Product vision should never be the company vision

Multiple times in my roles as a product leader and in my coaching of other leaders, I have met the expectations of The Product Vision, the one document that should be the north star of our company, the document that we expect to show us a path towards a future so great that we have not been able to deliver it yet.

This expectation often comes from leadership, the board, and co-workers in sales and marketing, but every time I have met that expectation, the company itself did not have a vision.

The product is often a place where people look to understand where we as a company are going, and it's fair; it is where our dreams materialise, where we can see our dreams and "touch" them. However, the problems start when the product leader is expected to be the person who defines that vision. The vision should be defined, held, and driven by the CEO (and founders) with support from the leadership team, including the product leader.

Without a vision for the company, the Product Leader is just left with a dump of shit in her lap if she has to communicate a product vision. Vision is a top-down activity and a vital leadership tool that grows in importance the bigger the organisation grows.

Should there be a product vision? Fuck yes, as there should be a Customer Service vision, a sales vision etc., but they all need to be built on the back of the shared dreams of the company, not individually dreamed up.

One of the best tools to communicate a product vision is the Vision Type, basically a high-fidelity design of a dream version of how our product could look when we have achieved our vision; it is so powerful to see people react to vision type it's a drastically different reaction then the lack of interactions you get if you present a neat 12 pages written vision, who the fuck cares?

I debated whether I should discuss vision or strategy when writing this. Still, the truth is that it's the same problem: You can not create a vision, strategy, direction, goal, brand, or product without it being aligned with the greater direction of the company. If that direction is not defined, you need to drive that process as a leader, not just try to deliver what your manager is asking of you. The company will thank you later.