1. CREATING (CAPTURING) A
PRODUCT VISION
To capture and externalise the product vision will provide advantages to the process
and the team. You will now have a singular representation, a visible artefact to throw
tomatoes at, and the ability to test and improve any or all elements.
Product Strategy Series with Mike Biggs
Mike Biggs
@MetaMikeBiggs

2. WHAT YOU WILL FIND IN THIS DOCUMENT
1. Why should we create a product vision?
a. Why it’s useful
b. Key goals of a product vision
2. What does a product vision look like?
a. Product Vision Template
b. Examples of the product vision board
3. Where in the process is the vision created?
a. Product Vision and Technology Detail work in parallel
b. Maintain a tension between Vision and Detail
4. How do I do it?
a. Preconditions and assumptions
b. Critical preparation
c. Running the actual visioning session
d. Things to think about as the facilitator
e. Steps to take after the vision is created
5. How do I manage several visions?
a. Don’t use a delivery portfolio view
b. Lean value tree
c. Why put all the visions in a single tree
d. Lean Value tree common example
e. Lean value tree example with OKRs
6. Which metrics tool is appropriate
c. OKRs and PIRATE work together
2. How do I frame prioritisation
a. Different kinds of risk are relevant at each level in the
business.
7. Resources
b. Templates and some other useful gems not discussed
in this document.

3. WHY SHOULD WE CREATE
A PRODUCT VISION
Exploring one way to define a vision.
3

4. A clear and ambitious vision provides the following for the team working on
developing the product
• A clear articulation of the Problem-Solution fit that can be evolved into a sustainable
product.
• A clear articulation of the market opportunity & high level features (and/or organisational
capability) that will realise the opportunity,
• Creates meaning beyond the solution itself which is both:
• Inspirational- pulls the team forward.
• A decision making standard- allows the freedom to create a solution that delivers on
the vision however necessary, whilst providing measurable success metrics.
• It will serve as hypothesis for the product at the highest level. Some alternatives that may
be used instead, or in conjunction include:
• Elevator pitch
• Product Hypothesis
• Capability Hypothesis
• Questions to answer and/or follow up with deeper research.
The product vision will allow you to:
• Get buy-in with executives and sponsors.
• Influence and get agreement regarding budget or other
resources to bring the vision to life.
• Compare, evaluate and make decisions across multiple
products / the portfolio.
• Throw tomatoes at it.
Use a product vision if you:
• Need to consolidate the fuzzy ramblings of your
stakeholders.
• Have an idea for a product or service, and would like to
progress it.
• Need to compare possible initiatives to invest in.
WHY IS A PRODUCT VISION USEFUL?

5. Key Components
• Capture the overall goal and intent of the product in a single statement.
• Define the audience (user).
• Define the relevant needs of the audience (needs).
• Define key features / capabilities that will support the needs (features).
• Define the relevant business goals (business goals).
Bringing it all together
• The User, Needs, Features, and Business Goals need to align. They don’t have to line up
individually, but there must be a clear relationship between all categories.
• The above mentioned elements must deliver on the vision statement, nothing more, nothing less.
SMART Goals
• You need to be clear about how you will measure the success of the product if all goes according
to plan.
• You don’t need to predict a specific number at this stage, but you do need to define the thing that
you would measure. Qualitative measurements are ok, provided you can sample them reliably,
and consistently.
A product vision:
• Is visionary by definition
• Supports generative (abductive) thinking
• Articulates what could be, not what is
• Tells a narrative (right brain)
To get good metrics
Use S.M.A.R.T. Goals to help you think about the
business and user value. (https://
www.projectsmart.co.uk/smart-goals.php)
KEY GOALS OF A PRODUCT VISION

6. WHAT DOES IT
LOOK LIKE?
Exploring one way to define a vision.
6

7. One or two personas.
OR Market Segments.
Key problems they need
solving.
Key opportunities to
help or delight.
High level features, or
capabilities that would
be required to solve the
problems, or provide the
help / delight in ‘Needs’.
Internal goals that align
with delivering on the
‘needs’.
How is this going to
benefit the company?
Metrics that would
indicate the product
has solve the problem
& is good for the long
term sustainability of
the product.
“Bold statement / Purpose for creating the product”
Using the Roman Pichler Template
PRODUCT VISION BOARD TEMPLATE

