Stephen Klimko Providing Product Teams With the Vision to Succeed UX Designer 

Vision contributes to success in many endeavors 

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Why is it often missing from product development? 

What I have typically seen Create regional XYZ app mvp that improves automation, transparency and speed for Q1 2020 delivery. Mission • Deliver innovative solutions to help XYZ Cloud to increase productivity, reduce cycle time and costs of Q2C activities • Scope is XYZ Cloud Deals (XYZ & ABC audience) and Cloud Delivery. 

Why am I interested in this topic • With experience comes on increasing awareness of the larger context and patterns in our work that impact product success • Project experience where even a less than perfect vision has made a difference • Realizing the power of creating a vision and where successful companies have employed it 

The need “It is not enough to do your best; you must know what to do and then do your best” William Deming “To do this well, we need to take a holistic approach and not just think about a long list of individual tasks we are supposed to get through in a given week. We get 0 points for just getting a feature out the door if it is not actually contributing to making the experience better for users, or helping them to understand Slack, or helping us understand them. None of the work we are doing to develop the product is an end in itself; it all must be squarely aimed at the larger purpose.” Stewart Butterfield Co-founder of Slack 

Apple Knowledge Navigator Video (1987) The Knowledge Navigator Video was made for Apple-CEO John Sculley's EDUCOM 1987 keynote in six weeks on a $60,000 budget. 

Why is a product vision important? • Coordination and alignment of the team • Prioritization and focus • Motivate and excite the team • Create a personal connection • Break down silos • Provide confidence as daily decisions are made 

What inhibits this process? Organizational behavior • Misaligned incentive structure • Pet projects • Protecting one’s job • Guarding of information • Unclear communication • Politics • Ego • Company values • Reluctance to involve users • Lack of confidence in teammates • Lack of confidence in being able to assemble and coordinate the right resources from across departments and buy-in • Not enough time or resources • Lack of leadership • Fear of disrupting your own solution • Lack of support from management • ‘Anything we do will be an improvement’ Culture • A belief that only the product managers needs to know and shape the vision, or is the only one qualified to do so. • Lack of appreciation for how a vision impacts success of the project/product • Teams accustomed to working from requirements dictated to them Skills • Roles are often hired based primarily on their core skills, whether its coding, design, user story writing, etc., but may struggle with collaboration Technology • Developers involved late in the process • Developers not involved to influence the design • Time pressure to complete coding • Incentive to deliver instead of succeed • Skills • Lack of investment in training Business case • Lack of data • Wrong roles creating the business case • Lack of knowledge • Rush to justify an idea Process • No measurements in place to determine success • Silos and waterfall approach • Product concept not based on real research data • Scope not well defined • Vision is not woven into the fabric of the project • Lack of accountability to the vision • Lack of confidence in vision components • Requirements defined too early Infrastructure • Lack of tooling to provide an easy to use, consistent method for creating and sharing the vision • Each role stores their deliverable in a different place Design • Designers are not prepared to play a strategic role • Designers do not have a seat at the table • Immature process • Lack of collaborative design skills and education on the team 

What inhibits this process? Organizational behavior • Misaligned incentive structure • Pet projects • Protecting one’s job • Guarding of information • Unclear communication • Politics • Ego • Company values • Reluctance to involve users • Lack of confidence in teammates • Lack of confidence in being able to assemble and coordinate the right resources from across departments and buy-in • Not enough time or resources • Lack of leadership • Fear of disrupting your own solution • Lack of support from management • ‘Anything we do will be an improvement’ Culture • A belief that only the product managers needs to know and shape the vision, or is the only one qualified to do so. • Lack of appreciation for how a vision impacts success of the project/product • Teams accustomed to working from requirements dictated to them Skills • Roles are often hired based primarily on their core skills, whether its coding, design, user story writing, etc., but may struggle with collaboration Technology • Developers involved late in the process • Developers not involved to influence the design • Time pressure to complete coding • Incentive to deliver instead of succeed • Skills • Lack of investment in training Business case • Lack of data • Wrong roles creating the business case • Lack of knowledge • Rush to justify an idea Process • No measurements in place to determine success • Silos and waterfall approach • Product concept not based on real research data • Scope not well defined • Vision is not woven into the fabric of the project • Lack of accountability to the vision • Lack of confidence in vision components • Requirements defined too early Infrastructure • Lack of tooling to provide an easy to use, consistent method for creating and sharing the vision • Each role stores their deliverable in a different place Design • Designers are not prepared to play a strategic role • Designers do not have a seat at the table • Immature process • Lack of collaborative design skills and education on the team 

