Product Vision

The Product Vision is the highest level of product-specific planning within the agile "onion".

It acts as the North Star that guides the team, defining the fundamental purpose of the product, who it serves, and what value it aspires to deliver over the long term.

It is not a detailed plan, but a concise and inspiring statement that answers key questions: Why are we building this product? For whom? What problem does it solve or need does it satisfy? What is our ultimate goal? While the ultimate business goal is often profitability, a good product vision focuses primarily on user value.

Defining Purpose and Long-Term Direction

The Product Vision sets the long-term strategic direction. It should clearly articulate the product's purpose, going beyond specific features to capture the essence of what it seeks to achieve.

It incorporates key elements such as:

• Target User: Who is the product primarily aimed at?
• User Needs/Objectives: What key problem does it solve or what goal does it help to achieve?
• Key Values: What key benefits does it offer the user?
• The Product: How does the product (at a high level) address those needs to deliver those values?

It is, in essence, a very high-level user story that defines the product's raison d'être.

Alignment with the Business Vision

If the product is part of a larger organization, its vision must be aligned with the overall vision and strategy of the company.

While the company vision defines the overall goals (and is often public, such as the examples of Google, SpaceX or Amazon ), the product vision translates that broader strategy into a specific purpose for a specific product, focusing on a particular set of users and needs.

This alignment ensures that the team's work contributes to the broader organizational goals.

Unlike the corporate vision, the product vision is often an internal artifact of the team.

Collaborative Creation and Clear Communication

An effective product vision is not created in isolation by a single person. Ideally, it should be developed collaboratively, involving the entire team and key stakeholders.

This co-creation process fosters shared understanding and commitment.

The resulting vision should be simple, clear and easy to communicate, so that all team members can understand and articulate it.

Although templates