Product Vision
The vision is not a list of features: it is a picture of the change the product aims to bring about in its users' lives or in the market. It should be possible to communicate it in a few sentences, and anyone involved in the project should be able to understand it.
Purpose
The product vision serves three main functions:
- Alignment: it ensures that everyone involved—team, Product Owner, stakeholders—shares the same understanding of the ultimate goal, preventing each person from working toward a different interpretation.
- Decision criterion: when the Product Owner must prioritize between two features or decide what goes into the product and what stays out, the vision provides the reference criterion.
- Motivation: a well-formulated vision connects daily technical work with a meaningful purpose, which has an impact on the team's commitment.
Characteristics of a good vision
An effective product vision should:
- Define the problem or need that the product will solve.
- Identify the target audience it is aimed at.
- Describe the main value it will deliver.
- Inspire and motivate the team and the stakeholders.
- Guide long-term planning as a basis for prioritizing features and defining success criteria.
How to Formulate It
A common technique for formulating the vision is the elevator pitch format, which requires summarizing in a few sentences who the user is, what problem they have, how the product solves it, and what sets it apart from existing alternatives.
Another tool that helps make the vision specific from the start of the project is the Agile inception deck, especially its "Why are we here?" activity and the product box activity.
Common mistake
Confusing the vision with the backlog or the roadmap. The vision describes the destination; the Product Backlog and the roadmap describe the path. A vision that lists specific features or planned releases is no longer a vision; it has become a plan. When the plan changes—and in agile projects it changes often—the vision should remain valid.
Resources
📄 Product Owner v.2.0Free download (in Spanish) · Scrum Manager
🏦 Skill Agile InceptionState of the art and development guide · Skill Arena
See also
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