The Product Vision Board — A tool for creating your Product Vision
Introduction to Vision
Before we dive into the Product Vision Board by Roman Pichler itself, let’s provide a little context first! The Product Owner is the one person in Scrum who is accountable for the success of the Product. Therefore, the Product Owner creates, manages and owns the Product vision. The Product vision describes the purpose of a Product, the intention with which the Product is being created and what it aims to achieve for customers and users. The Product vision describes a future state of the Product and what problems it tries to resolve or what ambitions it tries to fulfill.
Having a clear and inspiring Product vision helps in motivating and inspiring people, like the Development Team, the stakeholders and customers and users. It also provides a common understanding of the direction we want to move towards. Besides that, the Product vision also supports the Product Owner in making choices about what to build and what not to build for the Product.
All in all, it’s pretty damn important to have a Product vision, so in this blog, we’ll be exploring the Product Vision Board, being one of the tools/techniques that might help you to create your Product Vision.
Tip: Also check out this article, containing 10 tips about creating your Product vision.
An example Product Vision Board
On his website, Roman Pichler states that the origins of the Product Vision Board come from the time that he was exploring an idea of creating a software-based version of his Product Canvas tool, which should then integrate seamlessly with JIRA and GreenHopper. When he wanted to get this idea started, he created the Vision Board shown below.
The idea is that the Product Vision Board captured his assumptions about the users and the customers of the new tool, including the customer needs, key product features and the business goals for his own company.
You may notice that the information in the example is quite short and concise. He didn’t use other tools and templates like personas, user stories or design sketches. Although one of the reasons he didn’t use other techniques, was because he didn’t quite know enough about the potential users and customers yet, in order to be able to write personas and describe the product features in more detail. A more important reason to keep the information short and concise I would say, is because you want to keep the Product Vision high level. It should be offering direction, it should be inspiring, yet it shouldn’t be a huge epistle with details. The product details will be worked out later, via the Product Strategy, Product Roadmap and Product Backlog for example.
Roman mentions that the board was very valuable to him:
“It helped me think through my idea, and it allowed me to share my thoughts with my team, and with our development partner. Additionally, the vision board helped me investigate the greatest risks by testing my assumptions.”
— Roman Pichler, creator of the Product Vision Board —
I have had the same experience that Roman had in the past. I now still use the Product Vision Board quite often, for example when working with clients, management teams and product owners, in order to increase transparency and understanding about the Product Vision. In many companies I’ve worked with, the Product Vision wasn’t that clear to all the employees. Nor was it short, concise, understandable and memorable. So, when starting to work on any (new) product or service, I always use a canvas like the Product Vision Board to get started.
How to use the The Product Vision Board?
Okay, so you’re ready to get working on your Product Vision… That’s great! So how should you use the Product Vision Board then? Well, the idea is that the Product Vision Board is a simple tool to help you capture your product vision and product strategy. As you can see in the image below, the Product Vision Board only uses 5 sections which should be filled in: Vision, Target Group, Needs,Product and Business Goals. Below the image, you can find an explanation of each of the parts.
Vision
In the Vision field, you can state your purpose, your mission, your overarching goal to achieve. It is basically the ultimate reason for creating your product. It describes the positive change that you want to bring to the world. The vision is therefore a short description (unlike some of these examples) such as:
Ikea: “Our vision is to create a better every-day life for many people.”
Now you may notice that this mission/vision is crisp, clear, short, concise, understandable and inspiring. It offers direction, yet it doesn’t limit us. Here’s another one from the good old days:
The Walt Disney Company, a long time ago: “Make People Happy.”
Nowadays, the mission of The Walt Disney Company is:
The Walt Disney Company, 2019: “The Walt Disney Company is to entertain, inform and inspire people around the globe through the power of unparalleled storytelling, reflecting the iconic brands, creative minds and innovative technologies that make ours the world’s premier entertainment company.”
Now, I’m a huge fan of the simple, easy to understand and easy to remember kind of vision. Just as an example: I knew The Walt Disney Company old vision statement by heart. I had to Google its current one, because it’s unmemorable… So to cut a long story short; Make your vision big, clear, short, inspiring and memorable. Use a brief statement or slogan. And if you want to learn more about it, check out this article containing 8 Tips for Creating A Compelling Product Vision.
Target Group
The section Target Group describes the market or market segment that you want to address. In this part of the canvas you can state which people the product is likely to benefit, including users and customers for example. Make sure to choose a homogenous, clear-cut target audience for your product. As Steve Blank advises; it’s better to build a specialized product, with can do specific things very well for the few, than a huge product that can do everything a little bit for the many.
Needs
In the Needs section, you can describe the product’s value proposition. This area describes the main problem that the product addresses and/or the primary benefits it will bring. This section should offer clarity about why people would want to buy your product. You can also describe what success looks like for the users and customers. If you have identified many different needs, then prioritize them from 1–5 for example.
Product
The Product section summarizes the 3 to 5 key features of your product. This is not a long list of all the stuff your product can do. It describes your 3–5 USPs, or 3–5 Key Buying Reasons for customers. These key features are likely to correlate to its unique selling proposition, and they should address the needs you have identified in the Needs section. Again, keep this list short and eventually write down all your products’ or services’ details at a later stage, for example in a Product Canvas or in the Product Backlog.
Business Goals
In the Business Goals section, you can list the desired business benefits for your company. For example increase revenues, enter a new market, reduce costs, develop the brand, or acquire valuable knowledge. Like in the Product section, prioritize your Business Goals if you have many and try to stick to 3–5 Business Goals again. If you don’t apply focus, it will be much harder to measure the products’ performance and apply the right metrics.
Do you want to download the Product Vision Board?
Are you exited about Romans’ Product Vision Board? Download it now and get started!
There are, of course, also many other tools available for creating your Product Vision and Strategy, including Ash Maurya’s Lean Canvas and Alexander Osterwalder’s Business Model Canvas. What I typically do, is use these canvasses in a later stage. You don’t have to completely identify your cost and revenue streams or partnerships for example, when you haven’t validated your Product Idea yet. So, before going into too much detail, try to get some clarity first with the simple to use Product Vision Board!
Want to learn more about the Product Vision Board?
Check out these blogpost for more guidance on the Product Canvas:
