It’s officially December and you may be feeling that end-of-year drain. The kind that makes it hard to finish the year with the same pizazz you started it with.
And you know what? That’s okay. You worked hard this year and the ol’ motivation tank may be feeling low. So, what can you do to make the most of the final month of 2023? You can think about the future.
You don’t have to come up with all the answers or have a perfectly mapped plan to sail into 2024, but now is the time to really reflect on what you hope to achieve as you look ahead.
One thing we hope you’ll think about? Your product vision. No, we’re not talking about your planned releases for H1. We’re talking about the future state of your product that you’ll build over the next few years.
In fact, we hosted a webinar on this very topic with none other than Marty Cagan. Together, we explored visiontypes and how we’ve used them to guide companies through some of their most important inflection points.
If you’re imagining a merger of “vision” and “prototype” then you’re on the right track! But it's more than a simple blend; visiontypes are a powerful way to envision a product's idealized future without diving into functional minutiae. Think of it as a north star, a guiding light that aligns and excites cross-functional teams toward a shared purpose.
A visiontype is an inspiration within reach (as Mike Aurelio so aptly stated when he wrote about them seven years ago!). Balancing boldness and reality, visiontypes typically focus on a three to ten-year future scope. Why three to ten years? To keep the work both aspirational and attainable by not diving too far into the unknown.
And, while visiontypes should be driven by design and product, they can only be successful if they are developed and shared with folks across the organization.
So, if you’re interested in…
Then, perhaps now is a good time to devote some of that end-of-year energy to thinking about your product vision.
If any of this vision talk resonates with you, then register for our upcoming "AMA: Visiontypes" webinar on Wednesday, January 17 at 10 am PT / 1 pm ET. Can't join live? Register anyway and we'll send a link to the recording after the session.
You’ll hear balanced perspectives from DesignMaps Senior Designers, who will dive deeper on how visiontypes can inspire and align your team as you think about 2024 and beyond.