How to make a product vision board

How to create a product vision board that inspires and aligns your team

Product development often requires teams from different departments to collaborate. But when you have different teams working together, getting them on the same page is easier said than done.

This is where creating a product vision board can help.

A product vision board captures the essence of a product. It’s a creative framework for cross-functional product teams to focus on product goals and avoid scope creep.

In this article, we’ll answer the following questions:

• What is a vision board?

• How does a product vision board work?

• What are the benefits of using one?

• What to put on a vision board?

• How do you make your own online product vision board?

What is a product vision board?

A product vision board outlines a vision for a product. It doesn’t have a set structure, but it’s often a collage of images, text, and other visual elements that represent key aspects of the product and plans for the future. When done well, the board can guide your team's decision-making and help everyone focus on the end goal.

The design of a product vision board is similar to a mood board, but the content is more focused on product development or product management. For example, a vision board for product development will usually define the following information:

• The purpose of the product

• The target users and their needs

• Any high-level characteristics or features

• The benefits that the product provides to the company

If you were using a mood board, the content would be much broader and less specific to product development.

Product vision boards also provide a quick way to communicate product goals and objectives to stakeholders like high-level management or external investors.

Instead of getting bogged down by too many product details, a vision board presents key information in a simple and engaging way. It makes it easier for stakeholders to visualize your plan for product development.

What is a product vision statement?

A product vision statement describes the long-term goal and purpose of a product. It defines the desired future state of the product and outlines the product team's aspirations, values, and objectives.

A well-crafted product vision statement should answer the following questions:

• What is the product?

• Who is the target customer?

• What is the problem the product solves for the customer?

• What are the key benefits of the product?

• What is the long-term goal for the product?

Here’s an example of a product vision statement for a mobile banking app for small businesses:

“Create a mobile banking app that allows small business owners to easily and securely manage their finances from anywhere, anytime. We aim to become the go-to mobile banking app for startups and small businesses by offering an intuitive and user-friendly platform."

Who writes the product vision?

The product vision is guided and owned by the product manager. They’re responsible for defining the product strategy, setting the product vision, and ensuring the product aligns with overall business objectives.

Although the product manager guides the product vision, and may write the vision statement, the product manager shouldn't create the product vision alone. It should be a collaborative effort involving all key stakeholders, including customers, users, developers, designers, and other product team members.

What are the benefits of a product vision board?

Here are some of the benefits of creating a product vision board:

Clearly visualize your product goals

A product vision board visually represents your product goals and objectives. It helps team members stay focused and reduces the chance of scope creep by ensuring everyone’s working towards the same goal.

Encourage creativity

A vision board's visual and imaginative structure stimulates creativity and encourages team members to think outside the box. As a result, product teams are more likely to develop new and innovative ideas.

Align teams across the business

A product vision board provides a shared understanding of the product's goals and objectives, which aligns teams across different departments. As a result, cross-functional teams can collaborate better and create a more streamlined development process.

How to make a vision board online

An in-person vision board usually involves a whiteboard, markers, and sticky notes. Teams write their product ideas on sticky notes and attach them directly to the board.

While this can be a pretty fun process, it’s not practical for collaboration — especially if you’re part of a remote or distributed team.

The good news is that making an online product vision board is incredibly collaborative, allowing teams to access it wherever they are.

In this section, we’ll outline the steps you can follow to create your own product vision board. We’ll use product development as an example to show you how these steps apply to an actual situation.

1. Choose an online platform

Start by choosing the right online platform to create and share your product vision board. With the right online tools, it’ll be easier for you and your product team to collaborate and create an effective vision board.

The tricky thing is that there are so many platforms to choose from. To help you narrow down your search, look out for platforms that offer the following features:

• A simple interface. You need a platform that's easy to use and visually appealing. Why? Because that way, the entire team will be able to use it without spending hours on training.

• Customizable. Customization and flexibility allow you to create a board that accurately reflects the vision for your product. If you don’t have these features, you might be limited in what you can create. Keep an eye out for platforms with customizable features (like adding your own images and text) to ensure you can design a vision board that’s right for your product.

