Product Vision FAQs

4 min readAug 17, 2021

The product vision can be a powerful instrument to inspire and align stakeholders and development teams. But in practice, it is not always effectively applied. This article shares questions about the product vision, which I am frequently asked, together with my answers.

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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.” While the example states the purpose of a new product, I find that a vision is equally beneficial for an existing one.

What Makes a Good Product Vision?

A good, effective product vision fulfils the following six criteria:

1. Big and ambitious: It describes a compelling, visionary goal — even if this means that you might not be able to fully meet it.

2. 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.

3. Ethical: A good vision gives rise to an ethical product, a product that benefits its users and that does not cause any harm.

4. Shared: It unites people, and acts as the product’s true north.

5. Concise and memorable: The vision is easy to understand and remember. Using slogan — a short, memorable phrase — can be a great way to create such a vision.

6. Not tied to a solution: Despite its name, I recommend keeping the product vision free from assumptions about the actual product or solution. This allows you to pivot, to change the product strategy and the product while staying grounded in your vision.

Who Owns the Product Vision?

Ideally, a product vision is collectively owned by the person in charge of a product, the key stakeholders, and the development team(s). This ensures that the individuals support the vision and follow it — rather than paying lip service to it. A great way to foster joint ownership is to develop the product vision together, as I describe in the section “How do I Create an Inspiring Product Vision?” As the person in charge of a product, you should ensure, however, that a meaningful product vision exists and guide the effort to create one.

How do 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 below. The board encourages you to state the product vision at the top and the product strategy underneath it.

You can find more information about the product vision board above in my book Strategize and the article The Product Vision Board.

Can the Product Vision and the Company Vision Be the Same?

Yes, the two can be identical. But I recommend 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.

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 Office. As its products are closely related, I would use one overarching vision for the entire portfolio, a product portfolio vision so to speak. In Microsoft Office’s case, this might be, “help people collaborate in real time.” Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and the other Office products would then share this vision.

Read On …

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