# Vision Statement

**In short:** A vision statement is a short, inspiring statement of the shared goal behind a product. It names the target customers, the value they get, and the few features that make the product stand out.

## Explanation

A vision statement gives everyone involved in development one shared goal. It should be short and inspiring. Pichler advises a brief statement or slogan that is big and inspiring.

It is a concise summary of the idea. It describes the intention and motivation behind the product. Scrum encourages a vision shared by the product owner and the team.

**What a good statement covers**

- **Target customers.** Name the market or segment you address. Choose a homogeneous, clear-cut group, especially for a new product.
- **Customer need and value.** Show why people will want to use the product or pay for it.
- **Differentiation.** Name the few features that make the product stand out. Listing lots of features is a mistake. One source suggests three to five standout features.

**Why it helps architecture work**

The architecture documentation starts with a short overview of the requirements and driving forces (see arc42 Introduction and Goals). It also asks you to know all stakeholders involved or affected. Stakeholders decide how much architectural work is needed and how detailed it is. A vision statement helps bring their concerns together. See the articles Stakeholder and Stakeholder Concern.

## Example

An invented vision for a small meal-planning app:

"For busy parents who struggle to plan weekly dinners, our app suggests a full week of meals in one tap and builds the shopping list."

The statement names one customer group and one need. It shows a clear benefit and mentions only two standout features. It fits in two sentences, so a team can remember it.

## Trade-offs

Keeping the statement short means leaving things out. A long feature list would make the vision vague. A very narrow target group, on the other hand, leaves out some potential users. The sources favor a clear-cut group, especially for a new product.



## Checks

- The vision is short and fits in a brief statement or slogan.
- The target customer group is named and is clear-cut.
- The statement shows why people will want to use or pay for the product.
- Differentiation rests on a few standout features, not a long feature list.

## Related

- [System Idea and Vision Elements](https://arc.fuet.ch/concepts/vision-stakeholders/system-idea-and-vision-elements.md)
- [System Idea](https://arc.fuet.ch/concepts/vision-stakeholders/system-idea.md)
- [arc42 Introduction and Goals](https://arc.fuet.ch/concepts/documentation/arc42-introduction-and-goals.md)
- [Stakeholder](https://arc.fuet.ch/concepts/vision-stakeholders/stakeholder.md)
- [Stakeholder Concern](https://arc.fuet.ch/concepts/forces-decisions/stakeholder-concern.md)
- [Stakeholder Identification](https://arc.fuet.ch/concepts/vision-stakeholders/stakeholder-identification.md)
- [Business Model Canvas](https://arc.fuet.ch/concepts/vision-stakeholders/business-model-canvas.md)
- [Architecture Canvas](https://arc.fuet.ch/concepts/documentation/architecture-canvas.md)

## Sources

- [The Product Vision Board: Vision and Product Strategy](https://www.romanpichler.com/blog/the-product-vision-board/) — romanpichler.com, accessed 2026-11-09
- [Building a Product Users Want: From Idea to Backlog with the Vision Board - Mountain Goat Software](https://www.mountaingoatsoftware.com/agile/building-a-product-users-want-from-idea-to-backlog-with-the-vision-board) — mountaingoatsoftware.com, accessed 2026-11-09
- [1 - Introduction and Goals | arc42 Documentation](https://docs.arc42.org/section-1/) — docs.arc42.org, accessed 2026-11-09