The Vision Stack — Part 1
A Product Management Framework to drive Clarity, Alignment and Focus in B2B Technology Companies.
TL;DR
Working in Product Management can be difficult, particularly in startups and scaleups where there is a lot of chaos and change happening. Unfortunately many Product Leaders and IC Product Managers haven’t implemented repeatable, scalable models of work that enable them to work both effectively and efficiently, and balance the many competing priorities that come their way.
This article introduces the Vision Stack, a framework to help address (but not completely solve) many of the alignment and focus problems that plague so many Product organizations and the companies they work in.
NOTE: I have written in detail about each of the elements in the Vision Stack, so each section of this article links out to those specific articles. I’ve also created audio versions of the articles using NotebookLM to make it easier to consume the content.
Contents
- Introduction
- Where is the Product Success Model or Methodology?
- How can Product Management Succeed?
— Product Management is inherently cross-functional
— Other teams depend on Product Management’s work
— Product Management focuses on both the present and the future
— The Core Focus of Product Management - Introducing the Vision Stack
— Some similar frameworks
— Caveat Compage (Beware of the Framework) - Business Vision, Objectives, Strategy
— Business objecives
— Business strategy
— But my company has no strategy - Product Vision
- Product Objectives
- Product Strategy
- Product Roadmaps
- Product Plans
- What’s Coming in Part 2
- A little feedback please
Introduction
One of the biggest challenges I encounter in my consulting work with technology companies is the lack of alignment, clarity and connection between the Go-To-Market, Leadership and Product parts of the organization.
Everyone is working hard; Sales is out selling, Marketing is marketing, Engineering is building, and Product Management is…often struggling. Leadership sees this and tries to address the problem, but don’t see positive results. And they eventually come to the conclusion that they need some outside help. So they often call on external Product consultants (like myself or others) to help the Product team solve their problems.
While every company is unique, they don’t all have unique problems. i.e. the source of their ills isn’t as distinct as they might think.
The lack of alignment and the struggling Product team — which is a common pairing of problems — usually stems from a lack of structured system and operational gaps coming from the Product team.
I won’t get into all of the problems I see — I’ve described many of them in detail in The 5 Dysfunctions of Product Management Teams and also in Product Management is Business Management.
Where is the Product Success Model or Methodology?
When we look at other teams — Marketing, Sales, Engineering etc. — they usually have some operating model and system by which they work in a repeatable manner towards their objectives.
Marketing has a set of marketing plays, perhaps something like Hubspot’s Flywheel model or Account Based Marketing, or some other repeatable model to create awareness and demand for the company’s products and to drive marketing success.
Sales often uses a formal sales methodology (MEDDIC, SPIN selling, Challenger Sale, Solution selling etc.), or at minimum, Sales has a structured funnel review and management process to manage their pipeline and track their path to revenue targets and drive success.
And almost certainly Engineering has adopted some form of Scrum, Kanban, DevoOps or other process to create and deliver the product capabilities they are accountable for. This is how they drive Engineering success.
But when it comes to Product Management, there usually is no such structure in place. Product Managers are working hard, but when I look across companies and even across product managers in the same company, I see a large variance in how they work, what actions they take, what outputs they deliver, the quality of those outputs etc. It’s no wonder Product is struggling.
There is no structured, repeatable success model in place for the Product organization.
Now there are lots of frameworks in use— the Pragmatic Framework being the oldest and probably most well known of them— that attempt to put some structure and order into place. But what is really needed is something more fundamental than the Pragmatic Framework with its 37 boxes of activities.
Keep in mind that the work Product Management does is foundational to what Engineering, Marketing and Sales will do, AND must be tied to business success for the company.
If the work of Product Management is so critical to the company overall — why is there so little structure and discipline in Product Management’s work in most companies?
How Can Product Management Succeed?
There is no perfect organization or company, but one of the challenges of Product Management, is that it must work within the context of the (likely imperfect and possibly flawed) business vision, objectives, strategy, processes etc. that have been set by leadership,
There may be ways to influence this, but regardless, if the company is looking to grow aggressively, or expand into new markets, or is having challenges with customer retention and must focus there, this is the context that Product Management will work in.
There are several things to understand that make it difficult to create a success model for Product Management.
1. Product Management is inherently cross-functional
Product Management must work collaboratively with other teams such as Marketing, Sales, Engineering, Finance etc. That’s simply the nature of the job. And that makes it different from all other teams which are far less cross-functional. At its heart, Product Management is Business Management (at the product or product line level), and so it cannot be a silo unto itself.
2. Other teams DEPEND on Product Management’s work
Related to the cross-functional nature of Product Management, many other teams depend on the work that Product Management does.
