product-vision

name	product-vision
description	Write the Product Vision document -- the durable 5-10 year narrative above the north-star metric -- using Pichler's Vision Board, Moore's elevator pitch, Raskin's strategic narrative, Cagan's 10-year framing, and Amazon Working Backwards.
license	MIT + Commons Clause
metadata	{"version":"1.0.1","author":"borghei","category":"project-management","domain":"pm-execution","updated":"2026-06-15T00:00:00.000Z","tech-stack":"product-vision, strategic-narrative, working-backwards, vision-board"}

Product Vision Expert

Overview

The Product Vision is the narrative that sits above the north-star metric -- the answer to "where are we going and why" that aligns engineers, designers, marketers, executives, and customers around a single point on the horizon. Without a vision, teams optimize local metrics; with a vision, teams optimize toward a shared destination.

A vision is not a mission, not a strategy, not a roadmap. A mission says why the company exists. A strategy says how it will win. A roadmap says what ships next quarter. A vision says where the product will be in 5-10 years -- specific enough to inspire engineering decisions today, ambitious enough to outlast any current technology or market condition. This skill produces the vision document across four canonical formats -- Roman Pichler's Product Vision Board (one-page diagnostic), Geoffrey Moore's elevator pitch (single-sentence positioning from Crossing the Chasm), Andy Raskin's strategic narrative (5-act story arc), and Marty Cagan's 10-year horizon -- plus an Amazon Working Backwards press release and a review checklist for testing whether a vision actually works.

Core Capabilities

• Pichler Vision Board -- one-page, five-block canvas (vision, audience, needs, product, business goals)
• Moore elevator pitch -- single-sentence positioning statement that forces specificity
• Raskin strategic narrative -- 5-act story arc for pitches, board, all-hands, fundraising
• Cagan 10-year horizon -- long-form vision for multi-year architecture and senior hiring
• Vision Review Checklist -- score inspiring / concrete / durable / differentiated / memorable

When to Use

• New product launch. Articulate the destination before committing engineering quarters.
• Major pivot. Direction has shifted and the old vision no longer fits. Reset.
• Strategy reset. Annual or pre-funding-round refresh of the long-term direction.
• Stakeholder misalignment. Engineering, design, and exec are pulling in different directions; re-articulating the vision surfaces the disagreement.
• Hiring at scale. You need a vision compelling enough that prospective hires can decide whether to join. Vague visions repel strong talent.

Quick Start

1. Gather inputs: customer interviews, JTBD hierarchy, value proposition canvas, competitive landscape.
2. Pick a starting format -- new product: Pichler Board; reset: Raskin narrative; multi-year: Cagan 10-year.
3. Draft, then translate into a second format -- a vision that survives translation is sharp.
4. Run the Vision Review Checklist; rewrite anything scoring under 3 of 5.
5. Test with 3 internal audiences and 2 customers; publish as the first link in onboarding and the cover of strategy decks; revisit annually.

References

Load the reference that matches the task -- keep this file lean and pull detail on demand:

• references/vision-playbook.md -- the operational playbook: the layer comparison (mission/vision/strategy/roadmap), all four framework templates in detail, the Amazon Working Backwards note, the full Vision Review Checklist, the end-to-end Reconcile worked example, the drafting workflow, troubleshooting, and success criteria. Read this when drafting or reviewing a vision.
• references/vision-frameworks-guide.md -- the framework theory (Pichler, Moore, Raskin, Cagan, Amazon) with block-by-block guidance and "choosing a framework" advice. Read this when you need the reasoning behind each format.
• references/red-flags.md -- 10 vision anti-patterns (vision = mission, 12-month vision, vision without a customer, vision as roadmap) with symptoms and fixes. Read this when stress-testing a draft.

Templates live in assets/: vision_board_template.md, narrative_vision_template.md, elevator_pitch_template.md, vision_review_checklist.md.

Scope & Limitations

In scope: vision drafting across 4 frameworks (Pichler, Moore, Raskin, Cagan); the Vision Review Checklist; worked examples and templates; translation between formats; integration with downstream artifacts (NSM, OKRs, roadmap, PRDs).

Out of scope: mission statement writing; strategy document construction (c-level-advisor/); brand positioning and messaging (marketing/); Working Backwards PR/FAQ (execution/prfaq/); NSM definition (execution/north-star-metric/); OKR drafting (execution/brainstorm-okrs/).

Caveats: a vision is not a marketing document (marketing language belongs in messaging); a vision that is never used is worse than no vision; the 10-year horizon is uncomfortable for execution-minded teams -- the discomfort is the point; a vision can be wrong -- commit, build, and update on evidence.

Integration Points

Integration	Direction	What Flows
discovery/value-proposition-canvas/	Receives from	Customer Profile (jobs, pains, gains) feeds Pichler Board "Needs" block
discovery/jtbd-workshop/	Receives from	Job hierarchy and top outcomes inform the vision's customer + outcome
discovery/customer-interview-script/	Receives from	Verbatim customer language sharpens vision phrasing
execution/north-star-metric/	Feeds into	The NSM derives from the vision -- the vision's outcome becomes the NSM input metric tree root
execution/outcome-roadmap/	Feeds into	The roadmap delivers the vision; every roadmap theme should trace back
execution/brainstorm-okrs/	Feeds into	OKRs serve the vision -- each quarterly objective should advance one vision pillar
execution/prfaq/	Complementary	Working Backwards PR is one expression of the vision; the FAQ stress-tests it
execution/create-prd/	Feeds into	PRDs explicitly reference the vision in Section 3 (Background)
execution/roadmap-communication/	Feeds into	Vision is the opening frame of every exec/customer roadmap presentation
c-level-advisor/cto-advisor/	Bidirectional	CTO uses vision to drive architecture bets; vision is informed by tech feasibility