8. • Asset Management
Team
• Retailer
• MP
• Sales Team
• Meter Data Provider
• MC
• Timely Data Requests
• Transparency
• Accuracy
• Meet Compliance
• Translate Customer
Language
• To Aggregate Data
• Capture Audit Trail
• Integrate with Meters
• Report Record
Attributes
• Integrate Subsets of
Data
• Accuracy of Report
• Reduced use of
Internal People & Time
• Faster Response to
Customers
“Be the MSP of Choice”
PRODUCT VISION BOARD EXAMPLE
Using the Roman Pichler Template

9. WHERE IN THE PROCESS
IS THE VISION CREATED?
Contextualising Product Vision within Product Strategy.
9

10. SOME PROCESSES HAPPEN IN PARALLEL
RESEARCH/
LEARNINGS
THEMES/
EPICS
STORIES
STORY
MAP
RELEASE
PLAN
PRODUCT
VISION
DISCRETE
SOLUTION
ELEMENTS
PRODUCT
ROADMAP
DELIVERY
BACKLOG
TensionTensionTension
Begins to provide tangible
feature elements that pair with
Stories. May consist of
wireframe elements.
Articulates a unique combination of:
• Market
• Solution
• Human Need
Articulates the business value
delivered over time (releases)
including goals, and key business
metrics.
Broad customer
problems to solve.
Breakdown of epics to define the
granular stories that need to be
built over time.
Brings together the granular
problems to solve with
granular solutions whilst
structuring them into value
goals over time.
How big are the things to
build? When can we get
them done by?
Hey, build this stuff.
Deep
Reductive
Constraints
Probability
Broad
Abductive
Generative
Possibility
Where does product visioning fit
into the world?

11. At any point in time, there must be a healthy tension that
combine and balance the value embodied in the vision, with
the tangible reality of action.
Outcomes of the healthy tension are to:
• Remain relevant to customers and market
• Be able to change according to new information from any
potential source
Product Vision & Roadmap pulls to the future and defines value
Story breakdown & Analysis drives
deep into what can and will be done.
Build,
measure,
learn
MAINTAIN A HEALTHY TENSION: VISION & DETAIL

12. HOW TO DO IT
Recipe for creating a meaningful, and useful Product Vision
12

13. Caveats to the following process:
• It assumes there is enough latent knowledge in the stakeholders who will be involved in the visioning
session, that they may be able to define the most important elements in all categories, as well
as the important relationships between them.
• It does not describe the previous stages (that are not mandatory), but are recommended. Those
stages include:
• Understand and define market needs.
• Understand and define general user needs of the domain.
• Understand and define broader organisational needs.
• Synthesise and make connections between the above internal and external elements.
• It’s perfectly reasonable to start at this point (visioning the product) if practicing a lean product
development process wherein you are afforded the ability to very quickly build and test the
product vision (which in effect serves as a product hypothesis, subject to the scientific process).
These earlier stages will be outlined in the next instalment in this series: Exploring & Defining Strategy
PRECONDITIONS AND ASSUMPTIONS IN THIS PROCESS

14. Pre work
• The facilitator of this process (you) will likely have a vision. Note it down by
creating your own canvas using the template, but do not share it.
• Make a list of the key stakeholders who you will need for this product. They
may include:
• Subject Matter Experts
• Executive Sponsors
• The intended or actual Product Owner/Manager
• Experience Designer and/or Business Analyst (whoever has done
the primary research)
• Map the stakeholders on a grid to help you frame how you plan to engage
and or manage them
• Use the grid shown on the right.
• Identify which of the stakeholders need to create the Product Vision.
• Invite key stakeholders, prepare workshop room with large template of
canvas, and paper on the walls.
CRITICAL PREPARATION BEFORE THE ACTUAL WORKSHOP
Latents
Keep Satisfied
Promoters
Manage Closely
Apathetic
Monitor
Defenders
Keep Informed
Interest
Power

15. • Session will run for 2-3 hours.
• Provide A4 versions of the vision and ask each participant to create
their own version, without consulting others (up to 20 minutes)
• Ask the participants to share their version with the group. Another
option at this stage is to pair up and consolidate before sharing with
the broader group.
• Facilitate the consolidation of information as it’s shared, onto post it
notes, and assemble them onto the one large canvas on the wall.
Where do the inputs come from?
• Stakeholder bring with them many facts, insights, and
opinions. They are all useful and relevant.
• If there is any primary research, the outputs and
ideally the person leading that research should
be in attendance. They may share the outputs,
and or present a summary.
• It is often useful to run a sensemaking session prior to
the visioning session as to surface all inputs,
then distil them down to only what’s important.
• The session itself provides a sensemaking function by
way of it being in a diverse group, and through
collaboration. It is also ok to accept that our
collective vision is still a hypothesis that needs
validation as a next step and or as part of the
development process.
RUNNING THE ACTUAL VISIONING SESSION

