Product Vision

Before planning or taking any action, it is important to first have a bird’s eye view of what your general aims should be.

Sit down, either alone, or with your vision-minded partners, and hash things out using the product vision table below (or something similar that works optimally for your team).

Be tactile – use a white board (the bigger the better), and/or physical sheets of paper or large note cards or post-it notes and a product vision board. Some teams, especially those who must work remotely, will use dedicated electronic tools to approximate this process.

Go over the essentials of your product.

Essential Questions

Note: use a product vision board, or something like it, to go over these questions and to record your hashed-out plan.

What is our minimum viable product – the main problem that our idea will solve?
Are we certain that this problem has not already been solved by an existing tool or product?
Is it partially solved? If so, would it be more strategic to use what exists and add to it, or to start completely over with a competing product?
What components of our idea are absolutely essential to solving the main problem?
What aspects of our initial plan are “great ideas” (and probably worth implementing at some point) but not exactly essential?
Are we certain that solving this problem will have “business value,” i.e., generate sustainable revenue?
Who will use this product or plan?
Are there different user types who will use it in different ways?
If we will rely on users for your revenue, how much would they probably be willing/able to pay, and how many will we need to get (and keep) to be sustainable?

The Product Vision is not

a set-in-stone plan
a wish list
a collection of requirements previously set forth by various leaders in an organization
a set of steps tied to a specific finish / release date

The Product Vision is

an organized brainstorm
a chance to put all good ideas on the table and refine them based on practical needs and strategies
a chance to get collaboration and buy-in from all relevant stake holders
a chance to set out objectives with confidence that they are strategic and that it’s normal for some of them to change

With these answered, write up a Vision Statement that incorporates your answers.

Here is a classic version:

Remember: keep it simple. Some of your ideas won’t be as good as you think they are. Expect and prepare for changes. Take a fluid approach. Only hesitate to change one: “what is the main problem that our idea will solve.”

The sample below is from Roman Pichler, a well-known Agile author. This Product Vision board is a good starting-point. Adapt it to your own team’s preferences and your own project’s needs.