The Engineering team wouldn’t have clear direction on what to build without the PM team. And Marketing wouldn’t have much to market without the outputs of Engineering and inputs from Product Management. And Sales wouldn’t have much of a funnel to sell into without Marketing doing it’s job.
In short, Product Management’s work is upstream to the work of all these other teams and they are all dependent on Product Management doing it’s job well.
3. Product Management focuses on both the present and the future
While every team needs to “plan for the future” in some form, Product Management’s work is critical for future company success. i.e. while they are helping the company execute in the present — working with Engineering, helping on some Sales deals, engaging with Marketing — , their core work — market research, user research, strategy, business planning, product planning etc. — is focused on creating opportunity for the company in the future.
This is a fundamental difference between Product Management and virtually every other group in the company with the exception of the leadership team. i.e. Sales and Marketing work mostly in the present — e.g. this QUARTER or next QUARTER — whereas Product Management must think about this YEAR and next YEAR.
Given these three factors, any system for driving Product Management success has to take these into account and incorporate them explicitly.
The Core Focus of Product Management
Product Management’s work primarily focuses on bringing the following things to a company:
- Product vision, objectives and strategy that support business vision, objectives and strategy.
- Clear definition and articulation of product plans that align with market needs and business goals.
- Bringing (external) market and customer input and feedback into the company to inform and optimize product direction/strategy/plans as well as other go-to-market activities.
- An ongoing (internal) process of maintaining alignment across (and up/down) the organization as the company executes well in dynamic markets
The first 2 are fundamental Product Management responsibilities. They should be the foundation of any work Product Management is doing, and are required for any product-centric business to succeed. There’s no one else who should do that work.
The third is critical to ensure the products are aligned with marketing needs and can maximize their contribution to the business goals. Many customer-facing teams are bringing external information into the company, but they are focused on their goals (Customer Support/Success is solving problems, Sales is focused on individual opportunities etc.), but Product Management is look at market problems and opportunities to help drive future product and business success. It’s a very different perspective from other teams.
The fourth is a core business requirement given that we work in very dynamic, and often volatile times. Whether it is reacting to the actions of customers or competitors, economic or market shifts, geo-political or legislative issues, or new technological advancements, there need to be well defined feedback loops and decision making processes that enable needed information to be shared and adjustments and decisions to be made.
In my work, I see problems in all of these areas, and they often compound, causing wasted time and effort and unnecessary friction and lost opportunity for companies.
For example, companies often have a weak understanding of the market and customer needs. This leads to poor decision making in product planning and marketing, leading to lacklustre sales from products with poor fit in the market and weak messaging/positioning.
Introducing The Vision Stack
Over the last several years in my consulting work, I’ve seen the same problems in many companies, where Product teams are working hard, but the company is struggling with building, marketing and selling successful products, and struggling to find alignment on product direction, product priorities, GTM motions etc.
The internal friction between Sales and Product (in particular) is a drain on company resources. Sales feels shackled with products that customers don’t want or that cannot win against competition. Marketing doesn’t see compelling value in the products being delivered and struggles to position and message them in the market. Sales often comes back with feature requests from prospects that are required to close deals. This leads to extra work from Product Management and Engineering and hampers the company from focusing on broader market needs.
See this, I created a framework that I call the Vision Stack to help address these alignment problems in a simple to understand but effective way.
This is not the total solution to the alignment problems companies face, but it does contribute significantly to solving that problem by creating a clear and structured common context for Executives, Sales, Marketing, Engineering, Finance and Product to use when making decisions or evaluating opportunities.
Some similar frameworks
NOTE: You may have heard of Martin Eriksson’s Decision Stack or Ravi Mehta’s Strategy Stack. Both of these have some similarity to the Vision Stack, and for good reasons. I believe both Martin and Ravi have seen problems similar to those I’ve seen and are trying to help companies solve them. All three frameworks have similarities, but all three have differences as well. I suggest checking out Martin’s and Ravi’s frameworks when you get a chance.
Caveat Compage (Beware of the Framework)
NOTE: Before I get into explaining the framework, I want to paraphrase the oft repeated line — All Frameworks are Wrong. Some are Useful. I say that up front because I want you to understand that I acknowledge this is a framework and that it has its limitations and embedded assumptions. I’ll get into some of those limitations and assumptions in part 2.
The Vision Stack is intended to HELP product leaders, product teams AND others in the company (leadership, Sales, Marketing, Engineering, Support, Operations, Finance etc.) understand how the work that Product Management does connects to and supports the business and it’s goals.
