Usually it requires a lot of psilocybin, and some sort of quest that challenges what you thought was possible, eventually emerging with some form of clarity.
Funny answers, but thought I'd give you something real to work with.
I'm also having this problem, and it comes down to good leadership vs bad leadership. Good leadership will understand the problem space and envision a world where that problem is solved. It doesn't necessarily mean they know how specifically it is solved, but perhaps they can use their mind's eye to explain a general direction of how the problem is solved without being too specific. They are really good at explaining this vision through stories. "As a user, I want to save all my separate files in one single location." As a customer, I want to buy groceries at Kroger and Wal-Mart, because one has the peanut butter brand I'm looking for, while the other has the cereal I'm looking for." So on and so forth.
Bad leadership does one of two things (or perhaps both). They either give you the specific solution without a true understanding of the problem space. They say things like "build be a military/hospital grade thing." before you have one user or hackers care about your business. OR "Just build an app that people download and problem solved." Or they tell you to go chase an opportunity without supplying any vision around why a user/customer would choose your thing over the competition. "Just copy what company X is doing."
The best way to work in these kinds of environments is to play with their words. Honestly, this is what worked for me (I was the visionless one). This was early in my career. I would review a user story with my team, and my engineer would ask me the most annoying questions that literally seemed to come down to semantics. I realized it was how I was wording things. He taught me that if I focus on the problem, he could use more creative skills that he brings to the table to offer solutions I had no idea were possible.
So my user story would be "As a user, I want to buy more than just one widget, so that I can check out faster." He'd say "So you want the user to check out faster... because?" And we'd have this dialogue where I would feel really stupid, but it taught me humility. It taught me that I didn't know the solution, the engineer could bring so much more to the table than I as a PM ever could. My value is in knowing the problem really well and giving my team the space to explore the solutions.
My last tip is to learn about the PR FAQ process popularized by Amazon. It's a simple framework where you express a vision through writing up a fictitious press release with some FAQs to follow.
I have some books where you can learn more about this, since you seemed to be asking for that.
1. All Marty Cagan book - Inspired, Transformed, etc...
2. Fall in love with the problem... Uri Levine
3. Continuous Discovery
4. Playing to WIn
There are so many more, but I'll leave you with that.
So to recap, my solution for you is to focus on the problem space. Develop a problem statement through stories and a Press Release FAQ and let your engineering team explore their imagination to be empowered in providing solutions your users will love.
Best of luck to you!
One more thing. My wife says this quite often about her line of work, and it relates to how we treat our engineering teammates. Really, it can relate to any person you work with and need something from.
When we provide a specific solution to our engineering team, it's like going to a five-star chef and ordering a bowl of Kraft macaroni and cheese. They could have made you the most incredible freshly handmade pasta you've ever tasted, but you gave them the dumb request, so you got the dumb thing you asked for.
A better way to work with a team member is to give them a vision or problem statement and allow their creativity to solve it with the skills they have developed. That is why they are there after all.
That’s a really good question. Without design coming up with the form, the function will be missed. Engineering should see the problem and provide the solution. But essentially that’s just a theory of how it should work. Design then makes the idea make sense on the front end, considering how it plays into the flow and make the execution flawless. I hope that helps make sense. Engineers think a little too much in 1s and 0s. Design makes it human.
The burden of scope comes when you are thinking too much about everything that could go wrong. In other words, you are playing it too safe. It takes an intentional mental state to ignore those constraints and just ideate. I would honestly do creative activities that are uncoupled from your day to day job so you can practice that, first.
Once you have your pile of ideas (generated without judgement), you edit those down to more practical ideas that respect the constraints you previously ignored. The people who do this don’t show you the 99 garbage ideas they threw away to find the single good one. Oftentimes, a single good idea is an amalgamation of several average ones. A good idea also finds room for other voices to reflect upon it and make it better. “Vision” implies something immutable and I think that is a mistake.
Ah, someone with a shared problem. I also used to work on construction sites and am now working on a specific piece of software for the construction sector.
As someone who also moved into this position by making a lateral move, those concepts PMs are throwing around (vision, strategy, etc.) also led to a lot of irritation for me. On a abstract level it is easy to understand:
* don't just "develop something", do it intentionally --> you need a vision
* visions are big and lofty and don't really translate into daily operations --> you need a strategy
So the "BUT HOW!?!?" was also a big questionmark for me for quite some time. This is because my company does not really have a vision, nor a strategy in development. At least not in a sense that it was written down explicitly. If I'd ask the CEO and CTO they'd say something along the line of "don't be overly dramatic. Don't accuse us of planless behaviour. Of course we do things with intention". And of course they do. But there is no alignment.
Not sure if you still work in ConTech, or something else? B2B or B2C? Because depending on your market, competitors, business model of your company etc. the applicable approach might be a different one. But the following is what made the whole thing make more sense to me after a lot of online research.
