From an Idea to a Vision you can implement - Vision workshop

A workshop about Product Vision:
From an idea to a product you can implement!
Vasco Duarte
Agile EE 2010

Vasco Duarte
@duarte_vasco
http://bit.ly/vasco_blog

The Assignment
You are the Product Management group for a large mobile phone manufacturer, your competitors are trimming your margins and threatening your market share
Your goal is to create a product that will turn the company around
Deliverable: The Vision document for the product with at least the following:
Main marketing message
Device sketch
Sample services (2-3) to be offered with Device

The Product
A mobile phone and related services.

The workshop
We will form 4 groups of 5-10 people
We will go through the 8 steps in the Vision process
One Flipchart is allowed for each step (no more)
You may draft the Vision at each step (8 iterations for the vision)
Work as a group, ask questions as you need
At the end each group will present the Vision to the other groups in 3 minutes (I’ll keep the time).

Expected output from each step
A short summary of the information you considered critical for the Vision – 1 flipchart
(optional) A draft of the Vision (even if information is still missing in the early steps) – 1 flipchart

Overview / Steps
Understand the customer space
Understand the customer life/work/environment/goals
Define what values are most important for the customer
Define what your business is about (understand the solution space that you can influence)
Define what the product tries to achieve (in customer language)
Understand the competition
Write the vision, include:
Iterate over and over again (the A3 vision)

Step 1: Understand the customer space
Who are your customers? Who are their customers? Which do you want to help?
What do you know about this customer?

See report for details on the customers
Target customers: 15-25 year olds in Emerging markets (India, Ukraine, Brasil, etc.)

Customer details, headlines
Some 75% of 12-17 year-olds now own cell phones, up from 45% in 2004.
Fully 72% of all teens2 -- or 88% of teen cell phone users -- are text-messagers. That is a sharp rise from the 51% of teens who were texters in 2006. More than half of teens (54%) are daily texters
One in three teens sends more than 100 text messages a day, or 3000 texts a month.
15% of teens who are texters send more than 200 texts a day, or more than 6,000 texts a month.
Boys typically send and receive 30 texts a day; girls typically send and receive 80 messages per day.
Teen texters ages 12-13 typically send and receive 20 texts a day.
Calling is still a central function of the cell phone for teens, and for many teens voice is the primary mode of conversing with parents.
Girls more fully embrace most aspects of cell phone-based communication.
59% of girls text several times a day to "just say hello and chat"; 42% of boys do so.
64% of parents look at the contents of their child's cell phone and 62% of parents have taken away their child's phone as punishment.
46% of parents limit the number of minutes their children may talk and 52% limit the times of day they may use the phone.
Teens who have multi-purpose phones are avid users of those extra features. The most popular are taking and sharing pictures and playing music:
83% use their phones to take pictures.
64% share pictures with others.
60% play music on their phones.
46% play games on their phones.
32% exchange videos on their phones.
31% exchange instant messages on their phones.
27% go online for general purposes on their phones.
23% access social network sites on their phones.
21% use email on their phones.
11% purchase things via their phones.
Data from India: In our study ‘Making local calls’ and ‘text messaging’ were reported as the most common activities. On the other hand activities like sending picture messages, downloading or forwarding ring tones, getting news updates and making STD calls were seen less frequently. This trend remains more or less the same across gender for all functions except for “getting news updates” where boys have a tendency to use it more frequently than girls.
Interlestingly “playing games” was seen as a regular activiy about 40%.
--study of teenage and younger people

How to they work now?
What do they do daily/weekly/monthly/yearly?
Understand what each activity means for the user, and why it is needed
For this part of the workshop, use your own knowledge of young people in the target countries.
Step 2: Understand the customer’s life/work/environment/goals

Understanding computer users
Many rely on computers for work: E-mail access, connectivity to the internet even outside the office, connectivity to the office network outside the office…
Most rely on a browser to access the services they need
Some do net-banking and need secure connections and secure environment
Most do e-mail for communication and fun (chain letters)
Some watch TV
Some play games for entertainment
Some play games for business (e.g. gold farming in WoW)

