Defining a product vision and strategy
A long time ago, when I was working as a copywriter during my internship at a marketing consultancy firm, my mentor gave me valuable advice. Instead of immediately starting to write down my initial thoughts, they suggested keeping the idea in mind, researching all its contextual areas, and expanding it through mind maps and inspiration boards until I exhausted all possibilities. Only then should I start writing the copy. This experience showed me the depth of mapping, researching, archiving, and cataloguing that goes into creating a single campaign copy. Similarly, product management relies on the same core principles. Rather than jumping straight into development, the idea is to interweave the strategy with every attribute to gain a clear vision of the product before building it. Although the vision may seem far-fetched, exploring the different segments, brainstorming ideas, allocating teams, creating mood boards, and organizing test runs take you eye to eye with the ultimate vision of the product. In this blog, we will explore the concepts of product vision and strategy, digging into their differences and symphonies.
Product vision – the purpose that the product will blossom into!
A Product Vision is a depiction of the future state of your product that gets shaped by the value it offers to users. It should be a grand, inspirational goal that motivates others and serves as the basis for your Product Strategy decisions. In essence, a Product Vision establishes the destination for your product.
Product strategy – the choices you make to attain your product vision!
On the other hand, a Product Strategy outlines the most promising path to reach that future state. This includes identifying the problems your product will solve, identifying your target users, and determining the business objectives to aim for. Essentially, a Product Strategy sets out how you will achieve your Product Vision.
The product vision pertains to the product’s future direction in the long term, whereas the product strategy outlines the approach to achieve that vision in the medium term.
It is crucial to go from insight to pattern to uncovering and appreciate your users’ requirements.
Your initial Product Vision is likely to rely on user insights even before you begin shaping other Product Strategy patterns. It is significant to start with this foundation. A user-centric future vision and delivering value that guides users towards that future should be central to your Product Vision and should guide your Product Strategy. In the absence of real insights and experiential knowledge about the market you intend to operate in and the users you aim to serve, your Product Vision for the future will lack a substantial basis. If your Product Vision does not consider your users’ experiences, your features and business goals will be disjointed.
The enterprising product vision gets intended to have a significant and transformative impact on the industry and society, while the modest product vision aims to address a particular issue for a specific user segment without disrupting the market. Both are essential, but the magnitude of the vision and its scope will usually influence the complexity and resources necessary to realize it.
It is captivating how product development blends creativity, proficiency, foresight, and business savvy.