How to Create a Great “Product Vision”

In my previous post Do You Have Product Instinct?, I proposed that one of the best ways to increase the effectiveness of your product decisions is to have a strong “Product Vision.” A well-defined and well-understood Product Vision can serve as the compass that your entire team uses to guide their decisions during development.

But what does a strong Product Vision look like? And how do you create one?

What Is a Product Vision?

The product vision is what you believe your product could be someday; it’s the ultimate end-goal. The product vision is not just your next development cycle nor is it your next release -- it’s the ideal product that will evolve after several iterations from where you are now. This is your chance to think long-term.

At Spongecell, among the many products we develop is our platform for trafficking and delivering digital ads. Our vision for that product starts with a simple statement: “The tool that enables our Ad Operations team to be the smartest and most efficient team in the industry.” At first glance it seems vague, right? Perhaps too simplistic?

There is a lot of power in that simple statement:

• We clearly state who our primary users are. Everything we decide to add to this product should be with the Ad Operations team in mind.

• We point out which two features are most important to this product. We value features that enable the Ad Ops team to make smart and insightful decisions, and we want to build features that let them execute those decisions most efficiently.

• We set the criteria against which we will measure. We’ve set the bar high: best in the industry! That means we need to understand what the rest of the industry is doing and make sure that we are constantly comparing ourselves against the competition.

Where to Start: Write Your Vision Statement

The vision you have in your head for your product might be many things, but try to condense the most important parts down to a “vision statement”. This is the one- or two-sentence summary that encapsulates what you want to achieve. (Like my Ad Ops example above)

You’ve likely seen examples of vision statements at the corporate-level from several well-known companies. I personally like Amazon’s vision statement:

"[Amazon's] vision is to be earth's most customer centric company; to build a place where people can come to find and discover anything they might want to buy online."

It’s easy to see how Amazon can use this vision statement to guide how and why they develop their future products. Luckily, for a product vision you don’t need a statement to encapsulate an entire company. Just focus on the vision for one particular product.

Some guidelines I try to use when crafting a vision statement:

• Superlatives work extremely well. Instead of “a really good solution for X” use words like “the BEST solution.” Or like Amazon’s “The MOST customer centric company.” You don’t have to be the best product in your first release, but give your team something to aspire toward!

• Choose something motivating. Vision statements that mention helping or empowering others are easy for your team to emotionally connect with, whereas a statement like “Maximize market share and return on investment” can sound cold and impersonal. Create a product vision that your team will want to rally behind.

• Keep it short! The most powerful vision statements are short and to the point. Try to reduce the number of words you need to get your point across. Figure out which points are the absolute essence of what you want to build. It will lend precision to your development process. Also, your team will be able to remember your vision statement much easier if it is short and simple.

Support Your Vision With “Product Tenets”

A Product Vision statement is a great way to get your team excited and ready to head in the same direction, but you need some elements of Product Strategy to get them moving forward. One really effective way is to create a short list of guiding rules, which I usually call “tenets.” (These can also be called your “Product Constitution” or “Product Commandments”...feel free to be creative.)

Your Product Tenets should provide guidelines as to how to approach design decisions. Here are some examples:

• Tenet Example #1: “Simplicity. We value simple and intuitive experiences more than advanced features and capabilities.”

• Tenet Example #2: “Our service should be a consistent experience everywhere. All designs must work well on mobile, tablet, and desktop.”

• Tenet Example #3: “Build fast; learn fast. We want to get early versions of our product in customers’ hands as early and as often as possible so that we can consistently learn and change course if needed.”

Some quick tips to creating Product Tenets:

• State the major tradeoffs you are willing to make. “Simple and intuitive experiences more than advanced features and capabilities,” is an easy to understand tradeoff. Your team will be able to more easily make design decisions if they know they should always choose the simpler approach.

• Use tenets to set the level of quality you expect. “Build fast; learn fast,” implies slightly lower quality in any given product release in favor of getting market feedback. If a high-quality product is a must-have for you, use a tenet that says so!

• And again...keep it short! Short and simple will make these easy for your team to remember.

Now Go Get Started!

Make sure to still do all your normal product planning groundwork (market research, feasibility, etc.), but hopefully a clear Product Vision will help streamline your decision-making and get your whole team aligned.

Please post if you come up with any great Product Vision statements that you can share!