The Power of Why For the Product Success -or-How to Define a Compelling Product Vision
Aidin Ziapour, Product Management and Design Sprint Coach
Linkedin Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aidinziapour
Introduction
“ The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision. ”
- Helen Keller
Almost all of us faced with enthusiasts who want to change the world with their business ideas, scientific researches, public speaking, or even their consultation services. When you talk with them, they try their best to show that they are fully aware of what they are doing now and what the future will happen for them. Even experienced Product People are getting stuck in the trap of the illusion of knowing everything that has the potential to happen during their way to achieving whatever they want for their product. Let’s call it the illusion of being Nostradamus!
When it is time to talk about the product vision, almost all of the enterprises and their practitioners (who I mentioned before) talk about WHAT are they’re going to do for their target segments. By what, it means they are describing the concrete activities that they are employing. Every organization on the planet knows what they do. These are products that they sell or the services that they offer. Moreover, some enterprises describe HOW they do what they do for their product vision. They define how they do their activities. These are the things that make them special or set them apart from their competition.
But a few enterprises and their product people know the WHY of their products. It means why they do those activities and the main reason for their products (and also their enterprise) existence. Very few enterprises and product teams know why they do what they do and when you talk about the WHY, remember that it’s not about making money. That is a result. Your product vision or what we call it THE WHY OF THE PRODUCT includes your belief, purpose, and cause. It’s the very reason that your product exists. So the important point that you should remember is the product vision is not related to what are you do it or how are you do it. It’s all about WHY are you do that and the purpose to bring and introduce your product to the world.
What is the Product Vision
The product vision is all about your belief, your purpose, your cause. People buy your products and use them not because you’re creating better products, they buy and use them because they believe in what you believe. They believe in your vision. The vision is telling everybody what is your motivation for creating your product and what positive changes you want to bring to the market. Let’s review the Apple vision statement for its products and services:
‘’ Everything we do ourselves, we believe in challenging the status quo, we believe in thinking differently “
Really great! That is a great example of a vision statement. It describes Apple's motivation, cause, belief, and purpose for existing. So only people who believe in what Apple believes, attract to its products and services, and become a user or customer of its outcomes.
Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle
Coming up with a vision statement and ‘rallying cry’ is often the hardest part of defining your vision. To do it, start with the following exercise, using the Golden Circle Canvas based on Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle. Remember that this activity should run with key stakeholders to know their values and opinions and share them with the product team.
Bad enterprise leaders and product people choose the outside-in approach. They say what they do, what are the products and services they offer for their customers and how they do it. For example, if Apple wants to choose this approach, maybe they were saying:
We build great phones (WHAT). They are beautifully designed, simple to use, and user friendly (HOW). Want to buy one?!
Want to buy one?! Maybe!
On the other hand, great leaders and product people choose the inside-out approach. First, they describe their belief, purpose, and cause. For instance, Apple chooses this way wisely to share its vision with the world and after that, they describe their HOW and their WHAT:
‘’ Everything we do ourselves, we believe in challenging the status quo, we believe in thinking differently (WHY). The way we challenge the status quo is by making our products beautifully designed, simple to use, and user friendly (HOW). We just here to make a great phones (WHAT). Want to buy one?!“
Want to buy one?! Aha!
It feels totally different right now. This is the way to define a great vision for your product like the Legends. In order to define a vision using The Golden Circle Canvas follow these steps:
Collect
Put the Golden Circle canvas on the wall, and hand your team a stack of post-it notes. Set an alarm for 5–10 minutes. Ask the team to come up with things that define the enterprise in the future state (1, 2, or 5 years in the future). Ask them to write down as many things as they can come up with that they find important about the enterprise on post-it notes.
Categorize
Once the timer rings, have each team member stick post-its on the Golden Circle canvas. Try to categorize what they came up with in ‘What’, ‘How’, and ‘Why’. If there are similar post-its, cluster them together (skip identical ideas).
Ask ‘ 5x why? ‘
Now that you’ve filled the Golden Circle canvas like this, take a step back. Look at your canvas, and try to see if there is a balance between ‘What’, ‘How’, and ‘Why’ post-its. Chances are, there will be a lot more ‘What’ and ‘How’ post-its than ‘Why’ post-its. Go over the different post-its and use the ‘5x Why’ approach to get to the deeper reasons that you find them important. Start with ‘Why is this post-it important?’, and keep drilling down, asking for deeper reasons. Add the new answers to the Golden Circle.
The Last Word
“ Just keep going. Do not stop. Don’t even think about stopping until you get there, and don’t give much thought where “there” is. Whatever comes, just don’t stop. ”
Many professionals waste so many times to define their product vision. There is no reason to waste many times for it. Just define an initial version of your vision statement which includes the core value, purpose, and motivation that you have for existing in this business world. After that, you have many times to validate your WHY, HOW, and WHAT with your market segments and have their feedback and signals on what you want to do for them in the long-term future.
