What is a Product Vision

It’s incredible to have a concept for a new product. However, this is insufficient. You need the vision to lead everyone engaged in the product’s success, including product management, development, marketing, sales, and support. This is when product vision enters the picture. 

That guiding constellation includes product vision. A clear product vision linked to the company’s overall objective assists you in developing a forward-thinking and customer-driven product strategy. It is the essence of where you want your product to be and what you are constructing in the future. The statement should also address why you are devising a product and what your organization wants to achieve with it in the future.

Example

Slack Vision Statement is “ Make work life simpler, more pleasant and more productive”

Importance of Product Vision

Consider how difficult it will be for the product team to determine where to spend its resources, prioritize features and target market, and produce a strategically solid product without a product vision statement. 

A product vision statement also makes roadmapping much simpler. If you start with a well-defined vision, you can transform an idea into an action plan. Once you’ve created an action plan, you may break it down to make a complete development plan.

A product vision should provide answers to the following questions: 

• What exactly is the product?

• Who is the product’s main market?

• Why is the product required by the main market?

• How will the product assist its target audience?

• What sets the product apart from its competitors?

Qualities of A Good Product Vision

Guiding Star	Optimistic	Linked to Corporate Objectives
As the team outlines a product vision, each member will build their version of it. When they need to make a hasty choice, a product vision will keep them on track and prevent them from designing anything that contradicts the product vision.	Product visions provide your teams with a broader understanding of what they are working on and why. A product vision explains why your team should work on this product and for whom. It explains why you should provide your best effort because you are all striving to create a well-crafted product that will improve your clients’ lives.	Product vision is comparable to corporate image, but on a smaller scale and at the level of the product. If you want the product to be successful in the market, you need your business to back you up. It is simpler to sell your product up the chain if your product vision has a clear link to supporting corporate objectives.

Product Vision Responsibility

Product vision is often guided by the chief product officer CPO or product owners, with input from senior executives to ensure that it aligns with the corporate strategy. The canopy that lies above product vision is the company vision. Where the firm is going, in the long run, will have a direct influence on where the product has to go to support that. End users and team members often provide helpful input that product owners should consider. If the information is beneficial, it may be included in the product vision; however, owners must also serve as gatekeepers to ensure that the product vision remains clear and free of distractions. Keeping the vision at the forefront keeps everyone focused on the final goal and moving in the same direction. A clear product vision also helps teams unify and make choices that bring the most outstanding value to the user.

How to Create a Product Vision

Creating a product vision requires teamwork. Begin by enlisting the help of your management and the product team. You may also speak with your coworkers, team leaders, and present and potential clients. The following steps may assist you in getting started:

Research

Knowing your consumers and their needs is the first step toward the vision. You must thoroughly comprehend their problems and how your product will assist them. If you are developing a product vision for a new offering, do market research to determine your target market and what they need. Speak directly to consumers and customer-facing teams like support and sales if you update the vision for an established product. Their perspectives may help you better understand the people you serve.

To get clarity in this procedure, it is critical to answering the following questions: 

• What distinguishes our product from competitors in the same market?

• What are our counterparts doing?

• What do our consumers think about our product and business?

• How do our workers feel about our product and company?

• What market possibilities exist in the 3 to 5 years?

• What are the most crucial difficulties we expect to face next year?

• What are our income targets?

It is critical to distinguish between product vision and strategy throughout this process. Your product vision should not be a strategy for achieving your objective. Instead, keep the product vision and product strategy distinct. This allows you to adjust your plan while keeping true to your vision. At the same time, a vision is required for selecting the best plan. You can’t determine how to go there if you don’t have an ultimate aim.

Extracting the Vita

Take everything you’ve learned and attempt to distill it into a phrase or two that conveys the value of your product.

Here is the format

For [Target Customer] Who [Statement of Opportunity] The [Product Name] is a [Product Category] That [Key Benefits] Unlike [Primary Competitor] Our Product [Statement of Primary Differentiation].

Unification

Take the time to disseminate your vision statement around the business and get input as you refine it. Is the vision shared by everyone? Is it simple for teams to express how their work contributes to the vision? Prepare to iterate on the vision with key stakeholders and make changes. Choose a message that seems uplifting and long-lasting – something that everyone can unite behind in the near future.

Documentation

A compelling vision serves as the foundation for all you accomplish. Please write it down. Put it on your company’s website or internal wiki. where It can be commonly referred to. Vision is not something that should be defined once and then forgotten about. 

Once your vision has been defined, make it available to other teams and keep it in mind while developing product strategies.

Product management software such as Freshflows allows you to determine strategy, prioritize work, and generate visual roadmaps to track your product’s development against your goal.

Conclusion

Developing a vision, everyone can buy into, believe in, and strive toward is critical. Use the vision to influence product choices and to keep everyone focused on the ultimate goal of developing the product. While the vision is not sufficient in and of itself, it serves as the first filter for new ideas and modification requests: Anything that helps you get closer to your vision—whether it’s a new feature, a new direction, or a new technology—is valuable and should be evaluated; anything that doesn’t is ineffective and should be avoided. So, what are you holding out for? Begin your research, develop your unique product concept, and produce that game-changing product. Why not look at Freshflows if you require a fantastic product management suite?