Concrete Product Visioning
by Melissa Perri • CEO of Produx Labs & Founder of Product Institute at Produx Labs / Harvard Business School
Melissa Perri is a renowned product management expert, consultant, and educator who has trained thousands of PMs and advised dozens of organizations. She is the author of 'Escaping the Build Trap' and currently teaches at Harvard Business School while running the CPO Accelerator program.
🎙️ Episode Context
In this episode, Melissa Perri breaks down the critical differences between feature shipping and true strategy deployment, highlighting the 'missing middle' that disconnects executives from product teams. She details exactly when scaling companies need to hire a Chief Product Officer (CPO) and defines the emerging role of Product Operations (Product Ops). The conversation provides actionable advice on crafting concrete product visions and restructuring teams to move from output-focused to outcome-focused.
Problem It Solves
Fixes vague, useless visions (e.g., 'Be the best') that fail to align teams or inspire product direction.
Framework Overview
A method for creating a vision that acts as a true north star. It combines written narrative with visual storytelling to define differentiation and boundaries.
🧠 Framework Structure
Differentiation: Explicitly state how...
Exclusion: Clearly define what you wi...
Concreteness: Must be specific enough...
Format: Combine a written narrative (...
When to Use
When the team is feature-factory focused or when executives and product leadership cannot articulate the 5-year future.
Common Mistakes
Using a marketing slogan as a vision; describing the current state instead of a future state.
Real World Example
A healthcare company's vision was 'Be the backbone of healthcare.' Melissa challenged them to define what that actually meant for the user experience and business model.
A good vision is lofty, far enough away where you can't just be like, 'Oh, we build that one thing, we hit it.'
— Melissa Perri