The Netflix Secret That Saved My Texas Project

Ancient wisdom warns that people perish without vision. You know, I've worked on a couple statewide voter registration systems. I've mentioned the one in Colorado. But in the state of Texas, we had a particular problem where having a product vision helped. See, we were drowning in feature requests and competing priorities from different counties. Everyone wanted something different. Some counties needed better reporting. Others wanted improved search capabilities. And still others were focused on audit trails. All of these are important things, for sure. We were trying to please everyone and we ended up pleasing no one. That's when we stopped everything and we spent time crafting a clear product vision. Now, before I share our vision, let me paint the picture of what was happening. First, our teams were demoralized. They were coding features, but they didn't think they were making a difference. And second, our stakeholders were frustrated is an understatement. They couldn't understand why their requests weren't being prioritized. We needed something we could all rally around. Our vision became create the most accurate and accessible voter registration system in America. It's a pretty big vision. It's powerful, it's simple, and everyone could rally behind it. Suddenly, prioritizing became easier. Teams felt energized because they weren't just coding features anymore. They were helping ensure every eligible Texan could exercise their right to vote. And that sense of purpose, it showed up in their work and their engagement. And for stakeholders, when they pushed for features that didn't align with accuracy or accessibility, we had a foundation to have difficult priority discussions. See, the vision gives us the flexibility to adapt scope while staying true to our core purpose. Every feature request was measured against the vision. Does it help accuracy? Does it improve accessibility? If not, went to the bottom of the list. Okay, let's look at a different example. Consider Netflix. Their streaming product vision back in 2007 was Deliver the perfect movie or show to every viewer. Every time. This product vision guided critical product decisions. Their recommendation engine. It became a priority because perfect movie meant understanding viewer preferences at a deep level. They developed the continue watching feature to help viewers resume exactly where they left off. The Skip intro feature emerged from understanding that perfect viewing meant different things to different viewers. The product vision helped teams say no to features that didn't serve their core purpose, even when those features were requested by vocal users. When Netflix users asked for social sharing features, the team could evaluate it against the vision of delivering the perfect show. It didn't align, so it wasn't prioritized. It's not going to happen. Great product visions hit the key characteristics of great value propositions they focus on specific pains, the ones that matter most, and they target a clear customer segment. They address both functional and emotional jobs. One technique you can use to help craft a first cut at your product vision is by looking back at your value proposition canvas and from there creating an ad lib value proposition using the template we provided. You'll find it in your student workbook and also down at the bottom of this lesson. But the Ad Lib value proposition is a great way to quickly shape alternative directions for your value proposal. It follows a pretty straightforward approach. Our product or service helps our customer segment who wants to accomplish their jobs to be done by reducing or avoiding a particular customer pain and increasing or enabling a particular customer gain. Unlike our competition, I suggest you prototype two or three different versions of this and then sit with it for a bit. You'll run it by some of your trusted stakeholders and team members and get their feedback. Okay, let's test it out with Taskflow. Remember Technova? They're struggling with customer churn, feature bloat and AI estimation issues. The value proposition template shapes their vision and it might sound like this. That's not too bad. It's a little long. We'll want to refine it, but it gets us started. Now, to fine tune it, consider using the 10 characteristics of great Value Propositions tool that we have provided for you here. Again, it's in the workbook and down below. But let me give you just two examples from it. First, value propositions go beyond the functional benefits. They address the emotional and social needs as well. In Technova's case, we might want to think about how taskflow makes project managers feel more confident, for example, or helps creative teams collaborate better and easier, which leads to less unhealthy conflict or miscommunications. Second, your value proposition needs to substantially outperform competitors in at least one dimension for taskflow. Is AI estimation truly revolutionary? Is it something that sets us apart as a standout feature from our competition? Maybe. I'm not sure that's the real problem. But this tool will help you reason through that. These guidelines will help sharpen your vision until it truly resonates with your target audience. A clear product vision isn't just a nice to have something we create cool stickers with or plaster on our coffee mugs. But it's more than that. It's a compass for decision making. And it's also protection against scope creep. When everyone understands and believes in where you're going, getting there becomes much easier.