An introduction to the product vision board. The product vision board has originally been created by Roman Pichler. In the light of the courses we teach at Ghent University I added some changes.
The notes can be found in the ppt.
4. A vision?
Product vision board
‘Cheshire Puss, would you tell me, please, which way I ought to
go from here?’
‘That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,’ said
the Cat.
‘I don’t much care where-’ said Alice.
‘Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,’ said the Cat.
‘-so long as I get SOMEWHERE,’ Alice added as an explanation.
‘Oh, you’re sure to do that,’ said the Cat, ‘if you only walk long
enough.’
― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
5. A vision?
Product vision board
= know where you’re going
= create the same product
People always have an idea in their head, but is it the same as
yours?
7. Goals
• Clear overview of product
• Better presentation, pitch, alignment within team
• Clearer statement towards customers, partners, investors, etc.
• Limit scope, create focus
• Be more efficient
Product vision board
11. Target group
Product vision board
= who are you creating the product for
= who will use it & who will pay for it
Consumer?
Age, country, sex, money, …
Company?
Market segment, industries, list of companies, …
Government?
Countries, job function, size, …
12. People on the
move such as
soldiers
Product vision board
13. Needs
Product vision board
= which problem are you solving for the target group
Mapped to target groups
Why should your target group care?
Keep asking WHY
It’s difficult to find the exact need
14. Needs
Product vision board
‘Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your
door.’
15. Needs
Product vision board
Is your solution a vitamin or an aspirin?
Vitamin
= nice to have
Juices a business segment
Aspirin / painkiller
= need to have
Solves a business problem
16. People on the
move such as
soldiers
Candy treats that don’t
melt in extreme
temperatures
= vitamin
Product vision board
17. Product
Product vision board
= what are you selling and what makes it unique?
Top 3-5 features / method
Mapped to needs & target groups
Differentiators
Unique selling points
18. People on the
move such as
soldiers
Product vision board
Candy treats that don’t
melt in extreme
temperatures
= vitamin
Tasteful chocolate
Sugary coating
prevents melting and
keeps taste
Bright colors attract
people
19. Value
Product vision board
= what is the value of your product to the target groups (based
on their needs)
Money
Emotion / feelings
Business value
Better, faster, cheaper, etc.
20. People on the
move such as
soldiers
Candy treats that don’t
melt in extreme
temperatures
= vitamin
Tasteful chocolate
Sugary coating
prevents melting and
keeps taste
Bright colors attract
people
Happy moment
No dirty hands
No more
chocolate stains
Easy to take with
you
Product vision board
21. Product vision board
Competitors and alternatives
= who will they compare you with
Similar products / services
How it’s done now
Alternatives that can be used
22. Normal candy (no chocolate)
Normal chocolate (melts)
People on the
move such as
soldiers
Candy treats that don’t
melt in extreme
temperatures
= vitamin
Tasteful chocolate
Sugary coating
prevents melting and
keeps taste
Bright colors attract
people
Happy moment
No dirty hands
No more
chocolate stains
Easy to take with
you
Product vision board
23. Product vision board
Product statement
= short sentence to give a first impression
Granny proof!
What – why – who – how
1-2 sentence introduction
Remember it
Which problem are you solving and how?
24. Normal candy (no chocolate)
Normal chocolate (melts)
People on the
move such as
soldiers
Candy treats that don’t
melt in extreme
temperatures
= vitamin
Tasteful chocolate
Sugary coating
prevents melting and
keeps taste
Bright colors attract
people
Happy moment
No dirty hands
No more
chocolate stains
Easy to take with
you
Product vision board
The chocolate that melts in your mouth, not on your hands.
25. Header fields
Product vision board
Project name
A clear, easy to pronounce and easy to remember name for your
project
Group
Group number of the phase in which you are now. This can
change throughout the project!
Date
The date on which this product vision board was finalized like it
is presented now.
Iteration
Each time you change something to the product vision board you
should adjust this number. Start with 1.
27. Goal
Product vision board
One look at the product vision board should explain most of your
product.
One look should be enough to know which problem you are
solving.
28. Practical
Use post-its!
Start with the section you know best
Iterate several times (now + later)
Discuss with other people
Product vision board
Editor's Notes
This presentation will tell you more about the product vision board and why you need it. To be able to create a product vision board, you need to have an idea about the product or service you want to create.
Although we call it the product vision board, this does not mean that it can only be used for the vision of a product. It can be used for visions about services or projects as well.
During this presentation we will cover three parts. We start by explaining why you need to have a vision, then we continue by explaining the product vision board and we will end with some useful tips about creating such a board by yourself or with your team.
Every project needs a vision. More importantly: every project needs a shared and consistent vision.
