Product Vision
Projects start out as ideas focused on results.
eg: Sell more hardware by bundling better software. Attract bigger customers by scaling more effectively. Open up a new market by offering a new service. The idea is so compelling that it gets funding, and the project begins.
Somewhere in the transition from idea to project, the compelling part – the vision of a better future – often gets lost. Details crowd it out. You have to hire programmers, domain experts, and interaction designers. You must create stories, schedule iterations, and report on progress. Hustle, people, hustle!
That’s a shame, because nothing matters more than delivering the vision. The goal of the entire project is to deliver the vision. If the details are perfect, but the vision is forgotten the the software will probably fail. Conversely, if you ship something that helps accomplish the vision, does it really matter how you did it?
Where the vision come from?
Sometimes the vision for a project strike as a single, compelling idea. One person gets a bright idea, evangelizes it, and gets approval to pursue it. This person is a visionary.
More often, the vision isn’t so clear. There are multiple visionaries, each with their own unique idea of what the project should deliver.
Either way, the project needs a single vision. Someone must unify, communicate, and promote the vision to the team and to stakeholders. That some is the product manager.
How to identity the vision
Like the children’s game of telephone, every step between the visionaries and the product manager reduces the product manager’s ability to accurately maintain and effectively promote the vision.
If you only have one visionary, the best approach is to have that visionary act as product manager. This reduces the possibility of any telephone-game confusion. As long as the vision is both worthwhile and achievable, the visionary’s day-to-day involvement as product manager greatly improves the project’s chances of delivering an impressive product.
If the visionary isn’t available to participate fully, as is often the case, someone else must be the product manager. Ask the visionary to recommend a trusted lieutenant: someone who has regular interaction with the visionary and understands how he thinks.
Documenting the Vision
After you’ve worked with visionaries to create a cohesive vision, document it in a vision statement. It’s best to do this collaboratively, as doing so will reveal areas of disagreement and confusion. Without a vision statement, it’s all too easy to gloss over disagreements and end up with an unsatisfactory product.
Once created, the vision statement will help you maintain and promote the vision. It will act as a vehicle for discussion about the vision and a touchpoint to remind stakeholders why the project is valuable.
Don’t forget that the vision statement should be a living document: the product manager should review it on a regular basis and make improvements. However, as a fundamental statement of the project’s purpose, it may not change much.
How to create a Vision Statement
The vision statement documents three things: what the project should accomplish, why it is valuable, and the project’s success criteria.
The vision statement can be short. Usually try to limit it to a single page. Remember, the vision statement is a clear and simple way of describing why the project deserves to exists. It’s not a roadmap; that’s the purpose of release planning.
In the first section – what the project should accomplish – describe the problem or opportunity that the project will address, expressed as an end result. Be specific, but not prescriptive. Leave room for the team to work out on details.
In the second section - describe why the project is valuable:
e.g. ”This product is so valuable to us because it gives us an opportunity to create an entrepreneurial product. Its success will allow us to form our own product company and make a good living doing work that we love.”
In the final section, describe the project’s “success criteria”: how you will know that the project has succeeded and when you will decide. Choose concrete, clear, and unambiguous targets.
Why vision is useful?
When your project has a clear and compelling vision, prioritizing stories is easy. You can easily see which stories to keep and which to leave out. Programmers contribute to planning discussions by suggesting ways to maximize value while minimizing development costs. Your release plan incorporates small releases that deliver value.
When the visionary promotes the vision well, everyone understands why the project is important to the company. Team members experience higher morale, stakeholders trust the team more, and the organization supports the project.