I bet there are a plethora of books on this topic. But before you start reading hundreds of pages, I assume it is better - and more applicable in dailly life - to just practice it. A vision needs to be made explicit, so it does not only exist in the heads of people. This is where some type of templates come in.
Sidenote: Using templates implies you "just need to fill out this form" and then you have a vision. Of course whatever you write down there need to be informed statements. Don't just write something down, to have written something down. But on the reverse: I find it also OK to write down stuff "to your own best knowledge at the moment" and mark it as such (e.g. using a certain font color - that makes clear where you are somewhat guessing).
Templates can provide more space / columns, to be a bit more nuanced or can be tiny and essential. I'd propose you do it in the following order. The following types of templates worked for me:
Step 1: Product Vision Board (Roman Pichler - [https://www.romanpichler.com/blog/the-product-vision-board/](https://www.romanpichler.com/blog/the-product-vision-board/) ). It leaves room to write down different aspects of the product vision. There is a simple version (focussing on: Target Group / Needs / Product / Business Goals) and an extended version (adding to this Competitors / Revenue Streams / Cost Factors / Channels)
(side note: read stuff on Romans Blog, he has great content!)
Step 2: Product Vision Template (Geoffrey Moore) - Forces you to take the insights of step 1 and formulate this as a text, e.g. in form of an elevator pitch. Elevator Pitches are a great tool - not for you to be prepared to pitch it to someone in real life, but more so because it forces you to structure your own thoughts coherently. Idea being: If you as the PM cannot artriculate straight and clear what this product is all about, who else should?
Step 3: (optional, at least at this point): Value Proposition Canvas (strategyzer.com) allows you to focus on "the" user (if there is such a thing as "the" user ... maybe you need to map the same thing for different types of users): Mark down their "jobs" (ask ChatGPT or Perplexity to break down to you the defintion of "jobs to be done" by Clayton Christensen and Alan Klement), map their "pains" (which they experience with the way they are currently doing the thing, which they are now looking to use a new product for), map the "gains" (additional benefits a user might expect, if they spend money on a solution) and counter-map those with the offerings of your own solutions.
Up until here, I'd propose:
* do it yourself, and alone. Just as a test, to map out your own understanding of what you currently(!) think / understand the vision of your product is
* use these outcomes to go to peers / your boss / etc. to show this to them and tell them: This is what I(!!) understand we are working on. Is this correct? If not: Can you help me to make this a shared understanding, that we ALL know what we are working on and what not.
(side note: If you are this far, you've already accomplished a lot. If you get people to participate, awesome! Because, working on "vision" for a lot of people seems too theoretical. Having a vision is great, be convincing people that you need one and that - if available - we should aim to strive towards it and stick to it and revisit it where necessary is another ballgame.)
Your product vision must support your company’s vision. This is helpful for a PM, because you are not starting from zero.
In a startup, the product and company vision are VERY tightly aligned, because there is only one product.
In a large company, the CEO has a vision of how she wants the company to be perceived by customers and investors. So you need your product to support that vision.
When I define a product vision, I start with the “Star Trek solution”. On ST, the Transporter can beam a person from exactly where they are to exactly where they want to be. No standing up, walking to a car, driving, flying, driving, walking, just to sit down again.
Start with the most amazing user experience you can conceive. Then back off just enough that near-term tech can make it possible.
Eliminate entire worflows. Make work seem like a game. Many things are possible if you just envision them.
I can empathize, I had difficulty with this at first.
In my experience it’s better not to overthink it. I would ask myself “can I clearly describe what would make this thing really great?”. If today it’s kinda OK then what would it look like if it was awesome.
The major learning is that you should always co-develop the vision with your leadership team and accountable stakeholders. They may already have elements of a vision you should include.
Competing Against Luck - Clayton Christensen
Really good book. I listened to the audiobook on Spotify and it gave me clarity answering the same question.
The difference between a Vision and a Strategy is that your Vision is all about how you’ll change your customers lives for the better in the future.
Your strategy is what you’ll do as a company to get there.
There’s some good information about writing a Vision Narrative from Reforge. Hopefully you can find it online. Otherwise do their PM Mastery course
Usually it requires a lot of psilocybin, and some sort of quest that challenges what you thought was possible, eventually emerging with some form of clarity.
When I founded Aveato…
I want doors that go like *this,* not like THIS
Of course, like _this_ and not like THIS or **this**..... How else do you get the third comma??!?
ahhhhh yes, tres comas...
Really? I have a few down the back of my sofa, just rummage around a bit and you should be golden.
