Creating a Product Vision with Build a Product Box
Why Build a Product Box?
A product vision should be customer-focused because the product is a mechanism to deliver value to your customers. However, some organizations and teams continue to fall into the trap of predominantly focusing on product features when creating a vision for a product. This pitfall pulls a Scrum Team away from considering the primary importance to customers of how a product can improve their lives or solve their problems (benefits) and focuses instead on a product’s specifications (features).
When creating a product vision, one technique a team can use to focus on the customer’s desired outcomes is the Build a Product Box* activity. Here is one way a Scrum Team can run Build a Product Box to help them create a customer-focused product vision.
Activity Guidelines
- Involve stakeholders (Users and customers would be great!)
- Ensure materials are available such as paper, boxes, glue, markers
- Explain the activity and present some example product boxes
- Split the group into small teams
- Ask participants to create a compelling and innovative product box design that would entice customers to buy their product. This can include messaging such as:
- Name of your (future) product
- Catchy slogan or motto
- Three to four key selling points with an image or drawing
- A bit more detailed information on the back of the box such as compelling features
- Ask each team to sell their product to the other participants in the group using their product box. (If participants include features on their box, they will likely highlight the product’s benefits while selling it)
- Write down any insights during the selling process on a sticky note
- Once every team has presented and ‘sold’ their product box, the group comes together and discusses the insight gained from the activity
- Collaboratively craft a vision for the product from the insights and discussions
Tip
If possible, involve real customers and ask them to build the product vision box and observe how they try to sell it to other customers in the group. This helps to surface deeper needs and allows the team to gauge reactions from the other customers in the room.
*Inspired by: Product Box by Luke Hohmann - Innovation games and Product Vision Box by James Highsmith