How to Build a Product Vision People Care About

This week, we’re going to talk about how to create a product vision that doesn’t just sit in a slide deck. A vision that actively guides your team’s decisions, inspires confidence across stakeholders, and remains relevant when things inevitably shift in your market.

A clear product vision is the difference between a team that drifts and a team that moves with purpose. Without one, you’ll spend more time chasing tactical requests than driving meaningful progress.

With one, you’ll set a course that helps everyone understand not just what you’re building, but why it matters.

Most product managers confuse vision with roadmaps. They get stuck either zooming in too far on tactical details or zooming out so far that the vision feels like a motivational poster. Too specific, and you suffocate creativity. Too vague, and it's unusable.

Others write visions that sound good in a presentation but don’t hold up when daily trade-offs and prioritization challenges show up. The result is a vision that exists in theory but doesn’t shape what gets built.

A product vision is only as valuable as the degree to which it influences real decisions.

If a product vision doesn’t get used, it isn’t a vision. It’s a decoration.

So let's talk about how you can get it used.

Takeaway 1: Anchor Your Vision in the Right Foundations

A great product vision is built at the intersection of three forces: your company’s goals, the market you operate in, and the customers you serve.

Start with your company. Every vision should support the broader strategy of the business. If your company’s objective is to expand into new markets, your vision should outline how the product will meet the needs of those markets.

If the business goal is profitability, your vision should explore how the product evolves to create efficiency or higher-value opportunities.

Then, look outward. Market trends shape the landscape of what’s possible and what’s expected. Emerging technologies, changing regulations, or shifts in customer behavior can open or close doors for your product.

A vision that doesn’t anticipate these shifts won’t last more than a year.

Finally, and most importantly, root your vision in customer needs. This is not about collecting every piece of feedback and building a wish list. It’s about deeply understanding the pain points and motivations of the people you serve.

The best visions are not product-first. They’re problem-first.

When you work at the intersections of business goals, market shifts, and customer needs, you avoid the two extremes.

You avoid creating something that excites leadership but no one else. And you avoid creating something that delights users but can’t sustain the business.

Takeaway 2: Keep It Aspirational but Grounded

Your product vision should be inspiring, but it can’t live in fantasy. If it’s too safe, no one will rally behind it. If it’s too grand, your team will ignore it because it feels impossible.

The right balance comes from focusing on the “what” and the “why,” not the “how.”

For example, a strong vision might be, “Our product will empower small business owners to run their operations from a single platform, saving them hours each week.”

That’s aspirational. It paints a picture of impact. But it doesn’t box the team into specific features or designs.

This approach gives you flexibility. As you learn more, the “how” can evolve without invalidating the vision. That stability is critical because product strategy will always shift with new information.

A well-crafted vision gives your team confidence about where you’re headed, even as the path changes.

Takeaway 3: Make It Simple Enough to Remember

One of the biggest mistakes I see with product visions is over-complication. A 10-slide vision deck or a 2 page statement might impress stakeholders in the moment, but no one will remember it two weeks later.

Instead, your vision should be simple enough that anyone on your team can explain it in less than a minute. A good tool here is a vision board.

Keep it clean, visual, and easy to digest. Highlight the core themes, the customer you’re serving, the value you aim to deliver, and the future state you’re striving for.

When I worked with a client recently, we stripped their original vision document down from a bloated 12-page strategy write-up to a one-page board.

Engineers, designers, and even customer support staff could explain what the product was aiming for. That clarity mattered more than any detailed strategy doc ever could.

Takeaway 4: Use the Vision as a Filter for Decisions

The real test of a vision is whether it helps you make better decisions. A vision that doesn’t guide tradeoffs isn’t a vision at all.

Here’s how you make it practical: every time a new request comes in, hold it against the vision. Does this request move us closer to our 3-to-5-year goal? If not, is it worth diverting focus to address it?

That filter makes it easier to say no to distractions and yes to opportunities that matter.

For example, if your vision is about building a platform that simplifies workflows, a request for a flashy but unnecessary reporting feature should be scrutinized. Does it simplify workflows? Or does it add noise?

Without a vision, every request looks equal. With a vision, you can prioritize with confidence.

Takeaway 5: Treat the Vision as a Living Asset

Too many teams treat the vision as something you write once and shelve. Markets evolve, competitors emerge, customer needs shift. A vision that isn’t revisited and refined becomes stale fast.

That doesn’t mean rewriting it every quarter. It means pressure-testing it regularly against new data. Is this vision still aligned with where the company is headed?

Are the assumptions we made about customers still true? Does it still inspire the team?

Revisiting your vision doesn’t undermine it. It strengthens it. A North Star that never moves may look good on paper, but a real vision adapts with the realities of your business and your customers.

In Conclusion

A product vision is about setting a clear, inspiring, and practical direction for your team.

It should align with business goals, anticipate market shifts, and be rooted in customer needs. It should be aspirational enough to inspire, yet grounded enough to guide decisions.

And above all, it should be simple, memorable, and usable.

If your vision doesn’t shape what your team does tomorrow, it’s just words on a page. The real value of a product vision comes when it becomes the lens through which every decision is made.

When done right, it won’t just tell people where you’re going. It will get them to believe in the journey with you.

Thanks for reading. See you next week.