What Is Product Mission?
A product’s mission is a short and clear statement that explains the ultimate goal. It explains what the value of the product is, who the product is expected to serve and what it is offering. It also clarifies in what way the product is unique and stands out among the competitors.
As a rule, the product mission is expressed in a single sentence and answers the questions
What difference will the product make in the world? and Why are you building it?
Why Is a Product Mission Important?
A clear and compelling product mission statement ensures establishes the company-wide alignment on the product and improves it in several ways:
The team understands who the product serves and can build the product tailored for the specific audience.
A clear product mission contributes to the design simplicity by specifying the must-have features upfront.
It streamlines internal processes and contributes to communication transparency.
A product mission can serve as a reference point when making strategic decisions.
It justifies the product’s reason for being and communicates it to everyone.
How to Create an Effective Product Mission?
Drafting an effective product mission statement requires some creativity to make sure that it’s precise and memorable. Here are some tips and best practices that can help in creating such a statement:
- Specify the product’s rationale and purpose.
- Specify who the product’s target audience is and how it serves them.
- Identify in what way the product is different from the competition.
- Do not describe any specific features.
- Keep the statement concise.
- Keep the grammar simple: use the present tense and the active voice.
- Try to make the statement memorable.
- Turn to your team for feedback.
- Revise and draft a new version.
- Repeat until you are satisfied.
Product Mission vs. Product Vision
In many cases it is quite hard to distinguish between the product mission and the product vision: Many companies merge the mission and the vision in a single statement.
Some organizations decide not to have any statement or have it at a later stage.
Most importantly, the product vision and mission are two sides of the same coin, and people often treat them as one unity.
However, they are different in their content and purposes:
The product mission is a statement of what you do, it is usually shorter and focuses on today.
The product vision, on the contrary, describes your aspirations and what you want to achieve with the product in future.
Though it might seem that the product vision is a broader statement, and that the product mission does not address all the needs, it is important to have both to have an empowered product team.