• Collaborative. Designing a product vision board often requires multiple people from different teams. To streamline communication between team members, find a platform that enables collaboration. Sharing the board with colleagues, adding comments, and

  tagging other users are all examples of collaborative features.

2. Create your vision board

Now that your platform is in place, you can start creating your vision board. Let's walk through the steps you'll follow to bring your product vision board to life.

Gather the materials you need

After choosing the right platform, you can gather all the necessary materials to create your vision board. This includes images, quotes, and any other visuals that represent your goals and aspirations.

Open a new vision board

Open a new board or document on your chosen online platform and pick a layout that suits your needs. The exact process for opening your vision board will vary depending on the platform you use. With Miro, you simply select the Product Vision Template and get started immediately.

Add your materials to the vision board

Start adding your images, quotes, and other materials to your board to outline your vision. You need to arrange them in a way that makes sense to you and the rest of your team – for example, grouping similar ideas and concepts. That way, your vision is easier to follow and simple to understand. Using Miro to plot your vision board, you can easily drag and drop items to play around with different structures and layouts. You can also add different types of content, including images, videos, documents, and add external links.

Customize your vision board

Depending on the platform you use, you may have additional features (like stickers, shapes, or fonts) that you want to use to customize your vision board. Now that all the information is on the board, you can add these customizable features to create a product board that accurately represents your vision.

3. Share your vision board

When the board is finished, share it with product stakeholders for feedback. These stakeholders might include C-suite employees, investors, clients, or other product team members that weren’t involved in the vision board process.

After reviewing the board, the stakeholders can offer suggestions, ask questions, and tell you what they think of the product vision.

4. Create your product vision statement

Use the information from your product vision board (and the feedback you’ve received from stakeholders) to create your product vision statement.

We’ve already touched on what a product vision statement is, so we’ll jump right in and cover the best practices for creating your own vision statement.

Be as clear as possible

Use simple language that clearly conveys your vision, who the product is for, and what you hope to achieve. That way, everyone understands the concept and has no room for interpretation.

Focus on the core objectives of the product

To ensure that everyone understands the direction of your product development, outline your key objectives clearly. For example, if developing a new website, one of your objectives might be to create a good user experience. By stating this in your vision statement, the product team knows the goal and direction of the product development.

Be inspiring, but keep it realistic

The product vision statement should motivate the development team to do their best work and reach the development goals. However, it’s important that it’s realistic. If it isn’t, you’ll have a team of disappointed people on your hands. To ensure the statement is achievable, run it past other team members to get their input.

5. Develop a product roadmap

After you have created your product vision with the vision board, often the next step is to develop a product roadmap. A product roadmap is a representation of a product's strategic plan. It communicates the vision and progress of what’s coming next for your product, including your objectives, key milestones, and a timeline for development and release.

You can pull everything into the roadmap using the vision board information. Then, you can identify the necessary activities to make the product.

Follow these steps to create a product roadmap of your own:

• Define your product vision and business goals. Use the information from your vision board to identify how your product vision aligns with your business goals.

• Conduct research. Gather data on your target users, competitors, market trends, and other factors that could impact product development.

• Prioritize key features. Determine which features deliver the most value to your users. Take a look at our Priority Matrix Template to help you pinpoint these features.

• Create a timeline. Outline the milestones for your product development and set realistic deadlines for each stage. Our Timeline Template is helpful for mapping key dates and making sure deadlines are achievable.

• Communicate with stakeholders. Share the roadmap with stakeholders (such as product managers, developers, and customers) to get feedback and ensure everyone is on the same page.

• Review and update regularly. Continuously review and update your roadmap as your product evolves and new information becomes available.

To create a successful product roadmap, try our free Product Roadmap Template. Using this template, you can be sure you won’t miss any key areas listed above.

Use Miro to build your product vision board

A product vision board is a creative way for teams to outline their product vision. It encourages new ideas, gets everyone on the same page, and helps the product team identify their next steps.

With Miro, you can easily bring your ideas to life by creating a vision board. Brainstorm, build a product roadmap, and ideate on the final product all in one shared space.