Product Vision FAQs

What is the product vision?

The product vision describes the ultimate purpose of a product, the positive change it will bring about. You can think of it as a big, hairy, audacious goal (BHAG)—or a moon shot—that inspires people and offers continued guidance for the next five to ten years. Say I wanted to create a product that helps people become more aware of what and how much they eat. As the product vision, I could then choose “help people eat healthily” or just “healthy eating.”

For more information, see the article 8 Tips for Creating A Compelling Product Vision.

What makes a good product vision?

An effective product vision fulfils the following six criteria:

• Inspiring: The product vision creates a purpose for the people working on the product. It provides motivation and guidance even if the going gets tough.
• Shared: The vision unites people and acts as the product’s true north.
• Concise: The product vision is easy to understand and remember. Using a slogan—a short, memorable phrase—can be a great way to create such a vision.
• Ambitious: It describes a big, visionary goal.
• Enduring: Despite its name, I recommend keeping the product vision free from assumptions about the actual product or solution. This allows you to change the product while you stay grounded in the vision.
• Ethical: A good vision gives rise to an ethical product, a product that truly benefits its users and that does not cause any harm to people and the planet.

For more guidance, refer to the article Six Qualities of a Great Product Vision.

How can I capture the product vision?

As mentioned above, I find it helpful to use a brief statement or a slogan to describe the product vision. This increases the chances that people understand and remember it. An elaborate or verbose vision that looks great on paper but is hard to understand and memorise offers little value.

Additionally, I like to capture the product vision together with the product strategy, as it’s done on my Product Vision Board shown in Figure 1. The board encourages you to state the product vision at the top and the product strategy underneath it.

Figure 1: The Vision on the Product Vision Board

You can find more information in the articles Double Vision: Choosing the Right Approach to Capture the Product Vision and The Product Vision Board.

Who should create the product vision?

The product vision should be created by the person in charge of the product together with development team members and key stakeholders. This maximises the chances that the vision resonates with them and they follow it.

See the article Building High-Performing Product Teams for information on how to involve stakeholders and development team members in making key product decisions.

Can the product and company vision be the same?

Yes, the two can be identical. But I advise using two separate visions—unless you work for an early-stage start-up. The company vision should describe the purpose of the entire organisation, the reason why the business exists. Take, for example, IKEA’s vision to “create a better everyday life for the many people.” The product vision, however, should communicate the ultimate reason for developing and offering a specific product, for instance, IKEA’s app that allows users to design their own PAX wardrobe.

Do I need a product vision and a product strategy?

Yes, you do. As the vision describes the ultimate purpose for creating the product, you will have to complement it with a product strategy. While the vision is great to inspire the stakeholders and development teams, it is not enough to guide them. This is where the product strategy comes in. You can think of it as the approach chosen to realise the vision and achieve product success, as Figure 2 shows.

Figure 2: Product Vision vs. Strategy

An effective product strategy should clearly state the needs or user goals that the product will help address or meet, the people who will use and pay for the product, the aspects that set it apart from competing offerings, and the business benefits that it should generate for the company developing and providing it.

Note that creating a product strategy and validating it—ensuring that it does not contain any major risks or assumptions—tends to be significantly more work than coming up with a product vision. What’s more, the decisions captured in the product strategy are crucial to achieving product success: I view them as prerequisites for deriving an actionable product roadmap with specific, measurable product goals or outcomes that direct the development of the product.

For more information, read the articles Double Vision: Choosing the Right Approach to Capture the Product Vision and Roman’s Product Strategy Model.

How do I create an inspiring product vision?

The best way to ensure that your vision is inspiring and meaningful for the stakeholders and dev team members is to create it together with the individuals in a collaborative workshop and co-create the vision.

To take advantage of this approach, invite the right people to a joint session, be it online or onsite, and encourage the participants to describe the purpose that they associate with the product. Then look for a product vision that is fitting and that everyone can support and that generates a positive emotional response. It should ignite people’s imagination and make them excited about working on the product. Choose words that resonate with people and inspire meaningful action.

You can find more advice on collaborative decision-making in my article Making Effective Product Decisions: Tips for Deciding with Stakeholders and Dev Teams.

Does the product vision ever change?

As a general rule, the product vision should be stable. It should offer guidance for an extended period—at least five years, as I recommended earlier. There are, however, two exceptions to this rule: First, when you create a brand-new product and you cannot find a valid product strategy, you may want to consider adapting the product vision. Second, when your product has been offered for a number of years, you might find that adjusting the product vision is helpful to keep it fresh and meaningful.

Contrast this with the product strategy and the product roadmap. The former will change at least once per life cycle stage, and the roadmap is likely to change several times per year. Both plans therefore benefit from regular reviews. These offer you the opportunity to also assess the product vision and change it if this turns out to be necessary. To say it with Jeff Bezos’ words: Be suborn on the vision and flexible on the details.

Does every product have to have its own vision?

Every product should have a vision, but not every offering requires its own, unique one. Say your product is part of a product portfolio like Microsoft 365. As its products are closely related, I would use one overarching vision for the entire portfolio, a product portfolio vision. In Microsoft 365’s case, this might be, “enable individuals to get things done.” Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and the other 365 products would then share this vision.

For more information, see the article Everything You Need to Know about Product Portfolio Strategy.

What product vision mistakes should be avoided?

Avoid the following pitfalls when creating and using a product vision:

• Confusing vision with strategy: Distinguish between the product vision and product strategy. Use the former to state the ultimate reason for offering the product and the latter to describe the approach you’ve chosen to realise the vision and achieve product success.
• Tying the vision to a product idea or business objective: This would make the vision unstable. Like the North Star, the product vision should change little across the product life cycle. What’s more, such a vision fails to provide a meaningful purpose, as it does not state the underlying reason for offering the product.
• Using a vision that fails to inspire people: Make sure that the vision moves and galvanises people. Look for a vision that the key stakeholders and dev team members support and that triggers a positive emotional response, for example, excites and motivates them.
• Changing the vision frequently: An unstable vision fails to provide a continuity of purpose. To avoid the mistake, capture the product vision as a big, hairy, audacious goal (BHAG), in addition to keeping it free from the product idea and business goals.
• Not aligning the product vision with the company vision: A product is a value-creating vehicle. It exists to generate benefits for the users and customers, as well as the company that develops and provides it. To achieve the latter, you should ensure that the product vision is in line with the company vision: Meeting the former should help you meet the latter.

For more guidance, read the article 5 Product Vision Mistakes You Should Avoid.