Design Management Group

Product on a page - mission

A visual way to ensure that the whole development team has a clear view of the project mission and the goals of the planned development project. Brings together a range of issues, including why the project is being tackled, what outcomes are intended and what product features are critical.

Description

It is a useful team exercise to capture the project mission on a single page right at the start of the exercise. This helps to bring together opinion from around the business and focus attention on the critical elements of the proposed product from a consumer perspective. Most importantly however, is to share a clear vision of why the exercise is being undertaken from the business' perspective and what internal or external problems are aiming to be solved.

A useful approach is to write a page from a hypothetical newspaper outlining the team's achievements at the end of the project, as illustrated opposite. This is an essential cross-functional team activity and there should be representatives from all elements of the business. This is both to ensure their input and also to gain buy in and support through involvement.

Approach

Project mission - problems to be solved?

What internal business problems are being solved and what external customer issues are being addressed? What are the key goals of the project and why is this project being undertaken?

Team mission - who will the project be run?

What will constitute a project success and what would a failure look like? How will the project be undertaken and who will be involved? How will the team be managed and organised?

Who are the customers?

Describe succinctly the target customers.

Product mission - why will the customers want it?

What are the unique selling points and why is it better than the competition? What are the product differentiators? Which features are going to delight the users?

Product image

A sketch, a photograph of a model or a competitors product, to suggest what is being aimed for.