How long do you keep a product vision?
The “rule of thumb” for a Product Vision is to set one 3-10 years out.? Some companies are even expanding this to 10-20 years out.
But how do you know when it is time to revisit a product vision besides looking at the calendar?
I spoke with Jeff Lash who leads product management for Forrester.? He leads a portfolio of subscription-based products that combine:
?Prior to this role, Jeff was a Research Director and analyst at Forrester, where he worked with many product management leaders and their teams to help them establish their product vision.? ?
When to update a Product Vision
Jeff has found that there is often a moment where you look at your product vision and you say to yourself, “no, this is just not right.”? And this is the Product Sense that we talk so much about – it comes from experience talking with customers, and diving into the data, and a bit of gut feel as well.?
In general, Jeff has found that it may be time to update the Product Vision when:
1.???? The market trends shift.
2.???? The target audience changes.
3.???? A company identifies a new product opportunity.?
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1.? The market trends shift
Changes in technology or trends may or may not change the vision.? Jeff gives an example of automobiles.? If people are buying fewer and fewer sedans due to changing lifestyle patterns and your product is a sedans, this is a trend where you may want to react. This doesn’t mean that you completely abandon your focus and shift to selling SUVs, but you may want to at minimum consider whether your vision needs to be adjusted.
A new technology trend -- like generative AI – is another example of a shifting market trend that can impact your vision or just impact on how you are going to deliver your vision. Products that provide stock photography may need to adjust their vision in the context of an environment where photos can be sourced from AI in addition to human photographers.
There will always be new technologies.? The purpose of the product vision is not about the technology it's built on. It's about what problems we are solving. ?What needs we are fulfilling? What's the impact that product is having??
2.? The target audience changes
?Changes in target audiences can be big or subtle.?
Imagine you are selling a SaaS product for lawyers, intended to be used by corporate councils (lawyers working exclusively for the company they’re employed by). After analyzing internal and external data, and based on the context of your organizational strategy, you may decide that you would be better served by selling to law firms instead -- this too is a change in target audience, even if the end users are still lawyers.
Another example Jeff gives is if you are selling globally, but then shift to selling just to the Latin American market, that is also a change in target audience.
3.?? A company identifies a new product opportunity.?
?Jeff remembers one client where the new product opportunity arose as the target customer was evolved – so a combination of new product and new target audience.? The company was originally targeting physicians.? But they had a new product that was aimed at a slightly different audience than before.?
But identifying a new product opportunity for a new customer is the easy part.? The hard part is oftentimes getting stakeholder buy-in.? For this client, it was rather difficult as they were founded by physicians and making products for physicians.? In order to get everyone onboard, they took a multi-step, inter-department collaborative process that took many months.?
That’s to be expected as, in Jeff’s experience, most companies don’t just decide to change their product strategy overnight. There's lots of socialization and data required to win the hearts and minds required to make such a big change. ?It's a change that happens over time. ?And it’s driven by the company strategy.?