Question Page

Is a product vision statement worth user testing?

Sriram Iyer
Freshworks Vice President of Products | Formerly Salesforce, DeloitteMay 4

Yes. At some point, you want to have a set of key workflows and key personas nailed as a part of the vision canvas. And using low code or UX mocks etc. - you want to test the validity of the hypothesis to the next granular level. Always be testing, always be validating, always be pivoting and making small tweaks to your plan based on the feedback and data you receive.

1389 Views
Samantha Ugulava
Atlassian Senior Product Manager, Enterprise AgilityNovember 23

Product visions should always be customer-focused. I'm not sure that you need to actually show your vision statement to users to get their feedback, but your vision should be informed by the user problems and product goals that your team hopes to solve over the next few years. In order to do that, you need to know your users intimately, and that often requires customer research and reviewing product data. 

1181 Views
Devika Nair
Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Director of Product ManagementNovember 2

I wouldn't think so. Your vision isn't something that's measurable or track-able in the near time, and hence user testing is hard. Its more likely to want to validate the market feasibility for your vision statement.

357 Views
Kara Gillis
Splunk Sr. Director of Product Management, ObservabilityApril 17

Once again, there is a difference between the internal product vision and the external corporate/brand vision and mission.

For corporate visions used externally - website, digital and branded assets, conferences, etc. - it is very important to test messaging with users. For this, I recommend marketing message testing using qualitative or quantitative methods. An example of qualitative message testing would be a focus group or 1:1 interviews with end users, while an example of quantitative message testing is analyzing trends from a poll, survey, or conjoint experiment. Analysis methods like these led to Netflix's vision becoming, "“Becoming the best global entertainment distribution service" rather than "Becoming the best DVD delivery service." Right?

I think it's more important to test your internal product vision statement with a variety of stakeholders because it drives alignment, roadmap, and investment prioritization. Your product vision should encompass how you think about building features to target a specific customer segment and their specific needs. And you're not just building something to copy your competitors (hopefully), rather you are finding your own niche that differentiates you from your competition in a specific way - identified in your product vision statement.

394 Views
David Marcucci
Blackbaud Product Management DirectorMarch 15

Absolutely! How you test your product vision with users is really the question. I don't think I'd ever just put a product vision statement in front of users for feedback. Instead, use your product vision to formulate an imaginary future and build a story around that. Share this story with your users, allowing them to imagine a life where your product vision has come true and build in their minds the journey they took to get there. Ask them how they feel about that future, how their life would be different, and what would they be able to accomplish in that world. They will likely provide amazing and insightful feedback, even if it's not all positive. The key is, your product vision is your guiding light, your foundation, and if you get it wrong everything you do will be wrong too so testing product vision with users (and others) is critical.

290 Views
Top Product Management Mentors
Kellet Atkinson
Kellet Atkinson
Triple Whale 🐳 Director of Product Management
Deepak Mukunthu
Deepak Mukunthu
Salesforce Senior Director of Product, Generative AI Platform (Einstein GPT)
Trisha Price
Trisha Price
Pendo Chief Product Officer
Farheen Noorie
Farheen Noorie
Grammarly Monetization Lead, Product
Clara Lee
Clara Lee
PayPal VP, Product
Sirisha Machiraju
Sirisha Machiraju
Uber Director of Product
Paresh Vakhariya
Paresh Vakhariya
Atlassian Director of Product Management (Confluence)
Pavan Kumar
Pavan Kumar
Gainsight Director, Product Management
Srinivas Krishnamurti
Srinivas Krishnamurti
Dovetail Product
Rodrigo Davies
Rodrigo Davies
Asana Director of Product Management, AI