The framework is easy to understand and uses language and concepts that each team can understand and connect with. It is a sense-making and communication tool to bring structure to a complex context. It is not intended to be force fit onto every situation, and as you’ll see at each layer of the stack, there is real effort and organizational capability that is needed to make it beneficial.
So, starting from the top of the framework…
Business Vision, Objectives, Strategy
EVERY company should have a long-term vision of what the company wants to achieve. It usually exists somewhere, in some form. It may be a formally written and shared document, outlining the market problems and trends that exist and the long term impacts your company wants to make. OR it may just be in the CEO’s or founder’s head and spoken about at company all-hands meetings.
A (company) vision is a broader statement of purpose for the entire organization, outlining its long-term aspirations and the impact it seeks to make on the world. (The WHY for the company).
Regardless, whether it is articulated clearly, whether it is understood by the majority of employees, whether it has been updated to be appropriate in current contexts, most companies have some kind of vision of where they are headed and why. This frames the top level of what the company should be focused on.
Business Objectives
Next, EVERY company absolutely has objectives that they want to achieve. It’s fundamental to running a business. And while those objectives are all too often only articulated as annual growth or revenue targets, leaders in companies are usually basing them on other longer term goals or a vision that exists.
Business Strategy
Strategy is a potentially big topic, but at it’s heart, strategy is a set of aligned choices or decisions that a company makes to achieve their objectives. Defining or crafting effective strategies is not a skill that many leaders or companies have. And ultimately, the success of those choices depends on many factors such as the understanding the company had of their situation in the market, the specific choices they made, the alignment of those choices, and their ability to execute on them.
Strategy is a bet on the future. So there is no guarantee of success. But there are also no guarantees in business, except perhaps that success is always more difficult than we initially expect.
But my company has no strategy
Before I continue, I want to address this point. I often hear product managers and leaders say that their company has no strategy (or has a different “strategy” every week).
Now, their company may have no EXPLICIT strategy — i.e. a declared, intentional set of choices they’ve made to achieve objectives — and that may be true. But as it operates, the company — the leadership — make decisions, makes choices on how they want to reach their goals. Those choices, if looked at in aggregate, can be said to define the strategy.
For example, if the Sales team regularly heavily discounts their prices to try to win deals — and the management team is fine with this — then the company “strategy” is to be a low cost provider.
Another example might be a company that sees what their (larger) competitors are doing and regularly decides to copy them where possible, then the company “strategy” is to be a fast-follower.
I put the word “strategy” in quotes here, because, in and of themselves, theses actions aren’t good strategy. But they are the strategy the company has decided to implement.
So, whether explicit or not, every company has a “strategy” based on their choices and actions. It’s just the quality, longevity and potential success of that strategy may be questionable.
Product Vision
Beneath the company Vision, Objectives and Strategy, lie the Product parts that contribute to the company. And at the very top is the Product Vision. A Product Vision has the same intent as a Company Vision, but in the context of a Product. i.e. It is the long term benefit or impact you want to achieve with the PRODUCT. It defines the WHY for the product.
A Product Vision is a short narrative (2–3 pages at most IMHO) that consists of at least 4 parts.
- Current (Market) Situation
- A Problem that Exists (in the market)
- Relevant Trends (that will help you solve the problem)
- The Opportunity at Hand (where you will focus the product)
These 4 parts will paint a clear picture to the reader of the WHAT and WHY. i.e. What is happening in the market, what problems exists that are worth solving, what trends can you leverage and what the business opportunity is to be had. Combined, these 4 parts explain the WHY for the product.
NOTE: You can read an example of product vision (for an enterprise data testing product) here.
IF there is a well defined and up-to-date company vision, then the product vision should align under it, and contribute to it. e.g. if a company has the following vision:
to help people live more ethical and sustainable lives and reduce their impact on the environment,
then the products should align with that. e.g. a line of “leather” products — belts, footwear etc. — made with mycellium based leather alternatives would fit under that vision, but a line of real leather belts/footwaare etc. would not.
If the company DOESN’T have a clear or updated company vision, then it is even MORE important to have a clear product vision to bring focus to the product work.
e.g. the company may have a general MISSION to create sustainable products, but hasn’t really defined the WHY (i.e. the benefits it wants to achieve). A clear Product vision brings focus and context to why you’re building the product and what you want to achieve in the market by creating it.
This is the first level of alignment around the product, and everyone in the company should understand and internalize the vision.
The following article digs deep into the process of creating a product vision, along with a detailed example.
The following discussion was generated by NotebookLM based on the article above. Have a listen to it if you don’t want to read the article.
Product Objectives
Beneath Product Vision, we have Product Objectives. Just as Business Objectives support the Vision of the business, Product Objectives do the same for the Product Vision. i.e. these are concrete objectives that help you move forward towards that vision and that align with the business objectives.