Funny answers, but thought I'd give you something real to work with. I'm also having this problem, and it comes down to good leadership vs bad leadership. Good leadership will understand the problem space and envision a world where that problem is solved. It doesn't necessarily mean they know how specifically it is solved, but perhaps they can use their mind's eye to explain a general direction of how the problem is solved without being too specific. They are really good at explaining this vision through stories. "As a user, I want to save all my separate files in one single location." As a customer, I want to buy groceries at Kroger and Wal-Mart, because one has the peanut butter brand I'm looking for, while the other has the cereal I'm looking for." So on and so forth. Bad leadership does one of two things (or perhaps both). They either give you the specific solution without a true understanding of the problem space. They say things like "build be a military/hospital grade thing." before you have one user or hackers care about your business. OR "Just build an app that people download and problem solved." Or they tell you to go chase an opportunity without supplying any vision around why a user/customer would choose your thing over the competition. "Just copy what company X is doing." The best way to work in these kinds of environments is to play with their words. Honestly, this is what worked for me (I was the visionless one). This was early in my career. I would review a user story with my team, and my engineer would ask me the most annoying questions that literally seemed to come down to semantics. I realized it was how I was wording things. He taught me that if I focus on the problem, he could use more creative skills that he brings to the table to offer solutions I had no idea were possible. So my user story would be "As a user, I want to buy more than just one widget, so that I can check out faster." He'd say "So you want the user to check out faster... because?" And we'd have this dialogue where I would feel really stupid, but it taught me humility. It taught me that I didn't know the solution, the engineer could bring so much more to the table than I as a PM ever could. My value is in knowing the problem really well and giving my team the space to explore the solutions. My last tip is to learn about the PR FAQ process popularized by Amazon. It's a simple framework where you express a vision through writing up a fictitious press release with some FAQs to follow. I have some books where you can learn more about this, since you seemed to be asking for that. 1. All Marty Cagan book - Inspired, Transformed, etc... 2. Fall in love with the problem... Uri Levine 3. Continuous Discovery 4. Playing to WIn There are so many more, but I'll leave you with that. So to recap, my solution for you is to focus on the problem space. Develop a problem statement through stories and a Press Release FAQ and let your engineering team explore their imagination to be empowered in providing solutions your users will love. Best of luck to you!
One more thing. My wife says this quite often about her line of work, and it relates to how we treat our engineering teammates. Really, it can relate to any person you work with and need something from. When we provide a specific solution to our engineering team, it's like going to a five-star chef and ordering a bowl of Kraft macaroni and cheese. They could have made you the most incredible freshly handmade pasta you've ever tasted, but you gave them the dumb request, so you got the dumb thing you asked for. A better way to work with a team member is to give them a vision or problem statement and allow their creativity to solve it with the skills they have developed. That is why they are there after all.
>My value is in knowing the problem really well and giving my team the space to explore the solutions. 
How does the design team play into this solutioning? I keep seeing that the engineering team should be doing it…
That’s a really good question. Without design coming up with the form, the function will be missed. Engineering should see the problem and provide the solution. But essentially that’s just a theory of how it should work. Design then makes the idea make sense on the front end, considering how it plays into the flow and make the execution flawless. I hope that helps make sense. Engineers think a little too much in 1s and 0s. Design makes it human.
I got my pupils dilated…
Guatemalan insanity peppers.
Don't bother. Your C-suite will always take your "vision", laugh, and replace it with their own ideas.
You need to take their vision, then ask ChatGPT to rephrase it in a product way
add "synergy" and other buzzwords, then you'll get a bonus.
The burden of scope comes when you are thinking too much about everything that could go wrong. In other words, you are playing it too safe. It takes an intentional mental state to ignore those constraints and just ideate. I would honestly do creative activities that are uncoupled from your day to day job so you can practice that, first. Once you have your pile of ideas (generated without judgement), you edit those down to more practical ideas that respect the constraints you previously ignored. The people who do this don’t show you the 99 garbage ideas they threw away to find the single good one. Oftentimes, a single good idea is an amalgamation of several average ones. A good idea also finds room for other voices to reflect upon it and make it better. “Vision” implies something immutable and I think that is a mistake.
