The Vision Thing
A US president once said he wasn't very good at "the vision thing." (He wasn't re-elected.) Product managers can't afford to be anything less than great at the vision thing. The product vision is the glue that holds a team together. It's a great tool for herding all the development, marketing and executive cats in the same direction. But it needs to be sound, it must be straightforward and compelling, and it needs to be communicated well and often. A product vision is pretty much what it sounds like: something that enables anyone to see clearly what the product is, does, and who it's for. Beyond that, there isn't really a formula for defining a product vision - it's the product of good research, clear analysis and, most importantly, imagination. A good product vision usually seems obvious in retrospect:. Take the iPod: An elegant-looking pocket music player that non-techies could learn quickly and easily download songs from an online stor...