16. • Ensure the vision is clear and could be evaluated as a SMART goal. (https://
www.projectsmart.co.uk/smart-goals.php)
• Ensure the target and needs are specific enough to provide meaningful guidance later. All
things to all people is useless.
• Ensure the features/ capabilities are at a high level, and are not attempting to drill down too far.
• Ensure the business value is understood and is clearly linked to the other columns.
• Ask yourself if there is in fact one, or many products hidden in the one canvas. If there are
multiple, can you create two ‘canvii’, and define a higher order goal that they both support?
• Ensure all voices in the group are heard by encouraging conversation and stopping the louder
voices from dominating the room.
• The content going into this vision should be Hypotheses and therefore require testing at scale,
they most definitely must be based on learnings and specific insights, not conjecture of an
individual.
THINGS TO THINK ABOUT AS THE FACILITATOR

17. Bringing it to life
• All elements of the vision are hypotheses in a system that we have
imagined. Our job now is to proceed to define the biggest risks
associated with bringing the vision to life. Risks usually map from
Existential at the top (most important), to operational/ technical at
the bottom.
• Now we systematically test each risk. If a risk cannot be solved or
mitigated, we do not proceed with the product.
• We use a bias for action as our guiding principle now and for the
duration of the development.
• You could use one of the following frameworks to manage the risks/
experiments you’ll begin working through: (knowledge of Agile,
Storymapping, and MVP experimentation are recommended and
required to make best use of these tools).
• Simple Agile / Kanban Visualisation tool. www.trello.com
• Validation Board- https://www.leanstartupmachine.com/
validationboard/
• Stories on Board - http://storiesonboard.com/
• You can create a product roadmap that will outline how you will
deliver business value over time. Consider this instructional deck
here: How to create a product roadmap.
Integration / Organisational relevance
• Re-define, or extend your metrics to fit the OKR framework. - Also
discussed briefly, later in this deck.
• Add the product to a Lean Value Tree as described in the EDGE
framework - Also discussed briefly, later in this deck.
• Be comfortable to change, evolve or re-work your vision as new
information comes to light.
STEPS TO TAKE AFTER THE VISION IS CREATED

18. HOW DO I MANAGE
SEVERAL VISIONS?
What does a business value focused programme wall look like?
(the essence of product strategy)
18

19. DON’T USE A DELIVERY PORTFOLIO VIEW
One common practice is to use a delivery
programme wall to coordinate multiple products.
A delivery portfolio wall is
• Focus is on streams of delivery work.
• Value is not surfaced or discussed.
Coordination of outcomes is largely framed by
resource constraints, not strategic objectives.
Instead of a delivery wall, we use a Lean Value
Tree to frame and manage Product Value.
A lean value tree focuses on value, and provides
the context required to manage multiple
organisational goals and products.

20. LEAN VALUE TREE: ALIGNING ORGANISATIONAL STRATEGY
A Lean Value Tree is a visual tool to facilitate
capturing and sharing an organizational vision and
strategy, whilst connecting it to specific products or
initiatives.
Unlike the Programme Wall, the Lean Value Tree will:
• Focus on value outcomes
• Provides a stretch vision and measurable result for each
initiative.
• Is not top-down in its structure (contrary to the hierarchical
view) in other words meaningful objectives may originate
anywhere in the tree.
• Utilises OKRs (Objectives,Key-Results) which is an ideal
method for defining and measuring value in the structure.
• ORKs also work well with Pirate metrics.
See the EDGE deck for more.
It’s also worth noting that the Lean Value Tree is similar to the Minto Pyramid Principle.
Vision
GoalGoal Goal
BetBet
InitiativeInitiativeInitiative

21. WHY PUT ALL THE VISIONS IN A SINGLE TREE?
• Provides context and meaning to the product. Without it, a stand-
alone product has the potential to go off track.
• Narrows the focus of any particular initiative or product allowing
appropriate metrics, scope and resources necessary to meet the
said goals.
• Clearly surfaces the amount and type of products that are in play.
Allowing you to explore the following questions:
• Why exactly are we doing [particular initiative]?
• Is there any overlap (waste)?
• Are there any gaps, meaning we will not reach our higher
order goals, with the current investments?
• What strategic synergies exist, and must be maintained
before the paradigm of scarcity (prioritisation) is applied.
• Which investments are paying off and should receive
further investment?
See the EDGE deck for more.
It’s also worth noting that the Lean Value Tree is similar to the Minto Pyramid Principle.
Vision
GoalGoal Goal
BetBet
InitiativeInitiativeInitiative

