Common Product Vision Board Mistakes
The product vision board is a simple yet powerful tool to capture the product vision and the product strategy. Despite its simplicity, effectively using it can be challenging. I have seen many boards over the years that suffered from a number of shortcomings including a poorly defined target group, an unconvincing value proposition, and business goals that weren’t measurable. This article helps you recognise and rectify common product vision board mistakes, thereby maximising the chances of creating an inspiring vision and a winning product strategy.
You can listen to an audio version of this article here: https://www.romanpichler.com/romans-podcasts/common-product-vision-board-mistakes/
A Brief Guide to this Article
This article assumes that you are familiar with the product vision board or the key elements of a product strategy: market, value proposition, standout features, and business goals. The overall example I use to illustrate the mistakes is a healthy eating app that helps its users improve their eating habits and live more healthily.
While I wrote the article for people who work with the product vision board, I hope that it will also be useful for readers who use another product strategy tool like the value proposition canvas or the lean canvas.
If you are new to the product vision board, then you may might to read the article “The Product Vision Board” or watch the video “Introduction to the Product Vision Board”. You may also want to download the vision board template to try it out for yourself.
Vision Captures Product Idea or Business Objective
Examples: “Offer a weight loss mobile app”, “Become the number one weight loss app provider”
Problem: When you tie the vision to the product idea or a specific business objective, you lose the ability to pivot — to change the strategy but to stay grounded in the vision. Additionally, such a vision is hardly inspiring. A good vision exercises pull — it describes a future state that people want to bring about.
Cause: A confusion about what an effective product vision is.
Solution: Describe the ultimate purpose of your product, the positive change the product should bring about like “healthy eating”. Think of the vision as a big, hairy, audacious goal (BHAG) that inspires people and offers a continuity of purpose for the next five to ten years.
More Information: 8 Tips for Creating A Compelling Product Vision and Strategize, pp. 18.
Target Group is (too) Big and Heterogenous
Examples: “Everyone who owns a smartphone”, “Business users and consumers”
Problem: A very big and diverse target group makes it hard to formulate a crisp, compelling value proposition and strong standout features. It can also result in a large product backlog and high development cost: The greater the number of people who should benefit from your product is, the more diverse their needs are likely to be, and the more features are usually required to address them. Trying to offer a product that pleases everybody carries the risk of not doing a good job for anyone.
Causes: A lack of understanding of users and their needs, lack of empowerment of the person in charge of the product, inappropriate growth strategy.
Solution: Successful products are not built by agreeing on the smallest common denominator or trying to please powerful stakeholders. Instead, they require tough strategic decision and clear focus. Therefore, choose a specific market segment and develop a product for the few, not the many, as Steve Blank suggested, particularly when you manage a new or young product.
After your product has reached product-market fit and has become more feature rich, consider unbundling bigger features and creating product variants to address the needs of specific groups. For example, I might decide to offer a version for middle aged men to help them reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes and a version for children to help them overcome a specific eating disorder.
Additionally, strengthen your ability to guide the stakeholders and dev teams: Increase your referent power and earn people’s trust, strengthen your product management expertise, and lobby for more management support.
More Information: Market Segmentation Tips and Strategize, pp. 59; Boost Your Product Leadership Power and How to Lead in Product Management, pp. 36.
Many Needs but No Compelling Reason for Using the Product
Examples: “Lose weight, be more active, feel better, be fitter”
Problem: If a product does not address a clear and compelling need, it will be difficult to encourage users to use it; uptake and engagement are likely to be poor. Consequently, it will be hard to achieve the desired business benefits and monetise the product.
Causes: Lack of understanding what problems users really face and what they really need; a target group that is too large and heterogenous, as discussed above.
Solution: Focus on the main reason for people to use the product, the primary benefit that the product should offer to the users or the main problem it should address. Another approach is to identify the main goal users will want to achieve by using the product or to find the primary job the product should do for them. Carry out qualitative market research like direct observation and problem interviews in order get to know the users, empathise with the individuals, and develop a thorough understanding of their needs.
More Information: Five Tips for Building Empathy with Users, Strategize, pp. 94, How to Lead in Product Management, pp. 9.
Read On …
To read the rest of this article and access the remaining tips, please head over to my website: https://www.romanpichler.com/blog/common-product-vision-board-mistakes/
Learn More
You can learn more about effectively using the product vision board and creating a winning product strategy by attending my Product Strategy and Roadmap training course, and by reading my books Strategize and How to Lead in Product Management.
Source: https://www.romanpichler.com/blog/common-product-vision-board-mistakes/
