A practical guide to creating vision statements for websites, apps, games and interactives that aligns teams and communicates your vision to stakeholders and investors.
Picture yourself walking into a room. You’re about to meet the team responsible for the delivery of a digital product.
You’ve some obvious questions, ones that will help you understand the vision and get behind the purpose of what’s being created.
“What are we building?”
“Why will people use it?”
“What about it is unique?”
…and you get lots of different answers. People disagree and the meeting descends into chaos.
There’s a simple tool you can use to avoid this situation, or fix it if it does occur.
Let me introduce you to the Product Vision Statement, and an easy way of creating an effective one.
At fish in a bottle we use vision statements in digital product development to align people and succinctly communicate the essence of an idea. They are an especially powerful tool when onboarding team members or seeking investment.
The Product Vision Statement method described below comes from The Ideation Framework, fish in a bottle’s methodology that takes a vision from inspiration to implementation. It reduces risk, removes doubt and creates success. We’ve refined The Ideation Framework through the design of hundreds of real world digital products and services; websites, apps, games and interactives.
Many people will be familiar with the What, How, Why approach as a method of defining purpose (check out Simon Sinek if you’re not).
You can use a similar approach to build a digital product vision statement:
WHAT: what will the digital product do? What does it do for its users?
HOW: how will the digital product go about doing it? Described in a non-technical way.
WHY: why will the digital product or service exist? This should be what sets you apart from your competition.
For example:
“A holiday let app connecting guests and hosts through a best in class booking experience that inspires trust and delivers value for money for everyone.”
This vision statement was formed from the following What, How and Why:
WHAT: a holiday let booking platform that directly connects guests and hosts
HOW: by creating a digital platform available on devices that hosts and guests find most accessible with a best in class user experience
WHY: research identified that trust and value for money were the opportunities for a new booking platform to enter the already competitive holiday let booking market
People often find it hard to construct a vision statement, possibly because it is so important. Using the above method can provide a kickstart.
If you would like to know more about Product Vision Statements or the Ideation Framework from fish in a bottle then contact us.