What inhibits this process? Organizational behavior • Misaligned incentive structure • Pet projects • Protecting one’s job • Guarding of information • Unclear communication • Politics • Ego • Company values • Reluctance to involve users • Lack of confidence in teammates • Lack of confidence in being able to assemble and coordinate the right resources from across departments and buy-in • Not enough time or resources • Lack of leadership • Fear of disrupting your own solution • Lack of support from management • ‘Anything we do will be an improvement’ Culture • A belief that only the product managers needs to know and shape the vision, or is the only one qualified to do so. • Lack of appreciation for how a vision impacts success of the project/product • Teams accustomed to working from requirements dictated to them Skills • Roles are often hired based primarily on their core skills, whether its coding, design, user story writing, etc., but may struggle with collaboration Technology • Developers involved late in the process • Developers not involved to influence the design • Time pressure to complete coding • Incentive to deliver instead of succeed • Skills • Lack of investment in training Business case • Lack of data • Wrong roles creating the business case • Lack of knowledge • Rush to justify an idea Process • No measurements in place to determine success • Silos and waterfall approach • Product concept not based on real research data • Scope not well defined • Vision is not woven into the fabric of the project • Lack of accountability to the vision • Lack of confidence in vision components • Requirements defined too early Infrastructure • Lack of tooling to provide an easy to use, consistent method for creating and sharing the vision • Each role stores their deliverable in a different place Design • Designers are not prepared to play a strategic role • Designers do not have a seat at the table • Immature process • Lack of collaborative design skills and education on the team 

Lay the groundwork for success Work with your product owners and managers Talk about the role of product vision and strategy Encourage patience Start with pilot projects to prove the case and establish an example Build the right activities and time into the project plan. Patience has a powerful effect: Don’t confuse operational speed with strategic speed, namely the time it takes to deliver value. When leaders demonstrated it, their reports self-reported creativity and collaboration increased by an average of 16% and their productivity by 13%.. Source: Becoming a More Patient Leader by David Sluss Sept. 2, 2020 Harvard Business Review Socialize success stories Lead a new way of working 

Lay the groundwork for success Do the research The vision must be based on knowledge of human beings Allow time for each component of the vision to be researched 

Lay the groundwork for success Prepare your team Ask team members to prepare by engaging in a series of visioning exercises to empathize with users and consider how things might change going forward Ask finally “How will you know that you have succeeded”? Involve the right roles and expertise Present the research findings to your team 

Lay the groundwork for success Establish a process Set standards to help ensure quality and easy consumption Provide a easy to follow format for documenting the vision Document process steps Organized repository to hold and share the vision Templates to gather the information Defined process steps to guide 

Create the vision Do it in stages Lead with research Conceive the vision Bring the vision to life 

TARGET GROUP Which market or market segment does the product address? Who are the target customers and users? NEEDS Which problem does the product solve? What bene t does it provide? PRODUCT What product is it? What makes it stand out? Is it feasible to develop the product? BUSINESS GOALS How is the product going to bene t the company? What are the business goals? VISION This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 Unported license THE PRODUCT VISION BOARD EXTENDED What is your purpose for creating the product? Which positive change should it bring about? COMPETITORS Who are your main competitors? What are their strengths and weaknesses? REVENUE STREAMS How can you monetise your product and generate revenues? COST FACTORS What are the main cost factors to develop, market, sell, and service the product? CHANNELS How will you market and sell your product? Do the channels exist today? www.romanpichler.com Template version 02/20 

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Evolve the vision Progressively refine Periodically step back, consider and reframe Let the vision prove itself valid Don’t be afraid to pivot based on what you are learning 

Ensure that the vision steers the project Make it pervasively present Continue to discuss the details as team Use it to prioritize and make decisions Take the tactical steps that will best enable long term success Establish short term measurable objectives Who What Wow A project manager can assemble a team based on skills, experience and availability in 5 minutes or less Scrum calls Design playbacks Physical spaces Retros User story maps Organizational meetings 

Does having a vision guarantee success? It keeps the ultimate aim in sight Engenders motivation and productivity Promotes a level of thoroughness to consider all aspects that will impact the success of the product Encourages a cross-discipline aligned effort, leveraging a diverse set of knowledgeable viewpoints 

Thank you [email protected] Twitter: @stephenklimko