Product Vision

• The purpose, intentions and what aims to achieve, what ambitions tries to fulfil
• A future state of the product and what problems tries to solve
• A clear vision …
  • … helps motivating and inspiring people
  • … provides a common understanding of the direction
  • … supports the Product Owner in making choices
• Models
  • The product Vision Board
    • Vision
      • What is your purpose for creating the product?
      • Which positive change should it bring about?
    • Target Group
      • Which market or market segment does the product address?
      • Who are the target customers and users?
    • Needs
      • What problem does the product solve?
      • Which benefit does it provide?
    • Product
      • What product is it?
      • What makes it stand out?
      • Is it feasible to develop the product?
    • Business Goals
      • How is the product going to benefit the company?
      • What are the business goals?
  • Vision Statement Template
    • For (target customer)
    • Who (statement of need or opportunity)
    • The (product name)
    • Is a (product category)
    • That (key benefit, reason to buy)
    • Unlike (primary competitive alternative)
    • Our product (statement of primary differentiation)
• Why – How – What: From Product Vision to Task
  • Start With Why, the importance of knowing why we are doing things before think about what and how to do it
  • people don’t buy what you do, but why you do it
  • people won’t truly buy into a product, service, movement, or idea until they understand the WHY behind it
  • leaders who’ve had the greatest influence in the world all think, act, and communicate the same way — and it’s the opposite of what everyone else does
  • Golden Circle: 3 circles contained in each other that define:
    • a framework upon which organizations can be built, movements can be led, and people can be inspired
    • When get stuck in one level, check the other levels
    • What you are doing - Task, … or outputs?
      • how they would implement these features
      • decompose the Product Backlog into Tasks
      • focus for developers
    • How you are doing it - Product Backlog, … or outcomes?
      • what they wanted to build – the features and functions of their system
      • how this might help their customers or users
      • focus for PO
    • Why you are doing it - Vision
      • focus for PO
      • THE PRODUCT VISION MUST ANSWER THIS

10 Tips for PO on Product Vision

• The PO is the one person in Scrum who is responsible for the success of the Product
• Therefore, the POs 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
  • what it aims to achieve for customers and users
  • 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 motivating and inspiring people, like the ST, the SH, customers, and users
  • It also provides a common understanding of the direction we want to move towards
  • supports the PO in making choices about what to build and what not to build for the Product
• Tips:
• Be(come) the owner of the Product vision
  • this is by far the most important tip we can share with you
  • most successful Product Owners we've met were really passionate about their own Product Vision - We've also met a lot of Product Owners who didn't own the vision, but who were mainly executing the product roadmap, based upon someone else's vision. This makes the job harder
  • mainly because as a Product Owner, you should be motivated by the vision
  • your heart should start beating faster about it, you should be passionate about the vision and you have to share it, very often
• Share your Product vision, often
  • Your job as a Product Owner includes sharing the Product Vision. And sharing the vision again. And again. And again
  • It is so important for people to know why you're doing the things you do
    • helps the Development Team in making technical choices about architecture for example
    • helps the stakeholders in understanding what would be valuable for the product
    • helps users to understand why they should use and/or buy your product
• Don't believe your idea is the best idea ever
  • Passionate one downside, many PO so much in love with their own Product, that they forgot that they weren't developing the Product for themselves, but for their customers and users
  • don't fall into this trap
  • your product idea(s) are awesome, but keep in mind that you're building the Product for someone else
  • so:
    • validate your vision with stakeholders, the market, users, etc., etc
    • release the Product early and often, to get feedback from the users
• Develop your vision iteratively and incrementally
  • Developing an awesome Product Vision is rather complex. It's not predictable, nor easy, nor something you do 'first time right'
  • also not something you should do on your own
  • so:
    • collaborate with your stakeholders, Scrum Team, customers, and users
    • don't try to get it right the first time! Take a couple of iterations to improve your vision. Make it better over time
• Adapt your vision as you're learning
• Adapt your vision pitch, based upon your target audience
• Focus on value for customers and users, not on technology