How to Effectively Communicate Your Product Vision and Strategy to Your Non-Product Counterparts

In the world of product, effectively conveying the vision and strategy behind a product is obviously crucial to its (and your) success. However, in many organisations, teams that sit outside of the core product squads or perhaps are not product-fluent are left out the loop or unclear on what exactly it means. Here we explore why those team members are arguably more important to land your message with than your own team.

Communication in Product Development

It has and will continue to be one of the most important tools in any Product Managers arsenal - written or verbal, the bulk of every PMs job, whatever level, involves large amounts of communicating and influencing. Empathetically communicating with users, openly running discovery sessions, balancing trade-offs between team priorities and managing the optics of how your team is delivering to the rest of the business, just to name a few.

But a key aspect of that is ensuring the business understands what you and your teams mission is and it how it benefits the whole. While no doubt it can feel challenging to reach alignment within your product team on what the vision and strategy is, your team are far more inclined to be bought into and understand it than your non-product counterparts. Yet those same counterparts are potentially more important to the success of your product. Let's dig into why.

Bringing Everyone Along For The Ride

Think about it. Many of us have been in the scenario where our product team has felt siloed and it can feel like moving mountains to get traction for your plans outside of that bubble. You spend time putting together presentations, demos, building robust performance frameworks and how they'll deliver your teams goals and ladder up to the broader business goals, but does anyone outside of your bubble really understand what your vision & strategy truly mean?

Visions are exactly that. Visions. A loose framework of what your version of the future looks like for your product and how you'll frame every decision you make. Here's a definition from ProductBoard:

A product vision, or product vision statement, describes the overarching long-term mission of your product. Vision statements are aspirational and communicate concisely where the product hopes to go and what it hopes to achieve in the long term.

Strategies are intended to then break that down and bring it to life, for you, your team, your company and your customers in many cases. Yet I find that, and especially so in examples where the product is not the core business i.e. anything that isn't some 'As A Service' derivative, while a product vision and accompanying strategy sounds good in the moment to the broader audience, it doesn't typically sink into their everyday thinking.

Now you may say, how much does that really matter, even if they're delivering what you need them to deliver? Well, it can matter a whole lot. Let's create a scenario using the Starbucks App (something I'm far too familiar with):

Their company mission statement is:

To inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup and one neighbourhood at a time.

Now that can easily work as a product vision too, but let's create a more specific one:

A digital experience that fosters human connection and community, one cup at a time, by bringing the warmth of Starbucks into the palms of our customers’ hands.

While it may seem similar, it's the first step in becoming more salient to your non-product pals. It's intentionally open ended, yet provides three key aspects that reflect the apps purpose that already make it easier to define what that means for everyone else.

• Fostering a human connection is about understanding each individuals habits and preferences (a key aspect of any coffee order). This presents itself as personalised orders, offers and communication.

• The feeling of community by rewarding customers or creating unique experiences for its members.

• Bringing the warmth of Starbuck into the palms of our customers' hands is blending the digital and physical into a seamless experience. A hot cup of coffee with friends via a phone experience in your hand that delights its user, it becomes clear what your product goals are.

So you have a clear vision, you've shared it, it's landed well. Stop there right? You could, and you may well have a successful product for years to come. But it's more likely your product remains siloed, you and your team go under appreciated and it remains a tool in the business' arsenal to grow as opposed to becoming the tool.

Embedding Your Vision & Strategy

Not only is important to help others realise what your product vision and strategy means for your team, but more-so what it means for them. Let's return to the Starbucks example again and play out approaching different non-product teams:

Leadership

It might sound obvious that your leadership team needs to understand your product vision, but how they understand it could be the difference between being left to run your product squad according to your vision and having a CEO-built roadmap. Gaining buy in on how your future decisions will be framed based upon your vision from your LT, I would suggest, gives you the freedom to run your product with a long term mindset, without it, the Starbucks team may be under short term pressure to show how their app delivers additional sales for example.

Marketing

They'll be the engine behind your baby. But they've got campaigns, new products, in-store events and more competing with your goals. But in reality, this becomes their own engine. They have a 1:1 connection with their users like never before to deliver their messages in a thoughtful way. Empowering these guys can put your product front of mind for everything they do going forwards, putting the Starbucks app at the centre of all future projects and likely bringing new ideas in line with your vision.

Store Employees

The most important of all. Face-to-face with customers, the key touchpoint and the greatest ability to make or break the app. If Store colleagues, can portray what the Starbucks means for customers and what it aspires to be that message is stronger than any other and has the power to turn your average customer into an advocate.

Customers

Obvious to some but often left in the dark. While you don't necessarily have to sell in your product strategy to customers, giving them an understanding of what your aspirations for this product to be not only allows to to feel part of the process and buy into the idea more, but is a gateway to gaining better insights from a more vocal user base.

...empowering these teams to have a product mindset, with your vision at the heart, broadens your thinking pool, drives a more holistic roadmap and ultimately a better product

The key component of all these scenarios is aligning their goals, aspirations and motivations with yours. And in turn, empowering these teams to have a product mindset, with your vision at the heart, broadens your thinking pool, drives a more holistic roadmap and ultimately a better product.