One of the big gaps I see in companies is the lack of clear Product Objectives. i.e. what measurable outcomes do we want to achieve in the product that will contribute to achieving business goals?
Well-defined objectives have 3 key attributes. They are Specific (i.e. unambiguous), Measurable (easily measured or tracked) , and Timebound (must be acheived in a specific timeframe). I use the term “SMT objectives”to identify them.
e.g. a product objective of: increasing retention by 25% is specific and measurable, but is not timebound. i.e. in what timeframe do we want or need to achieve that increase? Doing it in 3 months vs. 12 months makes a huge difference in our approach, focus and actions.
Clear SMT objectives bring focus and clarity to work that must be done. It’s very easy to align a team or organization around well-defined objectives.
The following article digs deep into this topic of objectives, how to define them, use them and benefit from them.
The following discussion was generated by NotebookLM based on the article above. Have a listen to it if you don’t want to read the article.
Product Strategy
Strategy is one of those words that many people use, but also one that many people don’t really understand. If you ask 10 people to define strategy, you’re likely to get 10 different answers; some of them correct, but many of them wrong.
Roger Martin defines strategy as:
strategy: n. an integrated set of choices that work together and reinforce each other. The result positions the organization on a playing field in the best way possible.’
The key word here is choices. You or your company have to make choices. It means you can’t do everything. The things you choose to do are the things you believe will best help you acheive your objectives.
Strategy can be applied in many places, but here we’ll focus on Product Strategy. i.e. the set of integrated choices we make about the product that work together to position it to win in the market.
By making those choices as a team or organization, you agree and are aligned on the premise that those choices (that strategy) will take you where you need to go.
e.g. if you want to increase retention by 25% over it’s current level within 6 months (that’s an SMT objective), then you might come up with several options to consider.
- identifying segments or cohorts that have low (and high) retention and then understand why they are such
- conduct churn analysis to understand why customers didn’t renew
- measure the effectiveness and satisfaction of your onboarding process
- track usage and identifying patterns where early interventions might be needed
Once you evaluate these (and possibly other options) you can CHOOSE which ones are most likely increase the return as desired and start enacting those choices.
The following article digs deep into strategy and uses the Blackberry vs. iPhone battle to illustrate how strategy choices impacted the failure (and success) of those products.
The following discussion was generated by NotebookLM based on the article above. Have a listen to it if you don’t want to read the article.
Product Roadmap
If there’s one term that’s almost synonymous with Product Management it is Product Roadmap. and yet, the vast majority of people who use the term product roadmap use it incorrect. The word “roadmap” has a common language usage that means “a plan”, but a Product Roadmap is NOT a plan, but a statement of direction and strategy.
It is the output of a process that connects objectives, strategy (choices) and key actions or outcomes. A roadmap feeds into a plan that is scoped, resourced and managed.
The biggest benefit and purpose of a roadmap is to identify priorities and direction; where you’re going and what’s most important. And the basis for that comes from strategy and objectives…clearly thinking that through and communicating it to others.
The following 2 articles go into detail of how to create a real strategic roadmap.
The following audio overview was generated by NotebookLM based on the two articles above. Have a listen to it if you don’t want to do the reading.
Product Plans
And finally we come to plans. This is what most teams outside of Product really want to understand. What exactly will be delivered, when will it be delivered and when can it be marketed, sold, how will it be priced, positioned, messaged etc. i.e. how will what will be delivered help the company achieve it’s business objectives.
There are many ways that companies make development plans, depending on their markets, customers, technologies and business cycles.
Some of them make detailed plans for many months out, others work one (2 week) sprint at time, others work quarterly or monthly etc. The reality is that plans are generally created in a timeframe with reasonably high confidence of delivery.
Whether the company uses Scrum, Kansan, SAFe, Waterfall or some other development methodology to create the software, there is additional work to be done beyond the bits/bytes to prepare the company to take the product/release to market. Product Management plays a critical role in that work was well.
The following 2 articles go into detail of how to create a real strategic roadmap.
The following audio overview was generated by NotebookLM based on the article above. Have a listen to it if you don’t want to do the reading.
What’s coming in Part 2
In Part 2, I will dig into this further, explaining how to apply it and why it helps Product organizations address the common problems that they face.
Strategy and The Vision Stack
NOTE: I wrote Strategy and the Vision Stack in response to questions I received about the placement of Vision and Strategy in the framework. Have a look and let know your thoughts.
A Little Feedback Please
If you’ve read this far, thank you. I’d like some feedback on the article to make it better. It should take just 1 minute, but will really be valuable to me. Thanks in advance.
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