Why is Product Vision Crucial to Your Product?
We dream of various things. Many of us dream of travelling the world or going skydiving. Product Leaders dream of creating and launching a lovely and winning product.
The lovely product should generate a value for which customers are willing to pay. The winning one should make the highest profit with the lowest possible cost. The task of a Product Leader is to bring and maximize the value of the product in a way to solve and fulfill and solve the most important needs and problems of a customer segment. The knowledge about customers and users, their needs, and problems is critical to make the dream of the Product Leader a reality. The product vision is intended to capture these aspects in a few sentences and briefly describe how the final product should look like and what it should do.
To create the product vision, I suggest using The Product Vision Board. Besides, it will be nice if you add a list of key product attributes to your product vision (functional and non-functional features of the product). You may involve a development team in visioning activities (vision box, trade journal review, etc.). I recommend to read more about these activities in the “Agile Product Management with Scrum: Creating Products that Customers Love” book by Roman Pichler.
I strongly believe that the product vision determines the success of the product. As a Scrum Product Owner, I took responsibility for the existing product in 2018, aimed at the provision of information on the weather to the Lido flight planning and pilot solutions. The very first step I took was the product vision statement. I realized that the great effort spent on the research and product vision almost a year ago pays off today. So why is the vision important to your product?
Sets an Ultimate Goal
The ultimate goal is extremely important for the development of the product strategy. I consider the product strategy as a number of steps that need to be taken to achieve the final goal. You can write these steps in the form of Product Roadmap or annual OKRs as goals to be achieved during a certain period. Execution of the product strategy is done through various tactical activities, such as collecting requirements; creating, splitting, and prioritizing product backlog items; managing stakeholders, etc. The product vision is a core part, and the strategy and tactics come from it.
Gives a Sense of Purpose
If a product has shared product vision, both the development team and stakeholders are likely to know “why” the product exists and is being developed. This knowledge should bring the development team together, promote collaboration, and motivate a steering board or CEO of a company to invest in the product. The successful product vision should place trust in your idea and actions.
While the product vision answers “why” the product is built, the product strategy and tactics show “what” is developed and “how” it is done. Once answers to these questions are found, you, your team, and stakeholders will know the sense of purpose, a path you need to go through, and an effective way to shortcut it.
Helps to Keep Focus
It is important to go forward without being distracted. The product vision helps you not to stray from the path. Every decision on development should be validated against the product vision. I suggest you reject requests that contradict your product vision. If you receive and reject many such requests, it might signal about a wrong assumption about the needs and values of your customers and users, and you probably need to think about pivoting. Many well-known products are successful because their Product Leaders found the best time to pivot.
Creates an Alignment
The product vision eliminates the individual envisioning of a product by team members and stakeholders. You as a Product Leader is only the owner of the vision. You need to make sure that it is shared, unifying, and understandable. The vision should connect and engage people as well as guide them in the same direction. Otherwise, there is a risk that each member of a team might start developing own product. Such a scenario carries the potential for the product to lose value.
Helps to Promote a Product
A short and catchy vision statement can generate interest and draw the attention of potential investors and customers. For example, a market department can use the vision statement to advertise a product.
In conclusion, Product Leaders are called to make products valuable to customers. Thus, it is important to know the needs and problems of a customer segment. The product vision should reflect this information which is crucial to the development and release of a successful product. It is worth investing your best effort in the development of the vision. It does not only capture the essence of the product but also sets a final goal and a direction to move.
