The Only Product Vision Template You’ll Ever Need

Posted by Janna Bastow

March 23, 2015

What is a product vision? It’s the cornerstone of your product strategy. It informs your roadmap, which informs your daily decisions as a product team. But it’s something we don’t always get right – the biggest mistake we see product managers make when defining their product vision, is that it becomes so lofty and intangible that it’s ultimately meaningless.

Where’s the best place to start?

There are a surprising number of moving parts to an effective product vision. A good product vision captures who the customer is, who the user is, and the value proposition and clearly links back to company objectives. In other words, it’s clear, specific and doesn’t lend itself to multiple interpretations.

Down the line when you’re get pushback on a feature you’re advocating for, you can smugly point to the product vision that you painstakingly crafted back at the start.

So don’t jet through this. Create something that will carry you through great product decisions every day and support you when you need it.

In the meantime, use this template to help structure to your product vision statement.

The Product Vision Template

First, make sure that your key stakeholders are in the room so you can work through the following structure together. It really is as simple as filling in the blanks.

Create your own vision with ProdPad’s interactive vision template.

Test your vision statement with the ol’ elevator pitch

If you can’t pitch what you have in 30 seconds, your product vision isn’t ready for the outside world. Try again.

Originally from Crossing the Chasm, by Geoffrey Moore, where it was introduced as an elevator pitch template. This exercise and many others appear in the Handy Guide for Product People. Try ProdPad for free or tweet us to get your very own copy in the mail!