approach to achieve this is by articulating the Product Vision.

Crafting a Product Vision

When crafting a Product Vision, it is important to take into account five key components: Scope, Timeframe, Form, Leadership, and Value Context.

Scope

When formulating a Product Vision, the initial aspect to consider is scope. As mentioned earlier in AirBnB’s example, companies and brands often have visions. However, individual product development teams may not require one. There is no definitive answer here, but as a general guideline, it is best to make the vision as broad as possible while remaining coherent.

Timeframe

Typically, a Product Vision should be set for the medium to long term, around 2–10 years, depending on the pace of your industry. It is essential to note that a Product Vision should not be set for less than two years, as it is not truly futuristic but rather a reflection of the present. It is important to regularly review and adapt the Product Vision as the product team learns and evolves. Tweaking the vision as necessary is perfectly acceptable.

Leadership

A Product Vision is a statement of leadership, therefore it’s essential to involve decision-makers in shaping and agreeing upon it. It’s not a task that should be done alone. Identify the stakeholders who will invest in and support the product. Consult with technology and design experts. If needed, facilitate a workshop to discuss ideas and competing visions, challenge assumptions, and reach a consensus.

Form

You can express your Product Vision in different forms depending on the scale and scope of your product. Below are a couple of models that you can consider.

1. Vision and Mission Combination: For startups or single-product companies that rely on visionary ambition to drive the product forward, the Vision and Mission model can be effective. This model consists of two statements that together explain why the product will make a difference and how it will achieve its goals.

2. What and Why Statement: It emphasizes the unique features and value propositions of the Product, and how it can solve specific customer problems. This form is suitable for products that belong to a product portfolio, as well as digital services and products.

Value Context

Value context is a critical element to consider when developing a Product Vision, as it must align with the needs of both the business and the user. In fact, crafting a vision can be a preliminary assessment of whether the product is desirable and capable of generating value for the company and its users.

While it doesn’t involve full-fledged product discovery, it’s important to have a grasp of the market, user pain points, potential opportunities, and the underlying technology. Conducting primary and secondary research can help validate assumptions and ensure that the Product Vision is user-centric.

Here are some of the insights needed: Business Objectives, Customer Problems/Needs, Product or Enabling Solution, Key Differentiator For the Product, Industry Trends, Competitive Landscape, Go To Market Considerations.

Crafting a Product Vision that encompasses all these contexts and guides the product for the next few years is a skill that requires the ability to absorb and synthesize information. This task is not a straightforward one and can take a considerable amount of time to get right.

Common Mistakes To Avoid While Crafting Product Vision

Crafting a Product Vision appears simple at first glance but is more challenging than it seems. Although considering the scope and leadership as mentioned above can help prevent common pitfalls, some additional factors to keep in mind:

Ensure that Product Vision is not a mere description of the product

Although the product serves as a tool for users to accomplish their objectives, it is not the objective itself. For instance, let’s consider an app designed to help patients book an appointment with doctors nearby. The app may provide features like scheduling availability, reviews of the doctors, and paying doctors via the app, etc. While the app’s concept is enticing, it cannot be considered a Product Vision.

Don’t Mix Product Vision & Product Strategy

The Product Vision and Product Strategy are distinct concepts and should not be confused or conflated. While they are related, it is important to maintain a clear distinction between the two to ensure that the long-term goals of the product are protected.

The Product Vision represents the long-term goal, while the Product Strategy outlines the path to achieve that goal. It is crucial to recognize that there can be multiple paths to achieve the same goal, and the Product Strategy must be flexible enough to accommodate new learnings and insights gained during the product development process.

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