AMA: BILL VP of Product, Product Platform, Tara Wellington on Product Vision

This is one of the most critical steps in the product vision process. Defining what to research sets the course for the whole project - since the fact base is the basis for all the strategic options developed. I always start my product vision process with key strategic questions and hypothesis development. I start with a large brain dump of everything I think I want to learn from the research - this usually goes very broad and I sometimes end up with 50-100 questions. If you are not sure where t ...Read More

The process I use for creating a product vision is a rather simple 6 step process: (1) Write key questions / hypotheses (2) build fact base / research to answer questions (3) develop strategic options based on the research (4) write up your recommendation for the vision and strategy (5) build the vision video/prototype based on a customer journey (6) socialize it! While the process is rather simple, it is important that you dedicate the time and effort to get the steps right as the quality of th ...Read More

My rule of thumb is 3-year vision & strategy, 1-year investment thesis, quarterly planning, and mid-Q execution check-in. I find this approach allows for the long term thinking necessary to build a long term sustainable business, but enough touchpoint throughout the year, so make agile changes and react to new information or market changes. The 3-year vision & strategy covers the customer targets, market opportunities, a north star vision of the product anchored in customer value proposi ...Read More

The biggest mistake that I see teams making when defining their product vision is confusing vision, strategy, and execution. A great vision alone is not enough to help teams be successful - you need all three for teams to really know how to win. Vision: Paint the picture of what winning looks like. Set the time horizon (three years is a common one), create a vision representation (I usually do vision videos or a clickable prototype), outline what winning means for the customer and for the busine ...Read More

The most important question to ask yourself when embarking on a product vision journey is “what does winning look like?” The reason companies create product visions and strategies is to map out the path to success. The first step in this process is to define what success looks like. Are you driving for revenue, engagement, growth, profitability, scale, etc? Once you understand what the end goal is for your selected time horizon, the options start to become more clear. If you are focused on a spe ...Read More

Most product visions that I work on take 8-12 weeks. I plan 12 weeks for product visions that are on a 3-year time horizon and need a good amount of new generated research. For product visions that are on a 1-year time horizon where I can leverage a lot of existing research, that'll be closer to 6-8 weeks. New generated research always takes the most time. For a 12 week project, I plan it to take 6-8 weeks. For an 8 week project, I plan it to take 4-6 weeks. The reason new research takes so long ...Read More