The cartoon shows what happens when people have different visions about the project in mind. Some people go one direction to reach their vision, other people go another, sometimes opposite direction to reach theirs. The project manager is right in the middle and tries to guide his co-workers towards the path that he has in mind. For an outsider it is quite obvious to see that this situation is not getting you anywhere. However, it is easy to loose overview in the heat of the battle.
If you write down your product vision and share it with your team, chances are higher that you will share the same vision or at least go more or less in the same direction.
This quote is from the well known book ‘Alice in Wonderland’. Alice is lost and asks the Cat for directions. But to know how to get somewhere, and thus give directions, you must know where you are heading. Of course you can keep on walking until you get somewhere where you find yourself comfortable, but it will take you much longer.
To know where you are heading with your project, you must create a product vision board. This product vision board is the goal you want to achieve. That doesn’t mean that it can not be changed during the project. Each time you and your team notice you should be heading in a (slightly) different direction, you should update the board.
Having a clear vision board will make it much easier to find the fastest path forward and thus will result in a shorter development time and a lower development cost.
A vision is about knowing where you’re going and creating the same product. You might think: ‘Can we not achieve this by explaining it to each other and then continue with the project?’. You can try this, but often people have different images in their mind about a certain idea and writing it down is a way to make the project more concrete and solve misunderstandings.
On the internet there’s a famous cartoon about a swing and a tree, if you don’t know it yet please Google it. Since most of you have probably seen it a dozen times, let’s see how the iPhone 5 might have looked in different people’s heads.
Creating a product vision board will give you a clear overview of your product and will help you to create a better presentation or pitch since it contains only the necessary and most important information.
Since you know where you are going with your product, it will help you to clarify your project towards potential customers, partners or investors.
It will also help you limit your scope and create focus. When people start a new project, they often have tons of things in mind that they want to put in this product because it would probably help the customer. This only makes it more difficult to launch you product on time and within budget. The product vision board will help you to keep a clear picture of the project goal.
By now you should understand why you need a product vision board during this project. Let’s explain what this board is all about.
The target group explains who you are creating the product for. It tells you who will use the product and who will pay for it. Sometimes these two groups are the same, but not always. For example, when a customer buys clothes, he wears them and pays for them. In that case you have to make sure that the clothes fit the needs of the customer. When a mother buys clothes for her child, the child will wear the clothes but the mother is the one who pays. This complicates matters because you have to satisfy the needs of both the mother and the child.
There are different types of target groups such as consumers, companies and governments. Each of these target groups has different characteristics that you should think about. For example, when you target a consumer you should think about whether you target a specific age or sex, whether your target group lives in a specific country or whether he is rich, poor or in between. When the target group is a company, you should know in which market segment it is located and in which industries. You might want to give some names of existing companies that are in the target group. When you target the government, make sure that you know which countries you are targeting since this can have a large influence on your product. You can also describe whether you target national or regional governments and which job functions or departments you target.
Of course you can describe other or more elements if these are important for your target group. As a last tip I would like to tell you to find a balance between describing the target group in too much detail and describing it too vague.
In the next square you’ll describe the needs that these target groups are facing and that you will tackle with your product. These needs are always about a problem that people from these target groups are facing. It should explain why the target group cares about this problem. For example: there might be something that you could do better, but if your product does not fix a real problem for the target group, it will be hard to convince them to use your product.
If you think you have defined some needs, make sure to keep asking why. By asking why and providing answers for your questions, you will keep digging for the most basic need of the target group, which is always the strongest one. Often it is hard to find this exact need.
‘Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door.’ is an English quote that is often used but is somewhat wrong. Lots of people think that mousetraps catch mice and if we can make better mousetraps this will surely be a good idea that can make you some money. But actually, you should not by default think of creating a better mousetrap since the need is not the need for a better mousetrap, but the need for catching a mouse. There can be plenty of ways to catch a mouse such as catching it by hand, using a paper towel tube or using a mousetrap.
From the quote you would think that people want a better mousetrap, but actually they just want a dead mouse.
Needs can often be described with a drug analogy. Things we would like to have but are not vital to us, such as a better laptop or a smartphone, are often called vitamins. Things we really need to have in order to be able to do something are called aspirins or painkillers such as food or drinks.
The product box is all about your product or service you will be selling and why customers should buy it. You describe the top 3-5 features about your product, not more. It is very important that you don’t write down an excessive list of features but only the most important ones for your customer. These features should always be mapped onto the needs of the target groups you described in the other boxes.
Make sure that your top 3-5 features contains at least one differentiator that makes you different from your competitors and alternatives, a box that we will discuss in a minute. These differentiators are often called unique selling points.
The fact that you are solving a specific problem of the target group with your product, is of a specific value to the target groups. This value is described in the value box. This value is often hard to explain but is often expressed in terms of money, feelings, business value or time.