Product Vision Box

When we start a project, it is not always easy to share the vision of it. The vision of the project can be prepared using several existing methods that they’re really efficient. This article will propose to see a very useful practice which purposes to have very quickly a good vision. Here is the Product Vision Box (Product Box).

This practices comes from the innovation games.

I like this vision because it simplifies the vision of the product as much as possible. It is much more synthetic than the vision that we can create with a Story Mapping (article: Story mapping, a clear understanding of its creation).

For me, I really like to start with a Product Vision Box and continue after with the personae, the customer journey then a Story Mapping.

You can also see this logical sequence in the agile framing that allows you to launch a project in agile.

Basic concept of the Product Vision Box

The Product Owner will be invited to create a box in the style of cereal boxes with all the information that can have a good vision.

Here is an example of a Product Vision Box that we could have at the end of the presentable session to the development teams

The front of the box

We will purpose to the Product Owner (even teams if you invite them) to fill the front of the box with these different elements in different colors:

• The name of the project
• The image of the project (a logo may be nice)
• A slogan
• 3 or 4 arguments that sell the product

From these 4 elements, we obtain a beautiful front face of our box.

The back of the box

This second face is very different from the front because it will present all the features and pre-requisites of the project.

If you have too many features, write the main features.

Both sides of the Product Box

Like on a cereal box, you can define the ingredients that make up your product: to make it simple, you will write all the technical needs to do it (framework, language …)

On the other side, you can add the personae that will use your product.

How to do the workshop?

Only one product in the project

When the product is very complex, it’s sometimes interesting to do this workshop with only the Product Owner who will present his box to the rest of the team members.

It’s also possible to purpose to the team to do the exercise with the product owner in order to conceive the vision of the product together.

Several products on the same project

If you have several products in your project and the exercise is carried out by the product owner and the others product owners, you will make a box to represent all the products of the project.

If you do this exercise in teamwork, we will purpose to make a box per team during these 45 minutes. The teams will be able and will have to ask the product owner for details to create their box.

Then, all teams will take 15 minutes to make a single box of the entire project by achieving consensus on the whole.

Conclusion Product Vision Box

Now, you know all the tricks to have a very good vision of the project. I purpose to test this Product Vision Box practice in your company.