Why do I need a Product Vision?

When you have a Product Vision, you know what you’re standing for and you know what you’re not. You know what your product is going to look like and what it is not. If that doesn’t convince you why do you need a product vision: A Product Vision also guides your product strategy and aligns the team behind it.

What is a product vision?

A product vision is a description of the essence of your product. It is a statement that describes why your product exists and what differentiates your product from other similar products on the market. Your vision is a big picture of a product that will guide you to build your MVP or what’s your product like in future.

The product vision statement

The product vision is a short and precise description for everyone, who is involved in the product, to understand the vision and the core idea behind the product. The vision statement describes the product idea in 1-2 sentences. You should keep your vision simple, clear and concise.

Use your product vision

As a product manager, you should keep the product vision statement alive and use your vision every time you need to explain the idea of your product to people, develop and adapt the strategy of your product and create user stories or tasks to be implemented. Your product vision is your compass which guides you in developing your product.

How to create a product vision

There is no single answer to this question as the process for creating a product vision will vary depending on the product and company. My personal preference is to look at the creation of a product vision as a process, not a one of meeting which results in a perfect vision. Therefore I recommend involve people, let the vision emerge and give your vision a bit of time.

What else?

First, you need to develop a product strategy, which is a plan on how you will achieve the vision. The product strategy should answer the following questions: How will you market and sell your product? How will you differentiate your product from others on the market? What features will your product have? What is the timeline for releasing your product?

Second, you need to create a product roadmap, which is a plan for implementing the product strategy. The product roadmap should answer the following questions: What are the major milestones in developing and releasing your product? What tasks need to be completed in order to achieve each milestone? What resources (money, people, time) are needed to complete each task?

Both the product strategy and the product roadmap should be reviewed and updated on a regular basis in order to ensure that they remain aligned with the product vision.

Metrics!

Metrics that you track will depend on the specific product and market. However, some common metrics that might be tracked include user engagement, revenue, and profitability. With everything you measure make consider to measure what matters, not what’s easy to measure.