Example: Tesla
Company Vision (What we want to accomplish over the long term): “to create the most compelling car company of the 21st century by driving the world’s transition to electric vehicles.”
Product Vision (What problem we want to solve for customers – Tesla Model 3): Bring sustainable transportation to the masses.
Product Strategy (What is needed to make the vision a reality: Measurable Objectives): Tesla Model 3: 250 mile range, for $35K price.
Everyone knows that a vision without a strategy is just a dream, and Elon Musk shared his strategy (plan) to achieve his vision in this blog post . In summary it is:
- Build sports car
- Use that money to build an affordable car
- Use that money to build an even more affordable car
- While doing above, also provide zero emission electric power generation options
Product teams need a compelling vision that:
- Creates alignment around goals and strategy
- Should be easy to communicate and share
- Provides direction, but broad enough to encourage innovation
Put another way:
- Why: Product Vision – Why are we building this product – what is the problem/opportunity – everything else should flow from here.
- What: Product Strategy – What will we do to compete/What is our product solution to the problem? How will we differentiate ourselves by offering something our competitors don’t have, or by improving upon existing solutions. Strategy is a coherent set of choices about where to play and how to win.
- How: Solutions/Tactics – Set clear goals and objectives, and a roadmap to achieve them. (OKRs work well for this). Technical solution. These are the specific features and solutions we will implement to realize the goals and strategy.