22. LEAN VALUE TREE: SIMPLE EXAMPLE
Good Customer Service
Goal: Short WaitGoal: Knowledgeable Reps Goal: Friendly Reps
Research response
is fast
Can answer without
further research
Correct Answers

23. LEAN VALUE TREE: EXAMPLE
OBJECTIVE: “To accommodate additional 20k meters per month at an acceptable cost”
KEY RESULTS
Optimise tech as a resource
Right Meter, Right Place, Right Time
Transparency & Responsiveness to FRMP
Capture value from FRMPs
OBJECTIVE: “To be the metering provider of choice”
KEY RESULTS
80% Market Share
Accommodate 20k additional meters per month
OBJECTIVE: “Optimise techs as a resource”
KEY RESULTS
Increase jobs per day
Reduce UTC
Reduce Exceptions
NEXT SLICE OF VALUE:
“Technician Happy Path”
OBJECTIVE: “Right Meter, Right Place, Right Time”
KEY RESULTS:
Reduced Rental Charges
Reduced Transfer Costs
Goal Detail
Vision Detail
Product
Release Goal
Potential Value- for
experimentation

24. WHICH METRICS TOOL IS
APPROPRIATE?
How to we measure effectiveness beyond each product individually?
24

25. Goal Detail
Vision Detail
Product
Release Goal
OKRS WORK WITH PIRATE METRICS
They do a different job, but you need both.
OKRs are stacked vertically as activities and actors nest inside one another,
whilst Pirate metrics track the individual shape and success of each ‘product’
that interacts with the market.
OKRS (Objectives-Key Results)
• OKRs are a structured method for defining organisation wide goals, with
metrics.
• They consist of an aspirational OBJECTIVE, coupled with measurable KEY
RESULTS that will indicate when the objective is being reached.
• They work well with lean value trees as they can stack easily, but don’t
have to. It’s possible, and quite ok for OKRs to originate from anywhere in
the organisation (tree).
PIRATE Metrics
• Called Pirate because they measure Acquisition, Activation, Retention,
Retention, Revenue, Referral. Spelling out: AARRR!
• These metrics track the customer life cycle in a particular product or
service.
• There may be multiple sets of PIRATE metrics if you have multiple products
in your portfolio.
(stacked) and provide a visible
relationship between org wide
goals, initiatives, & products.
Pirate metrics define
relationship between
product and customer.

26. HOW DO I FRAME
PRIORITISATION?
At each level in the business, different risks can affect success. Knowing which
kind of risks to focus on will help to maintain focus on the right problem, right
solution, right technology practices.
26

27. DIFFERENT KINDS OF RISK ARE RELEVANT AT EACH LAYER IN THE BUSINESS
Strategy
Products &
Services
Themes &
Epics
Stories &
Features
Value x Risk = Priority
Value / Effort = Priority
Value / Effort = Priority
Existential
risk
Effort
required
Maintaining a clear line of sight from the story being worked
on in a team, all the way up to the strategy is important but
there are different elements that provide that alignment at
each stage of the way.
Which products are the most valuable in pursuit of
our business strategy?
Which story provides the most value to
the key stakeholders within this product?
Which feature provides the best
experience to the primary users of this
interface?
At higher levels, in the business
the biggest risk is relevance, not
complexity of the solution or
effort required.
(Basic) equation used to
prioritise. (create your own using
WSJF with these considerations
in mind).

28. RESOURCES
At this point you may need some.
28

29. PRODUCT VISION TEMPLATE

30. PRODUCT ROADMAP TEMPLATE (NOT DISCUSSED IN THIS DOCUMENT)

31. STRATEGY BLUEPRINT (NOT DISCUSSED IN THIS DOCUMENT)

32. THOUGHTWORKS FLOW OF IDEAS DIAGRAM
• Not featured in this document.
• This version includes an enhanced sense-making phase with elaborated inputs.

33. " Roman Pichler Product Stuff - http://www.romanpichler.com/
● Jim Kalbach - Strategy Canvas guy, and fellow Jazz metaphorist
https://experiencinginformation.com/2015/10/12/strategy-blueprint/
● Dual Track Development - http://jpattonassociates.com/tag/dual-track-
development/

34. END OF PRESENTATION