Step 3: Define what values are most important for the customer
What does the customer want to achieve?
What is valuable for the customer? (Maslow pyramid)

Example customer value hierarchy
As a computer user this is my hierarchy of values:
”I don’t waste any time waiting for my computer
The computer has adequate performance
Banking, e-mailing, money saving uses
”My computer is useful to me!”
Useful use of the computer
Network, Office, Games work.
“I can use my computer!”
Basic computer usage works
-No crashes
-”My computer starts!”
Turn the computer on and it works!
”I’m making money with my computer”
-”I trust my computer with my money”
”My life would change a lot without my computer!”
The user extracts value
from the use of the computer

Step 4: Define what your business is about (understand the solution space that you can influence)
How it was (how was the mobile phone business in the last 5 years?)
How it is (how is the mobile phone business now?)
How it may become (how may it look if “nothing” changes from now until 2015?)
What it ought to be (ideal) (how *should* it look like in 2015, if your product is successful?)
What you can influence
What you cannot influence
Don’t forget the services!

Example: computers
How it was:
Glorified type writer
Made self-publishing possible (printer + text editor)
How it is:
A digital communication device
Access to information is easy, but not personalized
Computers can be used by anyone (1 family, 1 computer)
How it will be:
More advanced user-differentiation techniques (Artificial intelligence in the browser?)
More computing power for higher-definition content (HD + 3D)
How it ought to be (my dream world):
Personal computing device
Fits in pocket but has a HUGE screen
Can influence:
Form factor, price, User Interface
Cannot influence:
Operating System, Peripheral ecosystem

Step 5: Define what the product tries to achieve (in customer language)
How can you help the customer? (e.g. with a mobile phone)
What does your product do?
HINT: it’s not about technology. If you find yourself using technological words, stop and ask yourself: why would the customer want this?

Example: computers
Help fill-out tax forms (internet access needed)
Help deliver homework to the teacher (e-mail service needed)
Help customers enjoy entertainment (movie and music delivery + internet access needed)
NOTE: no technology language can be used. Use *Customer* language!

Step 6: Understand the competition
Who provides similar products? Why?
What is their business model?
What functionality do they make available?

Example: computers
What are the key parts of your business?
Selling machines/HW
This means that all HW selling companies are competitors
Selling services that run on our, and other machines
This means that all service that can run in our machines (or other) are competitors
What is the competitor’s business model?
Example: Apple uses computers to deliver other services that are limited to their computers. Google uses others’ computers to deliver e-mail, search, etc. services
What functionality to they deliver?
HP delivers custom touch interfaces
Acer delivers smaller laptops and long lasting batteries
…

Step 7: Write the vision, include:
Goals per customer/stakeholder for the product?
How is this product different from the competition?
What is the one statement that defines the product?
Segment customers, focus on the right customer segment
Define the stretch goals for the product (if any) Technically and Business-wise

Step 8: Iterate over and over again (the A3 vision)
After the first version of the Vision is written only the first few steps are taken. Next we need to iterate the vision by talking to sales, customers, development, etc.
The first vision document can be a two A4 paper with text, but later on you should focus that Vision into an A3 visually rich Vision. You can use annexes to the A3 Vision if you need, but you need to be able to explain the whole Vision to you and to people around you without them needing to read the annexes. The Annexes are there for detail, not for understanding the concepts in the Vision

Currently an Operational Development specialist at Nokia, Vasco Duarte is an experienced product and project manager, having worked in the software industry since 1997. Vasco has also been an Agile practitioner since 2004, he is one of the leaders and a catalyst in the adoption of Agile methods and an Agile culture at Nokia and previously at F-Secure.
Vasco's contributions to the improvement of the software development profession can be read in his blog: http://softwaredevelopmenttoday.blogspot.com.
You can follow Vasco on twitter: @duarte_vasco
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From an Idea to a Vision you can implement - Vision workshop

by Vasco Duarte

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