Why Architects Need a Product Vision

You know the Blind Men and the Elephant story, right? Recently I wrote to advocate for technical architects to get a product mindset: The Architect's Evolution: From System Designer to Product Leader. This morning, when I talked with my friend Randlow about my product vision for a team, I suddenly remembered this story. It's that classic parable where several blind men each touch a different part of an elephant and come away with completely different descriptions of what the animal is like. No single perspective reveals the entire creature; only when all parts are put together does the full picture emerge. This story perfectly captures what happens when a team simply transcribes stakeholder requirements without stepping back to see the whole vision.

Seeing the Whole Elephant

As technical architects—especially in the Salesforce ecosystem—we often work with a diverse array of stakeholders and subject matter experts. Each one brings valuable insight from their unique perspective. But if we just take what they say at face value and push it into a backlog in Jira, we end up with isolated pieces that don't automatically form a living, breathing elephant. What we really need is a product vision that weaves all these different perspectives together into a coherent, holistic whole. Creating that holistic vision isn't just an option—it's a fundamental duty of us, the architects.

Without that vision, our teams may work diligently on individual pieces, but no one ends up truly happy because the complete picture—the product—is missing. As architects, we must provide that overarching vision that aligns technical work with the overall and long-term business goals, ensuring that every part of our platform not only fits together but thrives.

Where there is no vision, the people perish, as the proverb says. If we, as technical architects, don't form a clear product vision, the teams we serve will struggle to thrive. A product vision ensures that the technical direction serves not only the current business needs of various stakeholders but also paves the way for future growth and adaptability. It's our responsibility to see beyond the immediate tasks and build a sustainable, integrated platform that supports a myriad of business domains—from sales to service, from marketing to legal, and from operations to finance.

A Long-Term View for a Multifaceted Platform

When a company invests in a Salesforce org, they aren't just buying an application. They're acquiring a powerful and versatile platform capable of supporting numerous applications and portals. This means we, as Salesforce architects, need to have a vision not only for each individual product but for the platform as a whole. We must give the platform the due care it deserves, maintaining its fitness and adaptability to ensure long-term business agility.

Think about it: Salesforce has so many different clouds, and each is a product. Then we integrate it with systems for marketing, legal, finance, and operations. With Experience Cloud, we can create customer and partner portals that extend our reach beyond internal users. Each of these functions relies on Salesforce's versatility, and without a holistic design and strong product vision, we risk serving only a fragment of what the platform can truly offer, and worse—we risk messing up the platform with dirty data and tangled technical debts.

Managing Technical Debt and Maintaining Data Integrity

Of course, even with a great vision, technical debt is inevitable as platforms evolve and business requirements shift. So, how do we keep technical debt in check? At the architecture level, I’d like to emphasize two fundamental principles: maintaining data integrity and creating modular solutions. By focusing on these two essentials, we can ensure that our vision remains intact and that our platform stays flexible and scalable, ready to adapt to whatever challenges come next.

In Conclusion

Having a product vision isn't just a nice-to-have; it's a critical component of our role as architects. It's about ensuring that every stakeholder's perspective is integrated into a coherent whole—a living elephant, rather than disjointed parts. By embracing a product mindset and maintaining a long-term view, especially in a multi-cross-domain platform like Salesforce, we set the stage for sustained business agility and success.

So next time you're mapping out a project, remember: don't just see the parts—see the whole elephant. Your vision as an architect is what transforms those individual perspectives into a living, breathing whole that serves the entire organization's needs, both now and in the future.