It’s a common feeling in the dynamic world of product management. Without a clear direction, it’s easy to get lost, build the wrong things, or simply drift aimlessly. A well-articulated product strategy serves as a roadmap, guiding all decisions related to the product’s vision, target market, and how it will achieve its goals. But before you can build that roadmap, you need a compelling product vision to know where you’re heading.

Charting the Course: How to Define a Compelling Product Vision Using the Golden Circle Framework and Scenario Planning…

Defining a strong product vision is foundational. Without a clear understanding of the market and well-defined objectives, a product strategy risks being misdirected and ineffective. To help us establish this crucial direction, we can turn to powerful frameworks like the Golden Circle and Scenario Planning. Think of these frameworks as the essential navigation tools for your product’s journey.

I have create a visual flow of an ideal framework to craft a compelling product vision; zoom-in to read each section of the picture below:

The Golden Circle Framework: Finding Your Product’s “Why”

One of the most impactful ways to start defining your product vision is by understanding its purpose, cause, or belief. This is where the Golden Circle Framework, popularized by Simon Sinek, comes into play. It encourages you to think about your product from the inside out, focusing on:

• Why: The core purpose. Why does your product exist? What problem does it truly solve, or what fundamental need does it address?
• How: The process or principles. How does your product fulfill the ‘Why’? What makes it unique?
• What: The product itself. What is it that you actually build or sell?

The power of the Golden Circle lies in starting with the “Why”. While most companies can articulate their “What” (they sell phones, they offer streaming), and many can explain their “How” (they use innovative design, they have a vast content library), far fewer deeply understand and communicate their “Why”.

Think of a chef creating a signature dish. It doesn’t start with listing ingredients (“What”) or describing the cooking process (“How”). It starts with a vision of the taste and experience (“Why”) they want to create for the diner. That vision of delight, comfort, or excitement then guides the choice of ingredients and techniques. Similarly, for a product, starting with the deep-seated reason for its existence provides a powerful foundation.

A classic example is Apple. Their “Why” has consistently been about challenging the status quo and empowering individuals through beautifully designed, user-friendly technology. Their “How” involves creating integrated ecosystems and seamless experiences. Their “What” is computers, phones, watches, etc.. Their long-term vision for integrated ecosystems stems directly from this core “Why,” guiding decades of product development and strategy.

Defining your product’s “Why” is crucial for aligning your team. It provides a shared purpose that resonates beyond features and deadlines, ensuring everyone is rowing in the same direction towards that compelling vision.

The reference image added below was originally popularized by Simon Sinek’s ” Start with Why” framework/concept and it has been explored in-depth in this article here. Click this hyperlink to read the detailed article on this topic by Dave Chaffey.

Scenario Planning: Preparing the Compass for Shifting Winds

While the Golden Circle helps you define your true north, the market is rarely a calm sea. It’s constantly changing, with unexpected currents and storms. This is where Scenario Planning becomes invaluable. It’s a framework for building adaptive product strategies by considering multiple potential futures.

Scenario Planning involves identifying key uncertainties and trends that could impact your product and industry. You then develop plausible, yet distinct, scenarios for how the future might unfold. For instance, a company might consider scenarios like “Rapid Technological Acceleration,” “Economic Recession,” or “Significant Regulatory Changes.”

By evaluating your product vision and strategy against these different scenarios, you can test its resilience and identify potential vulnerabilities or hidden opportunities. Like a chameleon adapting to its environment, a product strategy needs to be flexible to thrive in uncertainty. Scenario planning helps you explore “what if” situations and build strategies that can pivot when necessary.

Netflix, for example, has successfully navigated disruptions in the media industry. While their core “Why” (entertainment on demand) might remain consistent, scenario planning likely helped them anticipate shifts from physical media to streaming, and then to producing original content, allowing them to adapt their “How” and “What” to stay relevant in changing market landscapes.

Scenario Planning doesn’t predict the future; it helps you prepare for multiple possible futures, making your product vision and the resulting strategy more robust and adaptable.

Weaving Them Together: A Powerful Combination

Combining the Golden Circle and Scenario Planning provides a powerful approach to defining a compelling and resilient product vision. The Golden Circle gives you the deep, purpose-driven core – the unwavering “Why” that defines your product’s ultimate reason for being. Scenario Planning then takes that “Why” and tests it against the winds and waves of the future market, ensuring your approach is adaptable regardless of the conditions.

This isn’t a one-time exercise. Just as a chef continuously refines their signature dish based on feedback, or a sailor adjusts their course based on changing winds, defining and refining your product vision is an iterative process. Your understanding of the market and customers deepens, new competitive insights emerge, and your product’s stage in its lifecycle changes. Regularly revisiting your “Why” and exploring future scenarios keeps your vision sharp and your strategy aligned.

My two cents:

The Human Desire Compass

What if your product vision was inspired not just by market needs, but by a fundamental human desire yet to be fulfilled? This perspective challenges us to look beyond explicit customer requests or competitor offerings and delve into the deeper, often unarticulated, motivations that drive human behavior.

Frameworks like Jobs to Be Done (JTBD) already push us to understand the underlying “job” a customer is trying to get done. But focusing on a fundamental human desire takes it a step further. Instead of seeing your product as filling a market gap (competitive insight) or meeting a stated need, you see it as a new way to achieve happiness, connection, mastery, security, or any other core human aspiration.

This perspective can lead to breakthrough innovations because it focuses on solving problems or enabling experiences that users might not even realize are possible yet. It shifts the focus from external market forces (like Porter’s Five Forces) to the internal landscape of human motivation. It’s like discovering a new continent by following an internal compass rather than a map of known territories.

From Vision to Roadmap: Charting the Course in Detail…

Once you have a compelling product vision, grounded in your “Why” and tested against potential futures, you can translate it into a Strategic Roadmap. This roadmap isn’t just a list of features; it’s a visual narrative of how you plan to achieve your vision over time. It should define key milestones and provide a temporal guide for development and execution.

Incorporating flexible planning methodologies like Agile is crucial. Just a pilot might adjust their course based on instrument data, your roadmap needs to adapt based on feedback and market changes. Tools like Theme-Based or Goal-Oriented Roadmapping can help ensure your roadmap remains a strategic narrative aligned with your vision, rather than just a task list. Prioritization frameworks also become essential at this stage to decide what to build next based on how it contributes to the vision.

Conclusion

Charting a successful course for your product starts with a clear and compelling vision. By leveraging the Golden Circle Framework, you can uncover the fundamental “Why” that drives your product. By employing Scenario Planning, you can ensure that vision is robust enough to navigate the inevitable uncertainties of the future market. And perhaps, by looking inward at fundamental human desires, you can find a truly unique north star.

Defining Market and Objectives is the foundational step in product strategy, but vision provides the inspiration and direction.

With a strong vision in place, you can then develop a strategic roadmap and align your team towards achieving measurable goals, ensuring your product ship is not only built well but is also sailing towards a meaningful destination.