Vision

Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others.

Jonathan Swift

A little story

On a warm day in September 1962, 40,000 people gathered in the football stadium of Rice University in Houston, Texas, and listened to a 17-minute speech that changed the world.

"We choose to go to the moon! We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard."

With these few words, John F. Kennedy ignited the imagination of an entire nation and the world. It still resonates more than 60 years later.

Why do visions matter?

A compelling vision transforms people into missionaries. It inspires them to do the impossible. Today, employees need to be inspired to do their best work. Having a higher purpose than making money helps people make sense of their day-to-day work. They enjoy their work more, they are more creative, and they can get through hard times more easily.

A powerful vision matters for investors and partners, and it serves as a powerful recruiting tool. It helps attract talent, but it also acts as a filter, so you recruit the people who are willing to fight for the vision.

It helps your customers gauge whether you are a long-term partner. They want to know if they can grow their relationship with you in the future. In the Whole Product model that we will cover in a later chapter, the vision is linked to the "Potential product" and is taken into account when making purchasing decisions. Customers prefer providers who stick to their vision and who are resilient.

It helps your partners understand they will be part of your future and that they will benefit from your growth.

What is a vision?

A vision is the new reality you want to create. It is a journey to the future. You should be able to visualize it in your mind. It is a story that is easy to share.

What makes a great vision?

It is aspirational. To be exciting, a vision needs to be a little bit crazy. It is a leap of faith, a shared belief that the company will find the strength to overcome all the challenges ahead.

It infuses meaning. It helps employees make sense of their day-to-day work and connect the dots. It also helps them project themselves into their own future with the company. They can see opportunities to grow: relocating to new offices, working on major initiatives, having a positive impact on the world.

It is a North Star. The best visions are timeless and not tied to any specific technology. They do not move. At one of Amazon's shareholder meetings, Jeff Bezos said, "We are stubborn on vision. We are flexible on details. We don't give up on things easily."

It is far out in the future. A vision looks five to ten years ahead. Bill Gates said that most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years. This is true for people as it is for companies. A vision might feel too ambitious or crazy to achieve, but that is what makes it exciting to pursue.

It is simple to understand. Good product visions are articulated in simple terms so that every employee in the company can pass the elevator pitch test.

How do you create a vision?

Creating a vision is more art than science. The product team can help shape the product vision, but founders are usually best suited to articulate it. In startups, founders often have the vision in their mind already, and the job of the CPO and the product team is to help them formulate it clearly.

Communicating the vision

Repeat it often. A vision should be shared relentlessly, multiple times per month. On a regular basis, with everyone, so that employees can share what they think about the vision and how they want to contribute to it.

Use multiple channels. Have it in many formats: as a video on a screen for partners visiting the office, as text in the Employee Handbook, as a slide in every all-hands meeting.

Present it at key moments. There are critical moments in the life of an employee when the vision matters most. When interviewing a candidate, explain the vision and assess their passion for it. People driven to achieve the vision are likely to be more energetic and resilient. When the employee joins, remind them of the vision and reignite their passion for it.

Why was JFK's vision so powerful?

"We choose to..." It is a calling that we all share. It is something we want to do, not something we have to do. Nobody is forcing us to have this dream. The delivery would have been very different with "We commit to go to the moon." Instead of feeling energized, we would feel disengaged, as the "we" would no longer be collective but a commitment from the space agency.

"...go to the moon..." It is ambitious. It is difficult to be more ambitious than this. However, you don't need to go to the moon to be determined. Every company can do something significant to change the world.

"...in this decade..." The timeline is deliberately vague. It is close enough to be reachable and far enough to be achievable. Without a deadline, there is no challenge. With too precise a schedule, we enter into implementation issues and risk losing credibility. Five or ten years is a good time horizon for a vision.

"...because they are hard." It is supported by a mission. This vision is consistent with everything Kennedy said before. He echoes the values from his inaugural address: "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country." The values were clear: a united people, the importance of collective effort to achieve goals greater than ourselves. Similarly, a product vision needs to be consistent with the company culture and its mission.

Examples of vision

Microsoft in the 1980s: "A computer on every desk and in every home." When Bill Gates gave his company this vision, it seemed crazy. But it became reality in less than 20 years. With a computer now in every pocket and purse, our world has exceeded even that bold vision.

IBM in 2008: "Building a smarter planet." IBM unveiled a vision of ambient computing: smarter cities, more intelligent power grids, more efficient food systems, cleaner water, smarter healthcare. The vision inspired employees and customers so much that six years later, IBM had gained thousands of large new customers.

SpaceX: "Making humanity a multi-planetary species." Elon Musk's vision for SpaceX is deliberately audacious. It does not specify a timeline or a business model. It positions the company as working toward something civilizational while remaining flexible on how to get there. The vision has attracted extraordinary engineering talent willing to work grueling hours, billions in investment, and a loyal customer base that sees each launch as progress toward Mars.

Anthropic: "The responsible development and maintenance of advanced AI for the long-term benefit of humanity." Anthropic's vision emphasizes safety and responsibility alongside capability. It appeals to researchers and engineers who want to work on powerful AI but are concerned about its risks. The vision acts as both a recruiting filter and a strategic constraint, shaping which projects the company pursues.

Mission versus vision

It is common for companies to confuse mission and vision. IKEA's stated vision is "to create a better everyday life for the many people." This is an excellent mission statement, but it is not a vision. Creating a better everyday life is something IKEA already does today and will keep doing for years to come. It does not help envision a specific future.

Mission: a purpose with no end in sight. The mission is why the company exists. The company should adhere to its mission today and keep fulfilling it in the future, getting better at it over time. There is no destination to reach.

Vision: a north star for the next ten years. The vision is a glimpse of a future that is supposed to become reality at some point. Daily activities should get the product closer to the vision. When the vision is achieved, a new one is created. This new vision must again be consistent with the company's mission and culture.

Tesla's mission is to accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy. A vision might be to deliver the most affordable self-driving electric car within ten years.

Vision in an era of rapid change

Some argue that long-term visions are obsolete when technology shifts every few months. If AI capabilities double yearly, how can you set a ten-year north star?

The answer is that a good vision is about the world you want to create, not the technology you will use to create it. Kennedy's vision was not about rocket propulsion systems. Microsoft's vision was not about DOS or Windows. The technology was a means to an end.

In fact, rapid technological change makes vision more important, not less. When the ground is shifting beneath you, your team needs a fixed point to navigate by. Without it, you will chase every new capability and lose strategic coherence.

The practical challenge is maintaining vision stability while remaining tactically flexible. Your ten-year aspiration should not change because a new model was released. But your two-year roadmap might change dramatically. The vision absorbs uncertainty at the strategic level so your team can adapt quickly at the execution level.

AI does create one new tension worth acknowledging: visions have traditionally described futures that seemed far away. AI is compressing timelines. What once felt like a ten-year vision might now be achievable in three. This means you may need to refresh your vision more frequently, not because you were wrong, but because you succeeded faster than expected. That is a good problem to have.