The product vision contains the information to enable the customer to verify that you understand the product's context and scope. It is informal and should include motivation and ultimate intent.
The key parts of the vision statement that you should include are the following:
• Motivation / Opportunity: Why are you building this product; that is, what is the problem being solved? Why not buy something off-the-shelf or use an existing open-source product? What is it that will set your product apart from others in the marketplace? Besides a text description, this section typically contains the following two tables:
Problem Statement
| The problem of... | a one liner stating the problem you are trying to solve |
| affects... | who is this a problem for? |
| the impact of which is... | why is it a problem? |
| a successful solution would be... | what would a solution to the problem look like (software, hardware, business process)? |
Product Position Statement
| For | who are target users |
| Who | what job are the users doing? |
| Our System | what is your envisioned system (all SW, HW/SW, all HW, etc) |
| That | short concept of how your system works |
| Unlike | short list of similar systems already in marketplace |
| Our Product | what makes your product different? |
• Users: Who will be the users of your application? What do they want to do with your application? What computer experience or other expectations do they have?
• Feature List: What features must the product provide?
• Constraints: What factors constrain the solution to the problem? For example, product must use open-source libraries, must use .Net, must use mysql, etc. Are there cost and pricing constraints, installation and licensing limitations, dependencies on hardware etc.
Thanks to Georgia Tech's Computing for Good course for the Vison Statement template.