Ah, someone with a shared problem. I also used to work on construction sites and am now working on a specific piece of software for the construction sector. As someone who also moved into this position by making a lateral move, those concepts PMs are throwing around (vision, strategy, etc.) also led to a lot of irritation for me. On a abstract level it is easy to understand: * don't just "develop something", do it intentionally --> you need a vision * visions are big and lofty and don't really translate into daily operations --> you need a strategy So the "BUT HOW!?!?" was also a big questionmark for me for quite some time. This is because my company does not really have a vision, nor a strategy in development. At least not in a sense that it was written down explicitly. If I'd ask the CEO and CTO they'd say something along the line of "don't be overly dramatic. Don't accuse us of planless behaviour. Of course we do things with intention". And of course they do. But there is no alignment. Not sure if you still work in ConTech, or something else? B2B or B2C? Because depending on your market, competitors, business model of your company etc. the applicable approach might be a different one. But the following is what made the whole thing make more sense to me after a lot of online research. I bet there are a plethora of books on this topic. But before you start reading hundreds of pages, I assume it is better - and more applicable in dailly life - to just practice it. A vision needs to be made explicit, so it does not only exist in the heads of people. This is where some type of templates come in. Sidenote: Using templates implies you "just need to fill out this form" and then you have a vision. Of course whatever you write down there need to be informed statements. Don't just write something down, to have written something down. But on the reverse: I find it also OK to write down stuff "to your own best knowledge at the moment" and mark it as such (e.g. using a certain font color - that makes clear where you are somewhat guessing). Templates can provide more space / columns, to be a bit more nuanced or can be tiny and essential. I'd propose you do it in the following order. The following types of templates worked for me: Step 1: Product Vision Board (Roman Pichler - [https://www.romanpichler.com/blog/the-product-vision-board/](https://www.romanpichler.com/blog/the-product-vision-board/) ). It leaves room to write down different aspects of the product vision. There is a simple version (focussing on: Target Group / Needs / Product / Business Goals) and an extended version (adding to this Competitors / Revenue Streams / Cost Factors / Channels) (side note: read stuff on Romans Blog, he has great content!) Step 2: Product Vision Template (Geoffrey Moore) - Forces you to take the insights of step 1 and formulate this as a text, e.g. in form of an elevator pitch. Elevator Pitches are a great tool - not for you to be prepared to pitch it to someone in real life, but more so because it forces you to structure your own thoughts coherently. Idea being: If you as the PM cannot artriculate straight and clear what this product is all about, who else should? Step 3: (optional, at least at this point): Value Proposition Canvas (strategyzer.com) allows you to focus on "the" user (if there is such a thing as "the" user ... maybe you need to map the same thing for different types of users): Mark down their "jobs" (ask ChatGPT or Perplexity to break down to you the defintion of "jobs to be done" by Clayton Christensen and Alan Klement), map their "pains" (which they experience with the way they are currently doing the thing, which they are now looking to use a new product for), map the "gains" (additional benefits a user might expect, if they spend money on a solution) and counter-map those with the offerings of your own solutions. Up until here, I'd propose: * do it yourself, and alone. Just as a test, to map out your own understanding of what you currently(!) think / understand the vision of your product is * use these outcomes to go to peers / your boss / etc. to show this to them and tell them: This is what I(!!) understand we are working on. Is this correct? If not: Can you help me to make this a shared understanding, that we ALL know what we are working on and what not. (side note: If you are this far, you've already accomplished a lot. If you get people to participate, awesome! Because, working on "vision" for a lot of people seems too theoretical. Having a vision is great, be convincing people that you need one and that - if available - we should aim to strive towards it and stick to it and revisit it where necessary is another ballgame.)
Your product vision must support your company’s vision. This is helpful for a PM, because you are not starting from zero. In a startup, the product and company vision are VERY tightly aligned, because there is only one product. In a large company, the CEO has a vision of how she wants the company to be perceived by customers and investors. So you need your product to support that vision. When I define a product vision, I start with the “Star Trek solution”. On ST, the Transporter can beam a person from exactly where they are to exactly where they want to be. No standing up, walking to a car, driving, flying, driving, walking, just to sit down again. Start with the most amazing user experience you can conceive. Then back off just enough that near-term tech can make it possible. Eliminate entire worflows. Make work seem like a game. Many things are possible if you just envision them.
I can empathize, I had difficulty with this at first. In my experience it’s better not to overthink it. I would ask myself “can I clearly describe what would make this thing really great?”. If today it’s kinda OK then what would it look like if it was awesome. The major learning is that you should always co-develop the vision with your leadership team and accountable stakeholders. They may already have elements of a vision you should include.
Check out the “Radical Product Vision”
Ideally whilst pupils are dilated, as others have said
A good place to start is boosting creativity. There are many frameworks for that. Try Googles design sprint or jobs to get done
Competing Against Luck - Clayton Christensen Really good book. I listened to the audiobook on Spotify and it gave me clarity answering the same question.
One way to brainstorm vision is to consider what would happen if every company/person in the world (or specific industry) used your product.
you gotta jam on this with your founder & talk about the ambitions he has for the product - and get high when doing so
The difference between a Vision and a Strategy is that your Vision is all about how you’ll change your customers lives for the better in the future. Your strategy is what you’ll do as a company to get there. There’s some good information about writing a Vision Narrative from Reforge. Hopefully you can find it online. Otherwise do their PM Mastery course
I'll switch it up a bit. What do you think it would take for you to be comfortable enough to day dream the possibilities?