Let's Build A Product: Start With A Purpose
How A Product Mission and Vision Guide Product Development By Providing A Clear Direction
The Let’s Build A Product series is a step-by-step guide. I show how to use modern product management principles in building a product from the ground up. The product is an app called Democratiq and I develop it at the same time as the writing of this series. This allows a unique insight into real-life product development.
What Are Product Mission & Vision and Why Are They Important?
The product mission and vision are vital to each product. They describe the problem to solve and how the product intends to solve it. Yet, both are often used interchangeably. But, there is an important difference! Shreyas Doshi describes it beautifully concise in this tweet.
The product mission states an easy-to-understand reason why we need this product. It gives the product a purpose. The product vision explains what the product does to solve this problem. So, the product mission and vision define the reason for the product. They are a centerpiece of having missionaries instead of mercenaries. This quote from the author of The Little Prince sums it up nicely:
If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.
- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Mission
Let’s dive a little deeper into the company or product mission. To kick it off, here are a few examples of great mission statements.
Tesla: “To accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy.”
TED: “Spread ideas.”
Kickstarter: “To help bring creative projects to life.”
Each mission statement describes a clear problem that needs to be solved. Maybe, this problem doesn’t apply to everyone, but it applies to many. Tesla addresses the need to leave fossil fuels behind and transition to sustainable energy sources. TED recognizes that many great ideas don’t get the audience they deserve and need. Kickstarter notices that many projects don’t fail because of their quality but because of their funding. All mission statements are very short, less than ten words. This makes them easy to understand and memorable. TED does this very well by using only two words to deliver the core message. The mission statements of Tesla, TED, and Kickstarter are so good because they only focus on the two main goals of a mission statement:
Give purpose to the product
Be easy to understand
It is OK when the mission statement is not very specific. Other tools are more suitable to provide additional information and context about the product. If you try to put too much into the mission statement it will dilute the core message.
Vision
The product vision, in comparison to the product mission, is not a mere statement. It should be a persuasive form of storytelling that describes the future you envision. This is the What of your product. What does your product do? A short statement or a few sentences are not enough for a compelling product vision. When a product vision only consists of a few phrases it acts more like a product mission. It fails to deliver the benefits of a real product vision. This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t be able to break down the product vision into the famous elevator pitch. But to have a compelling and inspiring vision you need to put in more work. Companies invest a lot of creative energy to make the product vision appealing in form of a high-quality video. This is a visiontype and a powerful way of communicating a vision. But it doesn’t have to be a video, also storyboards can be a great way of presenting a product vision. A visual representation is beneficial to deliver the message as clearly as possible. In his great book User Story Mapping, Jeff Patton made a very good point. Written specs often lead to a false impression of common understanding. He is making the point that product requirements must be worked out together. But, his approach is also valid to the product vision. If you only have it in writing, the message is not clear enough.
Marty Cagan says that a good product vision delivers the following goals:
Stay focused on the customer
Have a North Star for the product organization
Inspire people to create extraordinary products
Show that work on the product is meaningful
Illustrate that the product is innovative
Provide an outlook for the engineering organization on what will come in the next years
Drive product strategy
Serve as a recruiting tool
Serve as an evangelism tool inside the company
You can see, the product vision is one of the highest-leverage tools in a product organization. A great product vision simplifies so many different actions, from recruiting and employee satisfaction to sales and alignment. But now let’s look at a few examples of great product visions.
Dropbox
Dropbox presented its product vision in an actual product demo of a beta version. This is a great way of showing the future that your product is creating. Especially, if you try to solve a very common problem. Dropbox does everything right here. They mention the target group: people who use many computers. And then they go on to show what Dropbox does to improve their daily lives. Since this is a product demo, they present some features with very high value, e.g., version history and sharing with other people. Today this seems very basic, but this product vision is from 2008. This shows how innovative Dropbox’s vision was at the time.
SpaceX
The vision of SpaceX is quite clear. We need to go to Mars. Their product vision video is a modern-day representation of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s quote mentioned at the beginning of this article. The high-quality production brings space travel into the modern age. A great contrast from the dusty 1960s and much closer to what we know from science-fiction movies. This is a great motivator for their recruiting target group. SpaceX also shows not only the blurry idea of going to Mars, but they get quite specific on what they will do to get there. Reusable boosters, in-orbit refueling, and solar power for energy harvesting make the mission to go to Mars tangible.
Tilt Brush:
Tilt Brush is a virtual reality 3D painting application that started development in 2014. The visiontype of Tilt Brush completely focuses on what will be possible with the product. They paint a great picture. Tilt Brush utilizes novel technology and they’re definitely skating where the puck is headed.
Creating A Product Mission and Vision
The goal of this series is to develop a product from the ground up. I will apply a lot of the modern product management principles and frameworks. So now, it is time to define a mission statement and a product vision for Democratiq, our app.
Let’s start with the problem I’m trying to solve. I noticed a big disconnection in our democracy. People will vote for a candidate or a party based on their promises during the election campaign. Yet, people are not well informed on the daily decisions the parliament or senate take every day. Do people know if they are represented? To resolve this, an app can give information about every single vote in parliament. In this way, the voters can gain an informed opinion of the politicians. And not only during the election but based on their regular contributions throughout the election cycle.
Based on this problem there is already a clear purpose to the app. I formulate the mission statement as follows:
This is a concise and simple message. Everyone interested in a democratic government can identify with it. To strengthen the message, I visualized the mission statement with a photo of the Parthenon, an enduring symbol of democracy.
Next, on to the product vision. Visualization is also key. Democratiq changes the process of deciding whom to vote for. The discrepancy between how most people vote and how I imagine it is shown in a short comic strip.
I want to show that Democratiq really improves the voting process. I want to make it relatable to everyone who wants to make an informed vote in an election.
Conclusion
Coming up with a powerful product mission and vision is hard. But, they are one of the most important tools in product management. If you have to create one of those, spend a lot of time. Ask for opinions on drafts, show it to real people and see their reactions. Improve until you are really happy with the result. If your product already has a mission and/or vision, try to see if there is room for improvement.